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This chapter focuses on the contribution of psychological science to the improvement of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) procedures and police officers’ skills when responding to intimate partner violence (IPV). Specifically, a review of the most important violence risk factors and evidence based risk assessment tools is presented, along with the necessary safety planning and risk management procedure. Moreover, the chapter covers strategies and skills that help police officers’ in communicating effectively with IPV victims. The authors reflect on the consequences of exposure to IPV on child wellbeing and development and state that this is another facet of the problem that needs attention when responding to this crime. After presenting a study on the perceptions of victims, police officers and experts about the competencies needed when responding to IPV, the results show that LEAs need to invest more time in police training and education. The authors conclude that incorporating more psychological research in police training schemes will help in achieving more effective and coordinated responses to IPV.

Persons may kidnap their ex-partner, partner, and family members, resulting frequently in police action (Booth et al. 2010; Lipsedge 2004; Fitzgerald and People 2006). In certain situations, ex-partner or partners may take their victim hostage. Hostage-taking in relationships can take the form of a hostage barricade incident in which individuals take hostages and the police besiege the location (Yokota et al. 2004; Bartol 2002). In another type of incident, known as the simple siege, the suspects barricade themselves without taking any hostages.

This chapter uses findings from the Foul Play Project (FPP) to analyze which factors may facilitate or limit law enforcement interagency cooperation in cases involving deaths and possible foul play. The FPP is based on a random sample of 5,366 cases involving possible foul play that were reported in the media. Factors that may influence law enforcement interagency cooperation include the characteristics of the death incidents; victims’ behaviors, characteristics of the victims’ family members, and type of crimes involved.

In this chapter, the Foul Play Project (FPP) results are used to investigate the incident patterns, risk factors, and consequences of suspicious suicides and possible homicides staged as suicides (HSASs), which take place in closed institutions, such as correctional and military facilities, and in local communities. The traumatic and stigmatizing impact of these suspicious suicides and HSASs are evaluated. Data from the FPP are based on a random sample of 5,366 cases involving possible foul play that were reported in the media.

In the United States, since the 1930s, laws, policies, organizations, and treatment programs have been established to improve responses to the problems of abducted and missing children (Karmen 2010; Beck and Miltenberger 2009; Griffin 2010; Jones 2003; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 2008). For Zgoba (2004a), moral panic develops from the media’s coverage of child abduction. People may hear about a few sensational child abduction cases and then incorrectly perceive the problem of child kidnappings as a pervasive and intense threat to society. Their false social constructions of the social problems outweigh the true nature of the problem. These crime myths may become embedded in our consciousness and lead policy-makers to develop laws and policies that are not based on reliable research (Kappeler and Potter 2005; Zgoba 2004a).

Maritime piracy (MP) refers to robbery, plundering, kidnapping, and related crimes that are perpetrated at sea or around coastal and territorial waters. Agents who do not have a commission from a sovereign country commit these crimes. MP is a controversial term. One problem has to do with the site of the crime. According to Article 101 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, piracy is committed on the high seas (Mo 2002). However, 72% of MP attacks occur while the vessel is berthed or anchored in port (Dillon 2000, June 22).

In recent decades, the problem of children who are kidnapped by family members has been a major social problem in society. The abducted child may be missing, or the child’s location may be known (Hammer et al. 2002).

Individuals may kidnap a pregnant mother and steal her baby by performing a cesarean section (CS) (Geberth 2006; Burgess et al. 2002). Just like offenders who steal a baby from a newborn nursery or other setting, perpetrators who commit fetal kidnapping may be motivated to strengthen or “cement” a relationship with a partner (Burgess et al. 2002; Geberth 2006). Female offenders may seek to fulfill a childbearing and delivery fantasy (Geberth 2006). These female kidnappers become a mother by proxy by acting out a fantasy in which they deliver a baby. Offenders also may commit fetal kidnapping for financial motives. In other instances, fetal and newborn kidnapping may be perpetrated for political reasons (Avery 2004). Regimes may seek to erase the biological identities of the pregnant mothers and their children. In addition, those in power may want to profit from the illegal sale of these newborn babies to couples and families.

In this chapter, the results of the Foul Play Project (FPP) are used to investigate the various conditions that increase the risk of drug misuse and outcomes such as drug overdoses (DODs) and drug poisonings. This analysis investigates the ways in which law enforcement professionals respond to DODs and other drug- and alcohol- related behaviors as involving foul play. The traumatic and stigmatizing effects of drug misuse and DODs on victims and their families and communities are presented. The adverse social, educational, and occupational consequences of drug misuse and DODs and financial costs are evaluated. FPP results are based on a random sample of 5,366 cases involving possible foul play that were reported in the media.

