Juveniles of different races run away at about the same rates and boys and girls run away in equal proportions. Most runaways are older teenagers, ages 15 to 17, with only about one-quarter ages 14 and younger. Others do not report runaway episodes because they want to avoid police involvement or because they had a negative experience when reporting a previous runaway episode to police. Some parents do not report runaway episodes to police because they know where their children are or because they do not think the police are needed to resolve the issue. Only about one-fifth of all runaway episodes were reported to police. Only about one-third of these juveniles were actually "missing," meaning that their parents or caretakers did not know where they were and were concerned about their absence. These difficulties notwithstanding, there were approximately 1.7 million juvenile runaway episodes in 1999.
It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local juvenile runaway problem. This guide begins by describing the problem of juvenile runaways and reviewing its risk factors.
PDF Guide Order Bound Copy The Problem of Juvenile Runaways