Drawing on information from a random sample of over 1,000 cases this paper highlights the variety and complexity of missing person cases, reported to the police. The overwhelming majority of missing persons are found safe and well or are no longer considered as missing. Most return within a short space of time. Some cases, however, are not concluded quickly or with such favourable outcomes. A further sample of cases, which had caused problems for the police, was examined. These cases also revealed a variety of situations, backgrounds and outcomes. Many were immigration cases or had other reasons for wishing to remain 'missing'. Some missing persons, unfortunately, were found dead but many of them had died of natural causes and had died before the police were notified. In view of the variety of cases and the rarity of adverse outcomes it is difficult to develop statistical risk prediction scores as an aid to decision-making. Instead the Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidance to strengthen police officers' professional judgement in dealing with MISPER (missing person) cases.
RDS is part of the Home Office. The Home Office's purpose is to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are properly balanced and the protection and security of the public are maintained.RDS is also a part of the Government Statistical Service (GSS). One of the GSS aims is to inform Parliament and the citizen about the state of the nation and provide a window on the work and performance of government, allowing the impact of government policies and actions to he assessed.
Therefore -Research Development and Statistics Directorate exists to improve policy making, decision taking and practice in support of the Home Office purpose and aims, to provide the public and Parliament with information necessary for informed debate and to publish information for future use.
AcknowledgementsThis has been a complex research study and many people have provided us with valuable assistance.We are especially grateful to Include (formerly Cities in Schools) which provided us with access to a sample of young people permanently excluded from school. Martin Stephenson, Chief Executive of Include, Rachel Pope, Kath Pinnock and past and present project managers at Include co-operated with us and supported the project throughout. The police services, local authority youth justice sections and education departments who work with Include were also extremely helpful. Further support in accessing offending data was provided by the Home Office Research and Statistics Department.In Luton, we are grateful to the Luton Youth Offending Team and Luton Education Department for their input to the research study, and to Mark Radley of Social Software for his advice and help with youth offending databases. Thanks as well to colleagues at the University of Luton, Ian Toon and Dani Agbewu-Lokku who helped with fieldwork and data processing.Accessing offending data proved to be an extremely challenging task, and we are grateful to Dr Carol Hayden and Tim Martin for providing us with information regarding their work on offending careers and school exclusion. Although it has not proved possible to use this in the final report, their time and the quality of their work were extremely helpful in enabling us to develop our analysis.Throughout the study we have appreciated the support and advice forthcoming from the Home Office, and especially that provided -at different times -by John Graham, Julie Vennard, Diane Caddle, Claire Flood-Page and Vicki Harrington.Finally, we would like to thank the 28 young people and the parents we interviewed, who gave their time and shared their experiences in the hope that this research would have a positive influence on the experiences of other young people excluded from school.Any errors are, of course, the responsibility of the authors.ii achieved higher-level qualifications felt that they were having to work harder in order to compensate for their past. vii viii the young person's life, in regard to family circumstances, educational experience...
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