A missing person is someone who has disappeared from his or her accustomed network of relationships and is considered by those in the network to have abandoned their expected social responsibilities. Missing persons may be reported to police and are often featured on missing person posters.
A variety of reasons exist for a person to go missing, ranging from family discord and disagreements, problems associated with puberty and peer pressure, mental health issues, substance abuse, poor coping skills, child abuse/neglect and joining cults among others. Some people may go missing without breaking the law. However, other individuals who have gone missing are at risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery or sexual servitude or of committing suicide in remote locations to avoid discovery or apprehension by law enforcement officers.
If a loved one is missing, it is important to report him or her as soon as possible. A common misconception is that a missing person must be absent for 24 hours to be legally classed as such, but this is not necessarily the case. Reporting a missing person as early as possible allows investigators to gather important information while the disappearance is still fresh in the mind of eyewitnesses and other members of the community. In addition, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) has been established to provide law enforcement with the tools and resources they need to match long-term missing person cases with unidentified remains in order to bring resolution to families.