In this chapter, the Missing Person Project (MPP) findings are used to investigate the characteristics and motivation of persons who make false claims and carry out hoaxes about kidnappings and missing persons. This chapter examines the ways in which police respond to the uncertainties and complexities of these possible false reports and hoaxes. This analysis examines the process by which various conditions may influence the process in which law enforcement personnel, judges, family members, community residents and others respond to the uncertainties and complexities of these false claims. The traumatic and stigmatizing effects of these false kidnapping and missing person police reports and hoaxes are investigated.

This chapter focuses on the ways in which police and others may suspect foul play or other causes of cemetery damage. Causes of cemetery damage vary on a continuum from environmental factors, material aging, and accidents to intentional crimes such as vandalism, juvenile delinquency, hate crimes, and cultural and physical genocide. Law enforcement, organizational, religious and ethnic group, and community responses to cemetery damage are examined. In addition, the traumatic and stigmatizing effects of cemetery vandalism and hate crimes are examined.

In this chapter, the ways in which conditions may influence the ways police attempt to solve complex arson and arson-associated homicides (AAHs) are examined. This analysis uses data from the Foul Play Project (FPP) to evaluate the ways in which factors such as media coverage of AAHs and copycat crimes can alter the likelihood that the police, fire department personnel, and others view these incidents as AAHs. This chapter also analyzes the prevalence of arson and AAHs, perpetrators’ demographic and psychosocial characteristics and motivations, and the relationship between offenders and victims. In addition, the traumatic impact of these AAHs is assessed. The FPP uses a random sample of 5,366 cases involving possible foul play that were reported in the media.

“Carjacking is defined as completed or attempted robbery of a motor vehicle by a stranger to the victim. It differs from other motor vehicle theft because the victim is present and the offender uses or threatens to use force” (Klaus 2004). Carjacking may include other offenses such as kidnapping, robbery, rape, and homicide. Other types of motor vehicles are also hijacked. For example, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an ambulance was reportedly hijacked with a sleeping ambulance worker inside (Associated Press, 2014, February 8).

Nonfamily juvenile abduction (NFJA) is infrequent even though the incidents are often sensationalized and exaggerated by the media, which often portray child abduction as an epidemic (Miller et al. 2008; Beyer and Beasley 2003; Shutt et al. 2004; Moscowitz and Duvall 2011). The media devotes a great deal of attention to child abductions, including high-profile cases, such as the Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, and Danielle van Dam kidnappings, creating fear and anger in parents and members of the public (Miller et al. 2008). For example, Eichelberger et al. (1990) discovered that parents in their survey were more concerned about the risk that their children would be kidnapped and abuse drugs than suffering from physical injury in childhood.

International family abduction (IFA) is a significant problem in the U.S. and in other countries, and the problem has received substantial media attention. One investigation found that 350,000 children are abducted annually in the U.S. (Rigler and Wieder no date; Slota 2009). Ten thousand of these children are kidnapped and held in another country by a parent who has a different nationality (National Report—International Child Custody for the Common Law Judicial Conference on International Child Custody no date).

Background: Several studies have established an association between diabetic neuropathy and depressive symptoms. There is a link between depression and peripheral neuropathy in diabetic patients, suggesting an increased likelihood that diabetic patients will experience depressive symptoms related to lower-extremity peripheral neuropathy and arthritis during middle age and later life. The goal of this investigation was to determine whether there are age differences between insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients regarding their feelings of hopelessness and toe pain. Methods: A large population-based sample of 32,006 adults from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey was analyzed with multivariate statistical procedures. We performed χ2 and correlation procedures to test the null hypothesis that there are no age or sex differences between insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients in their reporting of feelings of hopelessness and toe pain symptoms in the previous 12 months. Results: There were significant differences between age and sex groups of insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients in reporting feelings of hopelessness and toe pain symptoms, rejecting the null hypothesis. Correlational analysis conducted between the variables of hopelessness and toe pain yielded significant correlations in insulin-dependent (r = .28; P = .0009; α = .05), and non-insulin-dependent (r = 0.19; P = .001; α = .05) women older than 61 years, concluding that diabetic women are more likely to experience hopelessness and toe pain in that age group regardless of insulin status. Conclusions: Clinicians should incorporate depression and toe pain symptoms into their assessment and treatment, especially in diabetic women older than 61 years. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 100(6): 445–451, 2010)

