Search results

The purpose of this paper is to test the “power few” concept in relation to missing persons and the locations from which they are reported missing.

Data on missing persons’ cases (n = 26,835) were extracted from the record management system of a municipal Canadian police service and used to create data sets of all of the reports associated with select repeat missing adults (n = 1943) and repeat missing youth (n = 6,576). From these sources, the five locations from which repeat missing adults and youth were most commonly reported missing were identified (“power few” locations). The overall frequency of reports generated by these locations was then assessed by examining all reports of both missing and repeat missing cases, and demographic and incident factors were also examined.

This study uncovers ten addresses (five for adults; five for youths) in the City from which this data was derived that account for 45 percent of all adults and 52 percent of all youth missing person reports. Even more striking, the study data suggest that targeting these top five locations for adults and youths could reduce the volume of repeat missing cases by 71 percent for adults and 68.6 percent for youths. In relation to the demographic characteristics of the study’s sample of adults and youths who repeatedly go missing, the authors find that female youth are two-thirds more likely to go missing than male youth. Additionally, the authors find that Aboriginal adults and youths are disproportionately represented among the repeat missing. Concerning the incident factors related to going missing repeatedly, the authors find that the repeat rate for going missing is 63.2 percent and that both adults and youths go missing 3–10 times on average.

The study results suggest that, just as crime concentrates in particular spaces among specific offenders, repeat missing cases also concentrate in particular spaces and among particular people. In thinking about repeat missing persons, the present research offers support for viewing these concerns as a behavior setting issue – that is, as a combination of demographic factors of individuals, as well as factors associated with particular types of places. Targeting “power few” locations for prevention efforts, as well as those most at risk within these spaces, may yield positive results.

Very little research has been conducted on missing persons and, more specifically, on how to more effectively target police initiatives to reduce case volumes. Further, this is the first paper to successfully apply the concept of the “power few” to missing persons’ cases.

This paper sets a case study of missing children in the Republic of Ireland against a review of international research to explore broader understandings and responses to the problem.

The study begins by reviewing the literature on pioneering American initiatives dating back to the 1970s and more recent literature from Great Britain where a series of high-profile scandals involving sexual exploitation of teenage girls provoked a number of controversial inquiries into the police and social work professions. The present study was prompted by an evaluation of the 116 000 Missing Children Hotline which was introduced to Ireland in 2012 under the auspices of the European Union (EU) Daphne III Programme by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).

The central conclusion emerging from analysis of the evidence is that Missing Children Hotlines remain rooted in representations of ‘stranger danger’ and disconnected from repeat runaway children who feature prominently in police reports from formal care settings or family homes and who are actively targeted by sexual predators and criminal gangs. The implications are that systemic change requires grounding in research strategies which combine police data with anthropological studies to give legitimacy to the voices of runway and sexually exploited children.

The study offers original international perspectives on missing children to epistemological research communities in the fields of social work, criminology and policing with recommendations that Missing Children and Runaway Safe-lines are targeted systemically at keeping runaway children, homeless children and at-risk-youth safe and off the streets.

International literature on missing persons suggests that a significant volume of missing person cases originate from hospitals and mental health units, resulting in considerable costs and resource demands on both police and health sectors (e.g., Bartholomew et al., 2009; Sowerby and Thomas, 2017). In the Canadian context, however, very little is known about patients reported missing from these locations – a knowledge deficit with profound implications in terms of identifying and addressing risk factors that contribute to this phenomenon. The present study is one such preliminary attempt to try to fill a significant research and policy gap.

The authors draw on data from a sample of 8,261 closed missing person reports from a Canadian municipal police service over a five-year period (2013–2018). Using multiple logistic regression, the authors identify, among other factors, who is most likely to be reported missing from these locations.

Results reveal that several factors, such as mental disabilities, senility, mental illness and addiction, are significantly related to this phenomenon. In light of these findings, the authors suggest that there is a need to develop comprehensive strategies and policies involving several stakeholders, such as health care and social service organizations, as well as the police.

Each year, thousands of people go missing in Canada with a large number being reported from hospitals and mental health units, which can be burdensome for the police and health sectors in terms of human and financial resource allocation. Yet, very little is known about patients reported missing from health services – a knowledge deficit with profound implications in terms of identifying and addressing risk factors that contribute to this phenomenon. This manuscript seeks to remedy this gap in Canadian missing persons literature by exploring who goes missing from hospitals and mental health units.

