Where do missing people go?
Professor Hester Parr speaking about her research
'I didn’t think I was going to be a missing person, but I knew I didn’t want to be found.’ Sophie’s story, from the Geographies of Missing People project
EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE are reported missing in the UK every day. ‘That’s about one every two minutes,’ says Professor Hester Parr, whose research has transformed the way police officers relate to missing persons.
‘I am a human geographer. I lead a team of academics and police partners who investigate the geographies of missing people – where they actually go.’
Many are children repeatedly disappearing from care homes, but a third of missing persons are adults, says Professor Parr. ‘Around 80% of these have a mental health issue. Understanding the geographies of mental health is my passion. How people with mental health problems negotiate their everyday lives. How mental health issues are handled in society.
Despite the scale of the social problem, there was no research to explain why adults go missing or explore their experiences, she says. ‘Very little was understood about what happens to these people.’
So her team conducted in-depth interviews with 45 former missing persons. ‘We found that people who go missing often stay in familiar areas,’ says Professor Parr. ‘They want to be absent and not lost. They use conscious concealment strategies to help them stay hidden.’
Absent but not always lost
Many who take missing journeys do so mainly on foot, she says. ‘They seek shelter in a range of public and natural environments. That is when they are at their most vulnerable.’
But their return can be traumatic and marked by poor police handling.
‘Some people feel criminalised,’ she says. ‘Police officers can be dismissive of the event or its cause.’
All this qualitative evidence was gathered, structured and used to create new guidance and training resources for UK police services on the handling of missing persons and their families. The reception has been extremely positive, says Professor Parr.
‘In 20 years of mental health research I’ve never seen anything taken up to this extent. The police have incorporated our recommendations into good practice guidance. I’ve been invited to sit on national strategy committees. We have delivered 25 knowledge exchange and training events to serving police officers and provide ongoing input into specialist search training.’
The scale of the missing persons problem, together with the recognised inadequacy of current responses, created the conditions for maximum impact, she believes. ‘There are so many missing persons cases. Resources are so limited nowadays that there’s a demand for innovative thinking. What can we do better? How can we prevent it?’
A focus on prevention could save public money, police time and considerable cost in human suffering, says Professor Parr. ‘That is a multi-sector responsibility. It is not just the police. It is social work, the health services and the general public.’
A key area for improvement is what happens when a missing person returns, says Professor Parr. ‘Over a third go missing again. We need to do better work on return. We have made progress. New guidance on the police interview, partly arising from our research, is changing police practice in this area.’
In recognition of the impact of her research, the project won an Outstanding Impact in Society prize from the Economic & Social Research Council in June 2015. The prize also helps fund future research.
‘I want to work towards consensus around what happens when people return,’ says Professor Parr. ‘Who should support them? What kind of processes do we need?
‘I want to see the national-level agreements emerging across the UK being translated into multi-sector operational practice – by the police and the other organisations that work with these very vulnerable people.’
About the researcher
Professor Hester Parr is based in the University’s School of Geographical & Earth Sciences. She is interested in developing sensitive methodologies for working with vulnerable people. Previous research has investigated the relationship between mental health and place by focusing on how ‘mentally ill identities’ are defined by reference to streets, institutions, cities, regions, virtualities, natures and mobilities.
Missing voices
A series of ten stories of the missing experience is one of the learning resources to come out of this project. Listening to these stories – which have been adapted from real interviews – helps to prompt new conversations around the missing experience, as well as encouraging a more sensitive and empathetic police handling of missing people.
'When the daylight was coming and I was still alive, that’s when I started to panic.’
Sophie’s story tells of a 24-hour journey as a missing person. We hear about her attempted suicide, being located by her family and the experience with police officers after she is found.
This article was first published November 2015.