RESEARCH BLOG.

Between 70-80,000 people are reported missing in Canada each year, including more than 50,000 children. Despite these numbers, there are only a handful of dedicated missing persons units within law enforcement across the country. Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, only recently established a missing persons unit in 2018 following the arrest of serial killer, Bruce McArthur, and the inaction towards the missing people within the LGBTQ+ community. Following the cases of Robe

My work as a forensic anthropologist in Ireland brings me into contact with the remains of those generally described as 'the missing.' Missing persons – or misper as they are often called in Search and Rescue jargon – may have gone missing for various reasons. In most cases, they are found alive and well relatively quickly. However, other cases may turn into long-term missing cases and even missing-presumed-dead cases. Reasons for going missing vary greatly and can range from

What comes to mind when I say the phrase specialized police unit? Police dogs? Homicide detectives? The gang unit? Perhaps foot patrol or officers on horseback? All of these are common specialized police units—and there are many others besides. But what makes a unit a specialty unit? What differentiates them from general patrol? Overall, specialized police units fall into one of three categories: Units specializing in a particular patrol method . Most common among these types

The rates of dementia are on the rise as populations age. More than 747,000 Canadians are living with dementia, with the prevalence expecting to more than double every 5 years. Spatial navigation challenges are common among this population, and this puts them at a high risk of getting lost and going missing ( Puthusseryppady et al., 2020 ). In Canada, there has been a reported increase in the number of cases involving a person living with dementia, attributing to approximate

Social media has become very prominent as a tool in the search for missing persons. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and more recently TikTok are being used to raise awareness for issues regarding missing persons and searching for those who have gone missing. Publicity appeals aim to elicit information to help locate the missing person, to appeal directly to the missing person to make contact, to support families, to raise awareness of the

Previous research has predominantly examined the risk factors for ‘going missing’ by uncovering various demographic and psychopathological factors that place an individual at high risk for going missing to reduce and prevent these incidents through risk assessments and targeted interventions. Scholarship has attempted to account for some social and environmental impacts, classified as 'push' and 'pull' factors, that may influence a missing event ( Tarling & Burrows, 2004 ).

When my youngest son, Daniel (28), went missing on November 3, 2011, I knew no one with a missing loved one, nor did I know anything about how the missing person process worked or what our family was up against. From this, I learned quickly that there is no supportive system and there are no standardized missing person procedures across Canada or regionally. Due to this, navigating through the process was unbearable, inconsistent, and unfair. This was not what I expected and

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash One way societies recover missing people is by recruiting citizens to search for them. Authorities and organizations use news alerts, posters, text message notifications, and more to ask the public to help be on the lookout for missing people. These person searches are typically prospective person memory tasks ( Lampinen et al., 2008 ), wherein the searcher has to remember to look for the missing person. Unfortunately, recoveri

According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada , more than 500,000 Canadians are currently living with dementia, and this number is projected to triple by 2050. In addition, 1 in 5 Canadians has experience caring for someone living with dementia. With these staggering numbers, it has become critical, now more than ever, to raise awareness about the needs of people living with dementia and their care-partners. The Challenge One of the most challenging issues related to care and

This blog explores a project that John Ng is involved in regarding the current and potential role of crime analysts in missing persons work.