This chapter analyzes the diverse strategies that the police use in dealing with street youth. In this chapter, the ways in which the police come into contact with runaway and homeless youth are evaluated. Emphasis is placed on the police’s use of discretion in responding to youth living on the streets. This chapter presents data on arrest rates of street youth and the conditions that may affect whether the police arrest these young people. In this chapter, various conditions such as the police’s danger assessment, demeanor of youth, co-occurring status offenses and crimes, school problems, and family issues are discussed. In this chapter, the obstacles that law enforcement personnel face in responding effectively to runaway and homeless youth are discussed. For example, law enforcement professionals may be limited in their police activities by the extensive amount of time and effort involved in dealing with runaway young people.

Using data from published self-reports and the results from the Missing Persons Project (MPP), this chapter analyzes conduct problems among runaway and homeless youth. In this analysis, the prevalence, risk factors, comorbid conditions, impact, and treatment of conduct problems among runaway and homeless young people are presented.

In this chapter, the prevalence and risk factors of HIV/AIDs among street young people are discussed. Demographic risk factors such as gender and age are analyzed. Various environmental influences, including homelessness and unstable housing, are discussed as possible risk factors for HIV and STIs. The effects of peer group social networks on HIV-/AIDS-risk behaviors are presented. Other risk factors such as early family abuse, depression, and relationship status are evaluated. In addition, survival sex, sex trafficking, multiple partners, substance use, and other factors such as sexual decision making and partner coercion and violence among runaway and homeless youth are analyzed.

In this chapter, self-mutilation, also known as deliberate self-harm (DSH), and suicidal behavior among runaway and homeless young people are analyzed. These street youth may intentionally burn themselves, cut themselves on their extremities, hit themselves, bang their head against a wall, insert objects under their nails, scrape skin to draw blood, pull their hair out, or use other forms of self-mutilation (Jorgensen et al., 2009; Favazza, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 259–268, 1998; Saewyc and Edinburgh, The Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(2), 180–188, 2010; Women and self-harm: Understanding, coping, and healing from self-mutilation, London, 1998; Tyler et al., Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13(4), 457–474, 2003; Williams et al., Journal of Youth Studies, 4(2), 233–253, 2001). This chapter analyzes factors such as gender, sexual orientation, child sexual and physical abuse, neglect, trauma, human trafficking victimization, social isolation, and stress that may increase the probability that street youth will engage in DSH to cope with overwhelming emotions while on the streets (Jorgensen et al., 2009; Tyler et al., Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13(4), 457–474, 2003).

In this chapter, the employment activities and other income sources of street young people are assessed. This chapter evaluates the type and prevalence of street youth employment and income sources and various conditions such as community views toward runaway and homeless youth that may affect the extent to which these children and adolescents are able to engage in employment while on the streets. This chapter analyzes the extent to which street youth engage in panhandling on the streets for spare change or squeegee cleaning motor vehicle windows and requesting money from drivers who are stopped at traffic lights. In addition, other casual and temporary jobs such as participating in construction, working on painting jobs, and selling handicrafts and tickets for sports and concert events are examined. This chapter also discusses the other income sources of runaway and homeless young people such as reliance on government assistance and friends and family members. In this chapter, obstacles to conventional employment such as employer financial exploitation, restrictive laws, adverse community views toward street youth, police harassment, human trafficking victimization, and street-related trauma and abuse are analyzed.

Chapter 9 provides an overview of health problems facing runaway and homeless young people. Youth who are on the streets often have difficulty accessing health care and have an increased probability of developing mental, physical health, and social difficulties. Runaway young people may have an increased probability of suffering from problems such as pneumonia, scabies, depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, prostitution, and substance use. This chapter discusses the factors that increase the likelihood that homeless and runaway young people will develop health problems. This chapter evaluates the degree to which homeless and runaway young people who are victims of human trafficking or engage in other risky behaviors such as survival sex may have a higher probability of suffering victimization and poor health outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immune virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Moreover, this chapter assesses the degree to which runaway and homeless youth who lack shelter and access to healthy food may face a greater likelihood of having food insecurity and related health problems. This chapter assesses the extent to which runaway and homeless youth suffer impaired functioning as a result of their health difficulties. In this chapter, the health status and level of impairment of adults who were former runaways are presented.

