Who is missing? A study of missing persons in B.C.

The objective of this study was to explore the characteristics of missing persons and to discover reasons why people go missing. The Canadian Police Information Centre data included 2290 unresolved missing person's cases in which the persons remain missing and spanned a fifty-four year period from 1950 to 2004 inclusive. The ultimate goal was to evaluate reasons and circumstances in which people go missing and determine how these trends have changed over the last five decades. Results indicate specific trends in missing cases in half a century. These include shifts in jurisdictional base lines; definite changes in probable cause of missing incidents; and differences in locations from which people go missing. Other trends remained constant, i.e., sex of persons with highest probability of going missing. Creating nationwide uniform categories gives police agencies standard criteria for recognizing missing persons cases, determining urgency, and possibly flagging links to violent crime.