Missing Children:

Investigation of the need for a National Missing Children’s Helpline

Executive Summary

Social Studies Research Unit

Department of Applied Social Studies

University College

Cork

January 2002

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1.1Background to the research

This research was commissioned by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC). In October 2000 the ISPCC issued a consultation document proposing the establishment of a National Missing Children’s Helpline (NMCH) to which individual professionals and organisations were invited to respond. In August 2001 the Social Studies Research Unit, UCC, was commissioned to further examine the necessity of this propsoal.

A national study of the issue of missing children in Ireland has yet to be undertaken. Research has not been conducted to explore what we understand by missing children, the prevalence of the problem and the most common manifestation of the problem. This report shows that children (under the age of 18) constitute the highest proportion of reported acceptable missing person's cases, for all of the years for which we obtained the data (1996-1999). We can make limited conclusions from these figures as this refers to the number of cases and not children reported missing. Our research does however attempt to contextualise these figures using qualitative research techniques.

1.2Research Brief and Methodology

Research Aims and Objectives

The primary aim of this study was to;

  1. establish the extent of the problem of missing children in the Republic of Ireland,
  2. ascertain the views of key professionals of the need for, and potential usefulness of a National Missing Children’s Helpline.

Methodology

The study, conducted over two phases, incorporated both a quantitative phase based on the analysis of secondary data sources and a qualitative phase based on semi-structured interviews with key informants. Phase one of the research involved the analysis of secondary quantitative data available from An Gardai Siochana Annual Reports. The Annual Reports do not distinguish the numbers of children, that is persons under 18 years from the other adult categories of missing persons. We sought a more detailed breakdown of the figures relating to children in terms of age, gender, family background and duration of missing episode. Data was provided detailing the age and gender of missing children reports to the National Missing Person’s Bureau from 1996-1999 and it is upon this data that the analysis is based. Further information was not centrally available to us, as to the residence from which the children 'went missing' or the duration of the missing period. In phase two of the research semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten senior Health Board Child Care professionals, five Gardai and representatives from four voluntary groups. In the absence of substantive data on the actual numbers of children reported as missing interviews sought to qualitatively assess the extent of the problem.

Limits of Study

We relied on available Garda statistics which, as the Report shows, have limitations and simply do not tell us the number of children reported as missing. The arising methodological difficulty from the Garda statistics is that the figures relate to the numbers of reports of missing children and not the numbers of actual children. Hence the data may contain several missing reports in relation to one child.

We present a Report that establishes the facts pertaining to missing children according to current available information and interview data. It is important to emphasise here the small-scale nature of the study; therefore attitudes expressed present a snapshot of professionals' experiences and should not be interpreted as speaking on behalf of their respective organisations.

1.3Extent of the problem of missing children

Quantitative analysis

An Garda Siochana Annual Reports outline the numbers of reported 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable' missing persons The terms acceptable and unacceptable are used to distinguish between two categories of missing persons. According to An Garda Siochana Annual Report (2000, 115.)

The term acceptable refers to (a) persons under 18 years, (b) aged persons, (c) physically or mentally disabled persons or (d) persons whose disappearance takes place in circumstances which give rise to fears for the person's physical or moral safety.

Therefore the persons not 'acceptable' reported missing refers to, and recognises the right of adults to, go missing or leave of their own accord.

Our core findings indicate;

  • The average number of all missing persons reports (acceptable + unacceptable) over the four years (1996-1999) was 2,460 per annum.
  • 1,885 was the mean number of ‘acceptable’ reports for these years.
  • A growth in the number of ‘acceptable’ missing person’s cases over the last decade with a decrease in the figures in 1999, the first in ten years. The figures rose from 1,359 reports in 1990 to 1,800 in 1999.
  • 0-18 year olds constitute the most frequent type of acceptable missing person’s report. 60% of all acceptable missing persons reports in 1996 and 1997 related to children, this increased to 67% in 1998 and to 70% in 1999.
  • In 1999, of all the females reported as missing 78% were children and of all the males reported as missing 60% related to under eighteens.

While we have acknowledged the limitations of this analysis given that we cannot extract individuals from the overall number of reports, these figures do indicate that children, particularly girls, dominate the reports of missing persons. Whether these figures indicate a growing number of regular absconders or runaways or not, the fact remains that there is a growing demand for services to deal with this issue. This data must however be treated with extreme caution, it may reflect repeat reports for the same child. The qualitative evidence presented below suggests that there may well be cases such as this. To bring further reality to these figures we should also note that of the acceptable persons reports remaining untraced at year-end (for which we have outlined the data, 1990-1999), none of these were children.

Qualitative interview analysis

The key issues to emerge from interviews around the extent of the problem may be summarised as follows:

A lack of clarity on what constitutes a missing child. Definitional issues were raised in terms of the circumstances under which a child goes missing and the duration of the missing episode.

