Distinguishing suicides of persons reported missing from those not reported missing: a retrospective Scottish cohort study

Background: Understanding what distinguishes the suicide of individuals reported missing (missing-suicides) from those of individuals not reported missing (other-suicides) may have preventative and/or operational utility and inform our knowledge of suicide.Aims: To assess whether specific epidemiological, sociodemographic or circumstantial characteristics differ between individuals reported missing and those not reported missing who take their own life.Method: Content analysis of Scottish Police Death Reports, detailing 160 suicides/undetermined deaths over a 3-year period in the North-East of Scotland.Results:Those in the missing-suicide group were more likely to be older but did not differ from the other-suicide group on any other epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics. Individuals in the other-suicide group were more likely to be found inadvertently by people known to them. The missing-suicide group took longer to find and were more likely to be located in natural outdoor locations by police/searchers or members of the public.Conclusions: Individuals who die by suicide and who are reported as a missing person differ from those not reported as missing in terms of factors relating to location and how they are found but not epidemiological or sociodemographic characteristics.<br/

Search/ing for missing people:families living with ambiguous absence

Families of missing people are often understood as inhabiting a particular space of ambiguity, captured in the phrase ‘living in limbo’ (Holmes, 2008). To explore this uncertain ground, we interviewed 25 family members to consider how human absence is acted upon and not just felt within this space ‘in between’ grief and loss (Wayland, 2007). In the paper, we represent families as active agents in spatial stories of ‘living in limbo’, and we provide insights into the diverse strategies of search/ing (technical, physical and emotional) in which they engage to locate either their missing member or news of them. Responses to absence are shown to be intimately bound up with unstable spatial knowledges of the missing person and emotional actions that are subject to change over time. We suggest that practices of search are not just locative actions, but act as transformative processes providing insights into how families inhabit emotional dynamism and transition in response to the on-going ‘missing situation’ and ambiguous loss (Boss, 1999, 2013)

Adult missing persons:a concept analysis

Missing persons incidents incur considerable societal costs but research has overwhelmingly concentrated on missing children. Understanding the phenomenon among adults is underdeveloped as a result. We conducted an evolutionary concept analysis of the ‘missing person’ in relation to adults. Evolutionary concept analysis provides a structured narrative review methodology which aims to clarify how poorly defined phenomena have been discussed in the professional/academic literature in order to promote conceptual clarity and provide building blocks for future theoretical development. A systematic literature search identified k = 73 relevant papers from which surrogate terms for, and antecedents, consequences, and attributes of the occurrence of adult missing persons were extracted and analysed. The core attributes of the adult missing person are (i) actual or perceived unexpected or unwanted absence accompanied by an absence of information and (ii) a potential adverse risk outcome as perceived by those left behind. The centrality of mental ill-health in actual adult missing persons cases is not reflected in theoretical development which largely comprises descriptive typologies of variable quality and questionable utility. There is a clear need to shift research emphasis towards clinical and psychological domains of inquiry in order to further advance the field of adult missing persons research

Living absence:the strange geographies of missing people

In this paper ‘missing people’ gain an unstable presence through their (restaged) testimonies recounting individual occupations of material urban public space during the lived practice of absence. We explore ‘missing experience’ with reference to homeless geographies, and as constituted by paradoxical spatialities in which people are both absent and present. We seek to understand such urban geographies of absence through diverse voices of missing people, who discuss their embodiment of unusual rhythmic occupations of the city. We conclude by considering how a new politics of missing people might take account of such voices in ways to think further about rights-to-be-absent in the city

Developmental perspectives on the behaviour of missing children:exploring changes from early childhood to adolescence

Despite the inherent vulnerability of missing children and the associated emotional intensity for those affected, there has been no academic exploration of child development and missing behaviour. The current enquiry comprised an examination of police case records to determine how the circumstances and behaviour of missing children varies across early childhood (2-6 years; n = 79; 10.3%), middle childhood (7-11 years; n = 175; 22.9%), and adolescence (12-17 years; n = 512; 66.9%). Children were more likely to go missing in adolescence than early or middle childhood, and more boys than girls were reported missing before adolescence, with the opposite pattern found during adolescence. Adolescents travelled further, took public transport more, and were more likely to be accompanied than those in the younger age groups. Children in the youngest age group were more likely to go missing unintentionally, whereas adolescents were more likely to run away intentionally. Based on these findings it is argued that developmentally informed understanding should contribute to future strategies for preventing and responding to missing children

Inter-agency adult support and protection practice:a realistic evaluation with police, health and social care professionals

Purpose: Collaborative inter-agency working is of paramount importance for the public protection agenda worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the findings from a research study on the inter-agency working within adult support and protection (ASP) roles in the police, health and social care.Design/methodology/approach: This realistic evaluation study with two inter-related phases was funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. This paper reports on Phase 1 which identified existing gaps in the implementation of effective inter-agency practice by reviewing the “state of play” in inter-agency collaboration between the police and health and social care professionals. In total, 13 focus groups comprising representatives from Police Scotland (n¼52), Social Care (n¼31) and Health (n¼18), engaged in single profession and mixed profession groups addressing issues including referral and information exchange.Findings: On analysing context-mechanism-outcome (CMO), gaps in joint working were identified and attributed to the professionals’ own understanding of inter-agency working and the expectations of partner agencies. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection. Research limitations/implications – This unique Scottish study successfully identified the inter-agency practices of health, social services and police. By means of a modified realistic evaluation approach, it provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges that professionals face on a day-to-day basis when safeguarding adults and informed strategic recommendations to overcome the barriers to good practices in organisational working. The methods used to determine CMO could benefit other researchers to develop studies exploring the complexities of multi-causal effects of cross-boundary working. The use of the same case study in each focus group helped to neutralise bias. However, the voluntary nature of participation could have resulted in biased perceptions. The limited numbers of health professionals may have resulted in less representation of health sector views.Practical implications: Collaborative inter-agency working is of paramount importance for public protection worldwide. This paper reports on a Scottish study that focussed on the coordinated and integrated practices amongst the police, health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm.Social implications: Whilst the focus of this study has been on ASP, the conclusions and recommendations are transferable to public protection issues in many other contexts.Originality/value: Studies on the joint-working practices amongst police and health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm are uncommon. This  study investigated professionals’ perceptions of gaps and concerns pertaining to integrated working by means of a realistic evaluation approach. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection

