‘You are going to drop the ball on this …’: using siblings’ stories to inform better interprofessional practice when someone goes missing

Abstract

This paper focuses on a part of a larger piece of exploratory, qualitative research. A brief literature review precedes verbatim quotations from accounts of siblings' experiences of police. The accounts were gained by in-depth interviews with adult siblings of nine longterm missing people. Participant stories reveal the quality of the investigation and the manner of service as influencing their emotional well-being in the short and longer term. Findings cannot be extrapolated but indicate potential areas for future research. The need for support from human services workers to complement the role of police is recognised as is the important role of non-government support and advocacy services.

In limbo: A systematic review of psychological responses and coping among people with a missing loved one

“…For example, anger appeared to be a shared response; however, when the disappearance was forced, anger tended to be directed toward society, the government or military, whereas when the cause of disappearance was unclear, anger tended to be more often directed toward the person missing (e.g., for leaving without explanation), toward others for expressing that the loved one left behind should “move on,” and largely toward authorities in charge (e.g., police, search team). The latter is consistent with Australian studies that have highlighted a lack of communication and information from authorities as a key source of ongoing psychological distress for families of missing persons (e.g., Clark, ). This finding highlights the need for further research to gain a more nuanced understanding of peoples' responses to living with missingness given the potential implications for how to better support those left behind.…”

Adult missing persons: a concept analysis

“…Police services face severe criticism and adverse publicity if they fail to locate a high profile missing person (Swanton & Wilson, 1989) and, despite the need to further understand missing behaviour, police officers tend to see return-home interviews for adult missing persons as repetitive and unhelpful (Harris & Shalev Greene, 2016). Understandably, therefore, family members can view the police response as lacking urgency, dismissive, or insensitive (Clark, 2012;. Similarly, mental health services suffer reputational damage, loss of public confidence, legal liability, and negative media exposure as a result of adult missing persons absconding from their facilities (Bowers et al, 1999c;Muir-Cochrane, Mosel, Gerace, Esterman, & Bowers, 2011;Muir-Cochrane & Mosel, 2009;Muir-Cochrane et al, 2013).…”

How satisfied are siblings of homicide victims with police?

“…A search of the (English-language) literature of studies with a specific focus on siblings of homicide victims resulted in five articles, homicides occurring in North America (Applebaum and Burns, 1991; Freeman et al, 1996; Tasker and Wright, 2017), Israel (Moss and Raz, 2001) and South Africa (Pretorius et al, 2010). An article by Clements and Wiesser (2003) included a brief case study of an 11-year-old brother of a homicide victim in the US and one other article by Clark (2012) involved siblings of brothers and sisters missing as the result of a probable homicide in Australia.…”

“…When a sibling is murdered, surviving siblings are forced to confront the physical worlds of police investigation, media intrusion and exposure, coroner and medical examiner systems, victim services and the criminal justice system (CJS; including courts and corrections). Only one study (Clark, 2012) appears to have reported on the perceptions of police from the perspective of siblings of brothers and sisters missing as the result of a probable homicide. The study being reported here is the first to speak about satisfaction with police from the direct perspective of siblings of confirmed and probable victims of homicide.…”

“…Second, the degree of satisfaction with police might affect the health and well-being of siblings of homicide victims. For example, Clark (2012) reported on how the quality of interaction with police and the investigation influenced the emotional well-being of siblings immediately and over time.…”