This chapter discusses the ways in which the courts respond to youth who run away from home and commit other offenses. Runaway youth may be classified as status offenders. Status offenses are non-criminal behaviors that are treated as violations only because the offender is a minor. Classifying juvenile behavior as status offenses is designed to restrict the youth’s behavior in order to promote their safety and health. States may classify runaways and other status violators as delinquents, while in other states status offenders are considered neglected or abused dependents. Some states classify status violators as a separate category. Status offenders may be referred to juvenile court or the runaway’s first contact is with a state child welfare agency. In other states, the status offender may be sent to a residential facility or the juvenile is required to participate in community-based interventions. If these informal strategies are not successful, juvenile courts will formally process them. In addition, A Child in Need Supervision petition can be filed with the court to assist juveniles who repeatedly commit status violations such as running away from home. This chapter also analyzes factors that increase the probability that youth will commit status offenses and disparities in the juvenile justice system.

This chapter analyzes the diverse lives of street youth in different countries. In various countries, street youth may live at home, go to school, and work in the streets or live and work on the streets without going to school. In many cases, street youth’s participation in family, school life, and street activities changes over time. In different countries, regions, and cities, the meanings of street life vary in different settings. The notion of living on the street can differ in various parts of the same city. This chapter assesses the conditions that may increase the risk that young people will live and work in the streets. Such factors as demographic characteristics, family abuse and neglect, family conflict, low socioeconomic status (SES), behavioral problems in school, the lack of educational and occupational opportunities, and child trafficking are analyzed. In this chapter, the problems of street life are discussed. This chapter also discusses the role of governments and organizations in developing policies and interventions to assist young people on the streets.

This chapter analyzes delinquent and violent behaviors among runaway and homeless young people. Emphasis is on the prevalence of different types of delinquent and criminal behaviors and the risk factors that increase the likelihood that street youth will participate in these behaviors. Theft, robbery, drug trade, and status offenses such as alcohol-related violations are some of the criminal and delinquent activities discussed. This chapter discusses such risk factors as low socioeconomic status, age, family impairment, abuse and exposure to violence, gang involvement and negative peer influence, conduct disorder, neurocognitive problems, substance use and abuse, school difficulties, duration of homelessness, and housing instability as conditions that may increase the probability that runaway and homeless young people will participate in delinquent/criminal and violent behaviors. In this chapter, the process of social learning is discussed to illustrate the ways in which young people may learn to use violence in their home environment, which later increases their likelihood of exhibiting violent interactional styles while on the streets. While on the streets trying to survive using deviant subsistence strategies such as theft, survival sex, and robbery, young people may become desensitized to the use of violence as a survival strategy. The street youth’s persistent state of vigilance and stressful experiences increase the chances that they may resort to violence in situations that they perceive as threatening. This chapter also assesses the effects of violence on street youth. For example, female youth on the streets who become victims of violence may be especially at increased risk of having unintended pregnancies. Violent interactions often result in the inconsistent or nonuse of condoms and other contraceptive methods.

This chapter evaluates the degree to which young people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual or transgender (LGBT) and those who are still questioning their own sexual identity are at increased risk of becoming a runaway, thrown-away, or homeless youth because of their minority sexual orientation. This chapter discusses the societal stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and social isolation and rejection that LGBT youth encounter because of their sexual orientation. Researchers have developed the term “gay-related stress (GRS)” to describe the chronic stresses that are related to stigmatizing minority sexual orientation victimization (SOV), e.g., harassment and physical violence suffered by individuals who are known to be LGBT or who divulge their sexual minority status. LGBT youth from disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority groups also may suffer additional chronic stress because of their racial and ethnic minority status. Their parents who are influenced by the dominant heterosexual norms and values of society may kick them out of their home or the LGBT youth may run away because of parental rejection and conflict over their sexual minority orientation. This chapter assesses the LGBT youth’s rates of running away, victimization, hate crimes, survival sex, and other high-risk behaviors. In this chapter, interventions for this population are also presented.

Many people go missing each year, and their fate often remains unknown. In Europe, approximately 250,000 children are reported missing annually (Missing Person, n.d.). In the USA, 84,136 active missing person records were maintained in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) on December 31, 2013 (NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics for 2013). About 35,000 individuals are reported missing in Australia on an annual basis (Australian Federal Police, n.d.).

This chapter analyzes the rates and types of substance use and abuse among homeless and runaway youth and young people in the general population. In this chapter, the rates of street youth using substances such as tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, hallucinogens, methamphetamine, ketamine, heroin, and MDMA (ecstasy) are presented. In this chapter, risk factors such as the street youth’s demographic characteristics, parental use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, family dysfunction, negative peer influence, and social networks are analyzed.

