Missing persons: a national survey approach assessing the predictors of case outcomes

ABSTRACT Using national online surveys of U.S. adults who know a missing person, the current study explores factors influencing missing person case outcomes (i.e. the person being found alive, an arrest occurring). Both demographic characteristics (e.g. the missing person’s sex, race/ethnicity, income) and search activities (e.g. case reported to the police, social media posts) were significantly related to these case outcomes. Multivariate analyses confirmed the strong net effect of federal police reporting on case outcomes, but the impact of search activities and the missing person’s socio-economic characteristics were context specific. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for public policy and future research on the nature and sources of disparities in missing person case outcomes across different situational contexts.