NCJ Number
181887
Date Published
January 2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper summarizes a report commissioned by the National Missing Persons Unit at the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence regarding the reasons people go missing, the characteristics of missing persons, and the impact of their disappearance on the community.
Abstract
Each year in Australia approximately 30,000 people are reported missing, a rate of 1.55 per thousand. Fortunately, nearly all are found, and 86 percent are located within one week. The most common reason families and friends believed at the time to be the reason for going missing, as well as the most common explanation given afterwards, was conflict regarding authority, rules, or independent behavior. At the time the persons became missing, there were often fears about safety, but the explanation given after being located rarely supported those concerns and often fell into the "unintentional" category. Missing person reports to police include a significant proportion of people reported missing from some kind of institution, such as a psychiatric or general hospital, support accommodation for the aged or intellectually disabled, or youth supervised care or detention facility. The remaining two-thirds of missing people are generally reported missing by families or friends. It is estimated that each missing person costs the community approximately $2,360, which involves search costs, loss of earning while family members search for the missing persons, and health and legal costs. For 30,000 people a year, this comes to over $70 million per year. The study concluded that a national approach to missing persons is critical. 7 tables and 2 references