Abstract
This study examines the extent and time course of repeat missing incidents involving children. Using data from one UK police force (n = 2,251), we find (1) that the majority (65%) of missing incidents are repeats, (2) that a small group of repeatedly missing children (n = 43; 6%) account for a sizable proportion of all missing incidents (n=739, 33%) and (3) that the likelihood of a child going missing repeatedly is elevated in the weeks immediately following a previous missing incident. The implications of our findings for future research and for the prevention of missing incidents are discussed.
Highlights
Someone is reported missing on average every 2 minutes in England and Wales (National Crime Agency, 2021)
Following Sidebottom et al (2020), individuals were divided into three groups based on the number of reported missing incidents over the 1-year study period: those reported missing once, those reported missing on two-to-nine occasions and those reported missing 10 times or more
Consistent with previous research (Babuta and Sidebottom, 2020; Sidebottom et al, 2020), we find a high concentration of missing incidents among a small proportion of repeatedly missing children
Summary
Someone is reported missing on average every 2 minutes in England and Wales (National Crime Agency, 2021). Latest figures show that in 2019/20, there were 325,171 police recorded missing person incidents, an increase of 34% from 2015/16 Responding to reports of missing persons is a major source of demand on the police service (The Police Foundation, 2020), estimated to cost upward of £500 million per year (Babuta and Sidebottom, 2020) and account for over three million police ‘investigation hours’ (College of Policing, 2015). In 2019/20 in England and Wales, there were 955 cases in which an individual reported as missing was later found deceased (National Crime Agency, 2021)
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