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The statistics regarding the rates of juveniles in this country that runaway are surprising. Unfortunately with all of the children out on the street our system is not doing much to combat the problem. In most states running away is not illegal, which leaves law enforcement with few options when attempting to locate or recover a missing runaway child. It has been said that, “young people are reacting to a society that has devalued human relations, that has subordinated them to acquisitiveness and competition and that has resulted in affluence and loneliness.” (Raphael & Wolf, 1974) It leads a person to wonder what could be so bad in a home or a society that a child feels that the street is his or her only option? There are obviously many different reasons that brings the child to making a decision to leave their house and choose this new life of uncertainty. Those reasons include, a bad family situation (VanHouten & Golebiewski, 1985), rejection from their parents (Adams, Gullotta, & Clancy, 1985), looking for excitement or something new (Blood & D'Angelo, 1974), the need to be independent from their family’s rules and regulations (Crespi & Sabatelli, 1993), or problems at school with peers (Post & McCoard, 1994). The children that make the choice to run are definitely not facing an easy decision. The families of runaways frequently have been described as being dysfunctional in one way or another: Parents are often separated, divorced, in trouble with the law, or abusing alcohol (Kurtz et al., 1991; Rotheram-Borus, 1991); runaways perceive themselves as unloved or unwanted by their families (Kurtz et al., 1991); 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 type of illegal activity, according to most official figures (Tuohy, 1993) but a lot of people who work with juveniles will tell you that it is closer to a 90 percent chance. Runaway and homeless youths also frequently suffer from depression, a condition often cited by homeless youths as a primary presenting problem. The literature consistently confirms that the self-concept of runaway adolescents is low, and suicide is often cited as a problem that runaways face. Because of the failures of the home lives for some of these children what they think they can accomplish is minimal; they have very low self-esteem (Roberts, 1981). Most studies states that the number of runaway children that have been either sexually or physically abused is approximately 50 percent. However, the studies also warn that the number of children who report sexual or physical abuse is expected to be underreported due to the fear of intervention from Children and Family Protective Services. Unfortunately some children would rather face a dysfunctional and unsafe home, than being taken away from what they know. (Tuohy, 1993) There is also another category of homeless youths called throwaways. They comprise about 10% of the runaway population. These children did not choose to leave home, but were forced out of the house by their parents. The children left with no place to go, took to the streets. The reasons for a child being thrown out of their house could be anything from a stepparents not wanting to deal with the delinquency of their step-child, to a parents trying to teach their child a lesson. Throwaways experience more violence and conflict with their parents than do runaways and are more likely to be gone from home for longer periods. Most of these children, once they leave home, do not return. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that 127,000 children were locked out of their homes in 1988 for at least one night (Steidel 2000) In order to combat the problem of juvenile runaways in our society I think that it is necessary to overhaul the current system set up to handle the problem. From work experience I have observed that current system is falling short of solving the rising problem. Protocols at the police departments, such as interviewing the child at the station prior to calling the parents, or social services, in order to better understand the situation at hand in order to adequately serve these children. Most of the time in our society we try to preserve the family structure at all costs. It is important to these children that we look to them first for what can be done for them. This added step would actually reduce the current caseload of the police officer working missing persons cases. Most children that are returned back to their home after running, will run again, giving the officer’s another case on their desks. If the officers were to try to find an adequate solution for the problem for the first time, they would not have do deal with the problem for the consecutive runs. Not to mention that we would have healthier and more productive juveniles in our society. Bibliography: References Adams, G. R., Gullotta, T., & Clancy, M. A. (1985). Homeless adolescents: A descriptive study of similarities and differences between runaways and throwaways. Adolescence, 20, 715-724. Blood, L., & D'Angelo, R. (1974). A progress research report on value issues and conflict between runaways and their parents. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 36, 486-491. Crespi, T. D., & Sabatelli, R. M. (1993). Adolescent runaways and family strife: A conflict-induced differentiation framework. Adolescence, 28, 867-878. Kennedy, M. R. (1991). Homeless and runaway youth mental health issues: No access to the system. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 576-579. Kurtz, P. D., Jarvis, S. V., & Kurtz, G. L. (1991). Problems of homeless youth: Empirical findings and human services issues. Social Work, 36, 309-314. National Runaway Switchboard. National Runaway Switchboard Statistics-2000. Retrieved November 16, 2001, from the World Wide Web: http://www.nrscrisisline.org/2000stat.asp Post, P., & McCoard, D. (1994). Needs and self-concept of runaway adolescents. School Counselor, 41, 212-219. Raphael, Marryanne and Jennifer Wolf. Runaways. New York: Drake 1974. Roberts, A. (1981). Runaways and non-runaways in an American suburb : an exploratory study of adolescent and parental coping. New York, N.Y.: John Jay Press Rotheram-Borus, M. J. (1991). Serving runaway and homeless youth. Family & Community Health, 14(3), 23-32. Smart, D. H. (1991). Homeless youth in Seattle. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 519-527. Steidel, S.(Ed.). (2000). Missing and Abducted Children: A Law Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management. Washington, D.C.: OJJDP Tuohy, John (1993). There's no such thing as a childhood on the streets. U.S. Catholic, 3, 18-26. VanHouten, T., & Golebiewski, G. (1985). Adolescent life stress as a predictor of alcohol abuse and/or runaway behavior. Washington, DC: National Youth Work Alliance. Word Count: 1186
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