Mental health emerges as a consistent theme in many missing person cases in Australia. Depression and anxiety are the two most common conditions. Research also found that mental health was more associated with adults who had gone missing rather than young people.
About 38,000 missing persons reports are received by police each year across Australia. While most of those missing people are found within a short period of time, there are about 2,600 people who have been missing for more than three months.
in crime and criminal justice
Each year, around 30,000 people are reported missing in Australia—one person every 18 minutes.
The reasons for going missing are many and varied and can include mental illness, miscommunication, misadventure, domestic violence, and being a victim of crime. While there are inherent risks attached to any missing event, specific population groups are recognised as particularly vulnerable to harm while missing.
United States. The United States has what may be the world's highest number of missing persons. According to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person and Unidentified Person Files for the 2021 operational year, 521,705 people were reported missing in 2021.
There are currently about 2,600 long-term missing persons cases in Australia and experts estimate there are some 500 unidentified human remains archived around the country.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUS) database, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 600,000 people go missing annually. Approximately 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year.
Most missing people, however, do return. Almost all missing adults return within two days, though this doesn't mean they're unscathed.
A Missing Person is defined as anyone whose whereabouts are unknown and there are genuine fears for the safely or concerns for the welfare of that person. It is important to remember that going missing is NOT a crime.
In 2021, more than 34,000 missing persons reports in Australia related to children under age 18.
In Australia, an estimated 20,000 children are reported missing every year. Australian Federal Police, National Coordination Centre.
1. The Beaumont Children. The disappearance of the Beaumont children is one of Australia's most notable missing person cases. Jane aged nine, Arnna, seven, and Grant, four, disappeared on Australia Day in 1966 after visiting Glenelg Beach near Adelaide.
According to a report released by the ABS in July 2022, New South Wales still tops the Aussie list with 210, Victoria next in line with 146, whilst Queensland registered 26, South Australia 41, with Tasmania accounting for only 3 kidnappings. The Australian State with no kidnappings for 2021 was the Northern Territory.
With a few notable exceptions, the states with the highest reports of missing people are those with the largest populations. California (3,213), Texas (2,299), and Florida (1,650) are the three most populous states and have the highest number of missing persons.
Adults over the age of 18 have the right to go missing unless they have been detained under the Mental Health Act, or are legally in the care of another person. Legally, will not be in any trouble for going missing unless you are wanted for a crime.
There is no time limit that you must wait to report a person as missing, whether he/she is considered missing or a runaway.
Marvin Alvin Clark (ca. 1852—disappeared October 30, 1926) was an American man who disappeared under mysterious circumstances while en route to visit his daughter in Portland, Oregon during the Halloween weekend, 1926. Clark's case has the distinction of being the oldest active missing person case in the United States.
Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal on the evening of 3 May 2007, at the age of 3. The Daily Telegraph described the disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".
In Japan, as some 80,000 people go missing every year, according to data from the National Police Agency.
To this day, 5,840 are officially still missing, most believed to have been interred without being identified.
Almost all kids kidnapped by strangers are taken by men, and about two thirds of stranger abductions involve female children. Most abducted kids are in their teens.
Children under the age of 6 are most frequently targeted for family abductions and these often occur in the midst of bitter divorce or child custody battles between parents.
How does a kidnapper choose his victim? Kidnappers tend to develop a profile of their likely target before making an abduction based upon their overall goals, which usually falls into one of three categories: financial gain, extremism or emotional disturbance.