Since the seminal works by Granger and Joyeux (1980) and Hosking (1981), estimations of long-memory time series models have been receiving considerable attention and a number of parameter estimation procedures have been proposed. This paper gives an overview of this plethora of methodologies with special focus on likelihood-based techniques. Broadly speaking, likelihood-based techniques can be classified into the following categories: the exact maximum likelihood (ML) estimation (Sowell, 1992; Dahlhaus, 1989), ML estimates based on autoregressive approximations (Granger & Joyeux, 1980; Li & McLeod, 1986), Whittle estimates (Fox & Taqqu, 1986; Giraitis & Surgailis, 1990), Whittle estimates with autoregressive truncation (Beran, 1994a), approximate estimates based on the Durbin–Levinson algorithm (Haslett & Raftery, 1989), state-space-based maximum likelihood estimates for ARFIMA models (Chan & Palma, 1998), and estimation of stochastic volatility models (Ghysels, Harvey, & Renault, 1996; Breidt, Crato, & de Lima, 1998; Chan & Petris, 2000) among others. Given the diversified applications of these techniques in different areas, this review aims at providing a succinct survey of these methodologies as well as an overview of important related problems such as the ML estimation with missing data (Palma & Chan, 1997), influence of subsets of observations on estimates and the estimation of seasonal long-memory models (Palma & Chan, 2005). Performances and asymptotic properties of these techniques are compared and examined. Inter-connections and finite sample performances among these procedures are studied. Finally, applications to financial time series of these methodologies are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new multiple imputation method that can effectively manage missing values in online review data, thereby allowing the online review analysis to yield valid results by using all available data.

This study develops a missing data method based on the multivariate imputation chained equation to generate imputed values for online reviews. Sentiment analysis is used to incorporate customers’ textual opinions as the auxiliary information in the imputation procedures. To check the validity of the proposed imputation method, the authors apply this method to missing values of sub-ratings on hotel attributes in both the simulated and real Honolulu hotel review data sets. The estimation results are compared to those of different missing data techniques, namely, listwise deletion and conventional multiple imputation which does not consider text reviews.

The findings from the simulation analysis show that the imputation method of the authors produces more efficient and less biased estimates compared to the other two missing data techniques when text reviews are possibly associated with the rating scores and response mechanism. When applying the imputation method to the real hotel review data, the findings show that the text sentiment-based propensity score can effectively explain the missingness of sub-ratings on hotel attributes, and the imputation method considering those propensity scores has better estimation results than the other techniques as in the simulation analysis.

This study extends multiple imputation to online data considering its spontaneous and unstructured nature. This new method helps make the fuller use of the observed online data while avoiding potential missing problems.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the police, policy makers' and researchers' understanding of the likelihood of fatal outcomes befalling missing persons.

Data on the age, sex, duration missing and outcome (fatal or non‐fatal) of over 32,000 cancelled reports of missing persons were extracted from a police database of missing persons in the London metropolitan area. The analysis highlights the risk of a cancelled missing person report resulting in a fatal outcome by the same variables.

Shows that the risk of a cancelled missing person report resulting in a fatal outcome is overall very low, though it does increase with the age of the person reported missing and the duration they remain missing for. Males face a higher risk of being found dead than females.

The risk estimations use a base rate of all cancelled missing person reports, therefore excluding persons who have never being found. The estimations are based on missing person reports rather than individuals. Insufficient detail was available to analyse the fatal cases by type of death (e.g. suicide, homicide, accident, etc.).

This paper provides new empirical evidence on what happens to people reported missing. The findings provide an actuarial context in which clinical risk assessment by police officers can take place.

Missing person cases are a global issue impacting policing. Among these, those who abscond from hospitals are especially concerning because these reports require collaboration across services, often strain already limited police and hospital resources and present an elevated level of possible harm due to high prevalence of mental illness, disability and/or addiction. Despite this, to-date, there has been a lack of scholarly attention on this phenomenon from a policing perspective. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring how far missing hospital patients travel and where they are commonly found.

Using a sample of 731 closed case files (2014–2018) from one police service, we identify spatial behaviour patterns specific to this group of missing persons.

Results suggest that most do not leave the hospital grounds or stay within a 5-km radius. Others were found close to the hospital, within city limits and/or returned of their own volition. By identifying these spatial behaviour patterns associated with missing hospital patients, police can refine probable search areas, allocate resources more efficiently, find the missing faster and develop better-informed responses and collaborative policies.

Our research represents the first empirical investigation into missing persons from hospital settings through a spatial perspective. Through descriptive statistical and spatial analyses, we determine the distance between the hospital a given individual was reported missing from and the location of where they were ultimately found.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, by encouraging all key stakeholders to “play nicely and act maturely” to share responsibility, the author was able to improve outcomes for children reported missing to Gwent Police. The paper shows that sharing responsibility is a critical factor in such collaboration, requiring people and agencies to let go of power that usually interferes with a preparedness to avoid blame, a willingness to enjoy the rewards of success and together manage the risks.

It offers a viewpoint about identifying the issues and failings of silo working and developing a more creative way of working together to improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children and young people. It is informed by close working between colleagues from different agencies and professional disciplines and the lived experience of the author in moving from a social services department to the police service.

Working with people is always complex, the whole process is vulnerable to and affected by personal interpretations and different value bases, yet vulnerable young people need consistency and boundaries. To improve outcomes, the author has to improve the understanding of individuals’ stories, hear what the young people are saying and create a consistent response by balancing risks with potential for change.

There are no formal research findings as yet, but it draws on research carried out elsewhere and highlights where there is shared learning from listening more attentively to what young people say about their experiences of services, set up to protect and safeguard their interests. The independent counselling offered to young people is a critically different ingredient to consider for the future, harnessing the contribution of the third sector and explores their strategic and operational involvement.