  • The bulk of children who go missing are children absconding from substitute care.
  • Other categories of missing children are not a major phenomenon in Irish context.
  • Reports of missing children often refer to one child absconding from residential/detention centres on many occasions, the current available figures offer an inflated account of the actual numbers of missing children.
  • Several hours to several days was identified as the probable duration of the missing episode, that is, the length of time most children are missing. Prolonged missing episodes were not considered to be the norm.
  • Most senior child care professionals were of the view that the Health Board response to a missing child is dependent on whether the child is currently involved with child care services. Children absconding from care were considered to be of most concern.

Responding to the issue of missing children

  • Consideration needs to be given as to why children go missing and work needs to be done to prevent repeat runners.
  • Residential and detention centres need to accept more responsibility for the problem of children absconding from their care.
  • Gardai alone would not solve the issue of missing children and a wider statutory response was required.
  • The theme of dual responsibility between Health Boards and Gardai in addressing the problem of missing children was evident in most interviews.
  • Improved communication between Health Boards and Gardai was identified as a priority to adequately respond to missing children.
  • Voluntary agencies identified a lack of clarity in procedural guidelines and inter-agency co-ordination in responding to missing children's cases.

1.4The Need for a National Missing Children’s Helpline?

Need for a National Missing Children’s Helpline

There was considerable diversity of opinion in relation to the establishment, service remit and the running agency of such a helpline.

  • Most senior child care professionals questioned the need for a designated helpline for children.
  • Gardai expressed varied opinion on the need for a NMCH, some Gardai were of the view that a service could be of assistance to children and their parents, whilst other Gardai did not identify the need for a helpline.
  • The voluntary sector respondents supported the idea on the whole, but recommended a statutory basis, to ensure that a service would not be discontinued owing to a lack of funding. One voluntary organisation did not identify a need for a helpline dedicated solely to missing children. A national helpline targeting all missing persons regardless of age was considered to be a more urgent service requirement.

Suggested service initiatives

The further development of current services to meet the needs of missing children was considered to be preferential to the establishment of a new service such as a helpline.

  • The development of family support community based services, more effective individual work with children and better links with Gardai were identified as prerequisites to a help line.
  • A national database of missing children should be established, the current lack of a comprehensive database detailing the numbers of missing children was considered a more urgent service requirement than a helpline.
  • A message home service and a tracing service were also suggested as alternative service options.

Issues for service provision

Concern centred on whether a response from a non-statutory organisation would adequately address the needs of a missing child. Health Boards and Gardai were identified as the most appropriate agencies to establish and manage a helpline.

  • Most respondents felt that a NMCH should be placed in the statutory domain. A minority of senior child care professionals expressed the view that a voluntary agency could be the most appropriate service provider.
  • The involvement and contribution of statutory agencies was however considered to be vital should a voluntary organisation establish a helpline.
  • Historical problems in the working relationships between the ISPCC and Health Boards were raised in many interviews. Some respondents spoke of a lack of trust in the ISPCC and were not convinced that the ISPCC are best equipped to establish, manage and monitor a helpline.
  • Some respondents felt that a voluntary agency would not possess the necessary skills or capacity to run a helpline and felt that a helpline should be run by Health Boards and staffed by social workers with inter agency co-operation between Gardai, social workers and community workers.
  • Most of the voluntary organisations felt that the helpline should be established on a statutory basis given the State’s responsibility to protect all children. State funding for a voluntary agency to establish, maintain and monitor a helpline was also suggested.

1.5Implications of the Research

This research offers the first indication of the nature and scale of the problem of missing children in Ireland. The report outlines the findings of an exploratory piece of work that has raised many important questions, how many children go missing in Ireland? What activities do they engage in when they go missing? Are they at risk or simply 'out and about' until they return to their place of care? Why do they go missing in the first place? Should children 'absconding' from substitute care be classified as missing? This research was unable to provide definitive answers to these complex questions, however evidence as to the scale of the problem and professionals' accounts of their experiences of missing children have been outlined.

Our research findings indicate that children represent the highest number of reported acceptable missing persons cases, however this possibly reflects the prevalence of multiple reports for the same child. We need more data on, how many children these reports refer to, who these children are, and from what setting they go missing. We conclude therefore that a detailed database needs to be established without delay to identify the number of children for whom there is concern.

On the basis of this research it appears that, a designated helpline for missing children is not the most obvious response in terms of a priority service in the shorter term. The majority of missing children's cases appear to arise out of regular missing episodes from substitute care. Therefore one of the greatest service needs is to address why children run, abscond or go missing from care. To this end we recommend that research is undertaken to investigate the reasons why children runaway, and runaway regularly.