the longer that they stay outon the street, then the harder it is for them to find a way to return back home. Two-thirds (68%) of runaways run to the home of a friend or relative (18). Many people think that when teenagersrun away, that they are alone, and that they are just running away from their problems. Well, 82%of runaways are accompanied by others when running, whether they’re friends or loves, towhether they met someone on the street (18).Are runaways bad? No, they are not bad, although many people consider thembad-behaviored. They have only made a few bad decisions and think that they have no other wayto deal with it than to run away. They got themselves caught up in pressures that they feel theneed to escape. And instead of facing their problems and trying to solve them, they choose to runaway from them. I think that we need to teach teens how to face their problems. When they havethe right tools to fix some of the things that may be going on in their lives, the pressure lessens,and there is no more need for them to escape. Our world today is very tough to live in, but if wesupport our children and try to help them, then maybe they will understand that there will beproblems, but that you’ve just got to be strong and you’ll get through them.About seven in every ten teen runaways (90%) return home or are reunited with theirfamilies (“Runaways and Throwaways, general”). And as for the other three, they fall victim intoviolence, crime, prostitution, child pornography, rape, drug addictions, or starvation. On ourstreets, the luckier runaways face hunger, homelessness, and extreme poverty. Far too many areless fortunate. Of the one million runaway teens, over 200,000 may become involved in some ofthese high risk behaviors (Madison 9).How do runaways survive in America? Over 5,000 a year don’t survive, they die, they’re murdered, diseased, brokenhearted, and alone. Up to one million enga...