Improved outcomes for and engagement with the young people and their families, reducing the long-term impact on the public purse, while lessening risks and breaking the cycle.

It explores collaboration still in its infancy, but one about which there has been considerable interest UK-wide, illustrating the potential for collaboration and/or integration between agencies that have seldom been comfortable “bedfellows”.

Dangos sut, trwy annog yr holl randdeiliaid allweddol i ‘chwarae’n dda ac ymddwyn yn aeddfed’ i rannu cyfrifoldeb, roeddem yn gallu gwella canlyniadau ar gyfer plant yr hysbyswyd Heddlu Gwent eu bod ar goll. Nod yr erthygl hon yw dangos bod rhannu cyfrifoldeb yn ffactor hanfodol mewn cydweithrediad o’r fath ac, yn hynny o beth, mae angen i bobl ac asiantaethau gael gwared ar y pŵer a’r rheolaeth sydd fel arfer yn ymyrryd â pharodrwydd i osgoi bai a pharodrwydd i fwynhau gwobrwyon llwyddiant a rheoli risg gyda’n gilydd. Methodoleg - Mae’n cynnig safbwynt yn ymwneud â nodi materion a methiannau’r ‘hen ffordd’ silo o weithio a datblygu ffordd arloesol a mwy creadigol o weithio gyda’n gilydd i wella canlyniadau ar gyfer rhai o’r plant a’r bobl ifanc mwyaf agored i niwed. Caiff y safbwynt hwn ei lywio gan gydweithio agos rhwng cydweithwyr o asiantaethau gwahanol gyda disgyblaethau proffesiynol a chefndiroedd gwahanol a phrofiad ymarferol yr awdur yn symud o adran gwasanaethau cymdeithasol i weithio yng ngwasanaeth yr heddlu.

Mae gweithio gyda phobl yn gymhleth, gall y broses gyfan gael ei heffeithio gan ddehongliadau personol a gwerthoedd gwahanol, ond eto mae angen cysondeb a ffiniau ar bobl ifanc agored i niwed. Er mwyn gwella canlyniadau, mae’n rhaid i ni wella ein dealltwriaeth o straeon unigolion, clywed yr hyn y mae pobl ifanc yn ei ddweud a chreu ymateb cyson trwy gydbwyso’r peryglon gyda photensial ar gyfer newid.

nid oes unrhyw ganfyddiadau ymchwil ffurfiol ar y prosiect eto, ond bydd yr erthygl yn defnyddio ymchwil a wnaed rhywle arall ac yn amlygu dysgu a rennir wrth wrando’n fwy astud ar yr hyn y mae pobl ifanc yn ei ddweud am eu profiad o wasanaethau, sydd wedi eu sefydlu i amddiffyn a diogelu eu buddiannau. Gall natur annibynnol y cwnsela sy’n cael ei gynnig i bobl ifanc fod yn elfen hanfodol wahanol i’w hystyried ar gyfer y dyfodol ac mae’n defnyddio cyfraniad y trydydd sector ac yn archwilio eu cyfranogiad strategol a gweithredol.

Canlyniadau gwella ar gyfer pobl ifanc a’u teuluoedd ac ar gyfer eu hymgysylltu, gan leihau’r effaith hirdymor ar gyllid cyhoeddus, tra’n lleihau’r peryglon ac yn torri’r cylch.

Mae’r erthygl hon yn archwilio cydweithrediaeth sy’n dal mewn cyfnod cynnar, ond yn un y mae diddordeb sylweddol wedi bod ynddi ar draws y DU ac mae’n dangos y potensial ar gyfer cydweithredu a/neu integreiddio rhwng asiantaethau sydd heb fod yn gyfforddus iawn yn gweithio mewn ‘partneriaeth’.

The purpose of this paper is to give an account for preparative collaboration between the police and municipal eldercare in Sweden concerning missing persons with dementia.

Design/methodology/approach used was a qualitative case study design, consisting of one focus group with representatives for the participating organisations, followed by directed content analysis.

The findings showed a lack of current collaboration and reluctance to new collaborative initiatives. However, when focussing on preparative collaboration of coordinated responses to missing incidents, possibilities for improvement could be identified. The improvements concerned updated personnel response checklists, along with suggestions for an elaborate life story document in eldercare, with police access. Finally, better coordination of the return of the found person and a follow up were proposed.

It is suggested that collaboration must be given different meanings and use different approaches adapted to the different phases in a rescue operation. In the preparation and the response phase, the focus should be on coordination of the resources available. In the pre-planning and prevention phases, as well as in evaluation and learning, horizontal collaboration is more suitable. The amount of data in this study is a research limitation which calls for further research.

It is suggested that collaboration must be given different meanings and use different approaches adapted to the different phases in a rescue operation. In the preparation and the response phase, the focus should be on coordination of the resources available. In the pre-planning and prevention phases, as well as in evaluation and learning, horizontal co-operation is more suitable.

The originality/value of this paper can be found in the novelty of missing person research in Sweden, and in practical suggestions for preparative collaboration concerning persons with dementia who go missing. Finally, it can be found in the suggested need for a more dynamic and process-sensitive view of collaboration in SAR or rescue operations.