ABSENT: an exploration of common police procedures for safeguarding practices in cases of missing children and adults

Over the past few years there has been an important change in the definition of missing persons in the UK. In order to assist in the process of risk management and to ensure that resources are deployed effectively several police forces across the UK have adopted two separate definitions of ‘missing’ and ‘absent’. ‘Missing’ is “anyone whose whereabouts cannot be establishedand where the circumstances are out of character or the context suggests the person may be subject to crime or at risk of harm to themselves or another.” ‘Absent’ is “a person not at a place where they are expected or required to be” (ACPO, 2013, pg. 5). ‘Absent’ is to be used in cases where there are grounds to believe that the absence involves no apparent risk, or the level of risk is a tolerable one not meeting the threshold for a police-led missing person investigation.