Crisis in America: The Runaway Epidemic

THE RUNAWAYS: AMERICA IN CRISIS

This month, as we observed National Runaway Prevention Month, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), one of our long-standing partners in addressing runaway youth, put a spotlight on the invisible faces of youth who are homeless.

On a single night in 2018, 4,093 children under the age of 18 were counted as homeless because they were not part of a family with children or not under the care of a parent or guardian, according to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The National Runaway Safeline reports that between 1.6 million and 2.8 million youth run away each year.

In 2020, of the 27,000 missing child cases reported to the Center, 91% were for endangered runaways. NCMEC provides support services to families and victims and raises awareness to help bring these youth home. Last year the Center launched the “Runaway Train” campaign, which reimagined the music video from 25 years earlier that featured missing children and helped close 21 cases. The dynamic new video updates images of missing children based on a viewer's location.

Runaway and homeless youth are more likely to engage in substance use and delinquent behavior, become teenage parents, drop out of school, suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, meet the criteria for mental illness, and have an increased risk of being sexual exploited and trafficked. The risk for homelessness is also increased for youth living in the foster care system. In fact, youth who experience multiple placements in foster care, have a history of running away from them, and who have spent time in a group home are most at risk of homelessness. Those aged 15 when they first enter foster care have the highest risk of running away. Homeless youth also have a high rate of involvement in the juvenile justice system.