Missing women:policing absence

This paper considers the neglected mobilities associated with a sample of UK women reported as missing. Refracted through literatures on gendered mobility and abandonment, the paper argues that the journeys of these women in crisis are not well understood by police services, and that normative gender relations may infuse theirmanagement. By selectively exploring one illustrative police case file on Kim, we highlight how reported andobserved socio-spatial relationships within private and public spaces relate to search actions. We argue that Kim’smobility and spatial experiences are barely understood, except for when they appear to symbolise disorder anddanger. We address the silences in this singular case by using the voices of other women reported as missing, ascollected in a research project to explore the agency, experience and meaning of female mobility during absence.We argue that women reported as missing are not abandoned by UK policing services, but that a policy ofcontinued search for them may be at risk if they repeatedly contravene normative socio-spatial relationshipsthrough regular absence mobilities. By way of conclusion, we address recent calls for research that explores therelationships between gender and mobility

Missing persons:the processes and challenges of police investigation

Responding to reports of missing persons represents one of the biggest demands on the resources of police organisations. In the UK, for example, it is estimated that over 300,000 missing persons incidents are recorded by the police each year which means that a person in the UK is recorded missing by the police approximately every two minutes. However, there is a complex web of behaviours that surround the phenomenon of missing persons which can make it difficult to establish whether someone's disappearance is ‘intentional’ or ‘unintentional’ or whether they might be at risk of harm from themselves or others. Drawing on a set of missing person case reconstructions and interviews with the officers involved with these cases, this paper provides insights into the different stages of the investigative process and some of the key influences which shape the trajectory of a missing person's investigation. In particular, it highlights the complex interplay between actions which are ‘ordered and conditioned’ by a procedural discourse around how missing persons investigations should be conducted, and the narratives that officers construct about how they approach investigations which are often shaped by a mix of police craft, ‘science’ and ‘reputational’ issues

Victimisation and eyewitness memory : exploring the effects of physiological and psychological factors

This thesis presents research designed to explore the role of physiological and psychological factors in mediating the effects of victimisation upon eyewitness memory. A tripartite model of arousal and memory is proposed encompassing physiological, psychological and motivational mechanisms. In order to investigate the potential role of these mechanisms, three laboratory based studies and one archival study are presented. The results of the laboratory studies suggest that physiological arousal may not influence eyewitness memory. In contrast, whilst direct support for an influence of psychological arousal is not provided, the possibility that psychological arousal may be an important factor cannot readily be dismissed. From a methodological perspective, contrary to existing laboratory-based research concerning visually-induced arousal, the results of the laboratory studies suggest that personal involvement may be an important factor influencing memory. Furthermore, the third laboratory study found that, differences in memory for emotional and neutral material may be a function of inherent differences between the material rather than an influence of arousal. Finally, in order to compare and contrast laboratory based research with the performance of real witnesses, a field based study utilising closed-circuit television to assess eyewitness accuracy for action details was conducted. In line with Studies One and Two, victims and bystanders were not found to differ in their memory performance. This study provides direct support for existing field and archival research suggesting that real victims and bystanders tend to be highly accurate in their eyewitness accounts. Taken together, the results of the research presented in this thesis suggest that whilst physiological arousal may not be an important factor influencing eyewitness memory, psychological and motivational influences may be important when witnesses are personally involved with the target incident

Geographies of Missing Adults

‘Every case is different [...] routine kills. I demand from my people that they look at every case from scratch as if they know nothing and it’s from looking at a case from that way that you will see some details. Some specific elements that make a case unique. [...] Never exclude anything [...] everything is possible’, Alain Remue, Head of the Belgium Federal Police's Missing Person's Unit (17 May 2013). Alain Remue, in a recent address to a European meeting of researchers on missing people, reminds us of the need to regard each missing person episode as a unique single event. Understanding the way in which people interact with the environments around them is an integral part of comprehending the behaviour of missing people and their unique journeys, and as such is the focus of this chapter. Whenever a person is reported missing to the police, there is an obvious need to locate an individual in space and time. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) provide a definition of ‘missing’ equating to '… anyone whose whereabouts cannot be established …', and a definition of ‘absent’ as 'a person not at a place where they are expected or required to be' (ACPO 2013: 5) clearly indicating that when someone is reported as missing to the police, it is because their geographical location at that moment in time is unknown or uncertain. To complicate matters, the individual may not be static in their situation or behaviour, and may move over time, through space, navigating the environment on an evolving journey, which could also be considered uncertain in terms of its intentionality (Stevenson et al. 2013). Consequently, searching for a missing person can be a complicated process for any agency, involving interpreting the interplay of spatial, environmental and human elements at stake. In this chapter, we elaborate these complexities, and seek to use recent research evidence to shed new light on missing adult geographies and journeys