Citation

van de Rijt A, Song HG, Shor E, Burroway R. PLoS One 2018; 13(12): e0207742.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0207742

PMID

30596659

Abstract

We inquire whether there are race and gender differences in the recovery of missing children. We argue that race and gender differences may arise due to differential media attention, socio-economic background and police resources. Datasets used in previous research lack the representativeness and longitudinal character necessary for probing victim demographic effects on recovery success. Here we use official New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services records of all children reported missing in the period 2007-2010 containing exact dates of disappearance and recovery. In event-history analysis of these data we find that missing boys and girls have comparable daily recovery chances. Black children, however, on average remain missing longer and are more likely to still be missing by the end of our observation period than non-black children.

Language: en