; and emotional, sexual, and physical abuse may be occurring or may have occurred (Kennedy, 1991). Family conflict over sexual identity is one reason some of these youths leave home (Smart, 1991), and some youths are thrown out by their families. Unfortunately what can almost be expected is that runaway youths often have histories of substance abuse from prior to their run. Out on the street especially, intravenous drug use can be a serious risk for contracting HIV if clean needles are not used. When poor grades, conflict with school officials, parental censure, and various personal problems, such as depression and substance abuse, combine to create a sense of extreme discomfort for adolescents, many youths will run away (Tuohy, 1993).Our problem in this country is not that teenagers run away by the tens of thousands, but that they have no place to run when they do. When a youth runs away from his or her legal guardians, the police frequently encounter them. Generally, the police officer will take the runaway to the station, notify the child’s parents, and refer the family to a social worker. The law enforcement officers do not generally take the time to ask the child why he or she ran to see if there is a better solution to the problem. Most of the social service agencies are too large to provide adequate individualized care to these children. So, in our society we have resorted to returning the child to the problem that they ran from. It has also been observed that there is a direct correlation between juvenile crimes and the rate of runaways living in a community. Many of these runaways must resort to street crimes because they have no means by which to feed, clothe, and house themselves. The reduction of the juvenile delinquency rate will not come about until the problems of runaways are taken into consideration. If children have been on the street for two weeks, they have a 75 percent chance of getting into some ty...