In this chapter, the experiences of children and adolescents who run away from home or become homeless are described. This chapter examines why youth who are disconnected from their family, peers, and classmates and teachers may be at increased risk of running away from home. This chapter evaluates the extent to which child sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect, domestic violence, school difficulties, and peer problems are determinants of running away from home. Findings from self-report narratives and the Runaway Youth Project (RYP), which is based on a random sample of 200 missing persons reports, are used to describe the demographic, social, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of runaway and homeless children and adolescents. This chapter highlights risk factors such as socioeconomic status, demographic characteristics, conduct disorder, sexual orientation, sexual and physical abuse and neglect, and family dysfunction that may increase the probability that young people will run away or become homeless. In this chapter, characteristics of the runaway episode such as duration, season, and travel patterns are evaluated. This chapter also analyzes the risks that runaway and homeless youth face for becoming victims of human trafficking, rape, assault and battery, sexually transmitted infections, developing suicidal behaviors, substance abuse problems, and other psychosocial and physical health problems. In this chapter, the criminal history of runaway youth is discussed.

This chapter assesses why youth are placed in substitute care such as foster care, the prevalence of eloping from substitute care, and the duration of eloping from these out-of-home settings. This chapter analyzes the institutional conditions of substitute care and the demographic, social, psychological, and behavioral conditions that may increase at the probability that young people will elope from substitute care settings. This chapter discusses organizational issues such as the differences in social service agencies’ classification of elopement and the resources available to agencies in locating and returning youth who have gone absent without leave. This chapter discusses the role of emergency runaway shelters for youth who have eloped from substitute care. In addition, the conditions that increase the risk that youth will elope from substitute care are presented. Such factors as placement instability or disruption, substitute care neglect and abuse, demographic characteristics of the youth in substitute care, peer influence, substance use, and family issues are discussed. This chapter also analyzes the impact of frequent elopement from out-of-home placement settings on the youth’s future social, educational, and employment status. Interventions to improve substitute care are also discussed.

This chapter discusses school problems facing young people who run away from home or become homeless. In this chapter, school failure, expulsion, and other adverse school outcomes facing homeless and runaway young people are discussed. This chapter evaluates factors that increase the risk of adverse school outcomes such as school absences, school failure, suspensions, and expulsion. This chapter analyzes why youth are at risk for having disruptive, behavioral problems in school, performing poorly, skipping school, failing school, being suspended or expelled from school, dropping out of school, and running away from home because they suffer from abuse and trauma and have learning disorders such as attention-deficit, hyperactivity disorder, conduct problems, and other related behavioral and mental health problems. In this chapter, the prevalence of school problems such as truancy, school detention, and school suspension and expulsion are presented. This chapter also discusses the federal McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act role in providing federal funds for homeless shelter programs in the USA to make sure that homeless young people get access to education.

Using data from published self-reports and the results from the Missing Persons Project (MPP), this chapter analyzes the ways in which different individual, family/friendship, community, media, law enforcement, organizational, legal, and technological factors may influence the social construction and prevalence of missing persons. It analyzes how these conditions may affect the structure, process, and outcomes of missing person investigations. In addition, the impact of missing persons on their families and friends and the effects of missing persons on the larger community are assessed.

This chapter evaluates the effectiveness of primary and secondary intervention approaches in responding to runaway and homeless young people. Primary prevention approaches seek to prevent homelessness and runaway behaviors and other adverse behavioral consequences among youth in the general community. Primary prevention can use a youth development model that has been effective in helping youth with a variety of problems. Secondary prevention targets young people who have run away or become homeless. Investigators and practitioners believe that these secondary intervention approaches should be comprehensive and customized to the needs of the runaway and homeless young people. These interventions should also address the street youth’s criminal/delinquent activities, school truancy, substance abuse, risks for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including human immune virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and other mental health, social, and behavioral problems. Program outcomes such as reducing rates of runaway/homeless behavior, improving psychosocial functioning, reducing HIV risk behaviors, and strengthening family relationships are analyzed.

This chapter analyzes the impact of child custody arrangements, impaired family functioning, parental distress, family structure, individual vulnerability factors, degree of resilience in coping, school characteristics, and community factors on children’s educational, behavioral, and social outcomes. This approach emphasizes an ecological model to clarify the relative impact of individual risk factors, family conditions, school characteristics, and community risk factors on children. Expert witnesses, attorneys and law firms, and families should recognize the important role of the ecological approach in determining appropriate child custody arrangements.