Runaway Youths

Although there is a considerable body of research devoted to the analysis and classification of runaway behavior, attempts at placing this activity into its proper historical context have been scarce (Wells and Sandhu 1986; Chapman 1978; Minehan 1934). Researchers have emphasized that such efforts allow for a comprehensive understanding of the changing nature of this phenomenon. Any consideration of runaway behavior necessitates an inquiry into its origin and development (Wells and Sandhu 1986). However, runaway behavior is a direct consequence of the origin of the family: a social construction that necessarily implies the dependency and devotion of a child to his or her parents. Under this pretense, the origin of runaway behavior can be traced to no earlier than that of the origin of the family as it is known today.

Throughout history, there have been multiple waves of increased runaway behavior and activity. During these times, the rates of runaway children and adolescents soared, and their presence on the social landscape presented a formidable social problem for parents and policy makers. The first of these waves was precipitated by the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Thousands of children, unprotected by restrictive labor laws and compulsory education, sought to escape the penury of rural life by obtaining factory jobs in the dense urban jungles of Europe and the United States. Leaving behind large families, many of these children left home with the consent of their parents and were forced into a new, urban poverty without the support of families and close-knit communities. The presence of this burgeoning population of young, urban independents activated protective legislation to strengthen and sustain the "dependency relationship" between parents and children (Wells and Sandhu 1986). Most influential to the problem of runaway youths was the early twentieth century emergence of the status offense: the criminalization of childhood and adolescent disobedience, including the act of running away (Wells and Sandhu 1986).

The second major wave of increased runaway activity occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Children, once again with the consent of their parents, left their homes in search of economic opportunity. So pervasive was the problem of runaway youths during this time, that children were forced to travel from town to town in boxcars on freight trains in search of any available financial or material assistance (Minehan 1934; Wells and Sandhu 1986). Although boys considerably outnumbered girls as runaways, girls were more frequently jailed and were sometimes forced into prostitution to pay for food and shelter. Male runaways were sometimes forced to steal and beg for all of their necessities (Minehan 1934). Following the Great Depression, and especially during World War II, runaways maintained their presence on the social landscape, causing a great deal of pressure to create social policy capable of eradicating, or at least decreasing, the negative effects of this activity on individuals, families, and communities (Wells and Sandhu 1986).

Finally, the third major wave of runaway behavior corresponded with the emergence of the counterculture of the 1960s. No longer were runaways seeking to escape the hardships of home, nor were their runs sanctioned by their parents: these runners flocked to hippie havens such as San Francisco to live as flower children and escape the "hypocrisies of a materialistic culture" (Chapman 1978, p. 18). Idealistic images of the adventurous and carefree hippies and yippies enticed many youths to abandon suburbia in search of the communal existence of brotherly and sisterly love. These images, however romanticized and picturesque, remained just beyond the grasp of many of these adventure-seekers, forcing them into a far more dismal reality: one characterized by drug use, sexually transmitted disease, exploitation, and criminality (Chapman 1978).