Abstract
Releasing missing person appeals is common practice when someone goes missing. Despite the wide-scale usage, the understanding on appeal effectiveness remains under-researched. This article aims to identify the factors that influence the likelihood of members of the public to report a child that has gone missing to the police and requires police assistance. Participant responses ( n = 252) were qualitatively analysed identifying four factors that positively influenced the likelihood of contacting the police, and two factors that negatively influenced the likelihood of not contacting the police to report the child. Practical implications are also discussed.
Highlights
Releasing missing person appeals is common practice when someone goes missing
Initial descriptive analysis of participant responses found that 193 participants (76.59%) had indicated that they would have contacted the police to report the missing child with 59 participants (23.41%) indicating that they would not have contacted the police
Subsequent qualitative analysis of participant responses identified four factors that increased the likelihood of contacting the police and two factors that decreased the likelihood of contacting the police
Summary
Releasing missing person appeals is common practice when someone goes missing. Despite the wide-scale usage, the understanding on appeal effectiveness remains underresearched. Despite the importance and wide-scale usage of missing person appeals, no previous research study has explored the decision-making processes of members of the general public to report children to the police following an observed missing child appeal and positive identification. Whilst the wide usage and dissemination of publicity appeals ranges from newspaper notices to posters and websites to name a few (Drivsholm et al, 2017), researchers (e.g., Hunt et al, 2020; Juncu et al, 2020; Lampinen and Moore, 2016) have only recently begun exploring how effective these appeals are in being able to help locate a missing child. Failure to progress from one stage to the stage will result in the nonsuccessful identification of the missing individual and an ineffective missing persons appeal (Lampinen et al, 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
