Addressing high-risk runaway youth: issues in collaboration, accountability, and risk-management

Over the last two decades, we as a society have built an array of youth-focused treatment interventions and community-based services geared toward homeless and runaway youth that is far more advanced than ever before. The dynamic nature of social, health, and justice services carries increased fiscal and social responsibility in society. A review of extant literature on high-risk missing and runaway youth highlights a plethora of information on youth homelessness, sexual exploitation, and missing persons. However, a paucity of research on collaborative and coordinated community responses to high-risk missing and runaway youth, as well as complexities in defining the terms missing and runaway illustrates the need for more directed research. Based on findings drawn from research papers, reports, and websites that were predominantly found under the categories of youth homelessness and runaways, this paper: highlights the challenges of finding scholarly papers that systematically and consistently define missing and runaway youth describes the current response, in both practice and policy, of the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) and the Victoria Police Department (VicPD) of British Columbia (BC) and discusses opportunities to implement a more collaborative response to integrated case management. --Leaf ii.