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Abstract

This literature-based dissertation critically examines factors that contribute to black women being missing for longer and less likely to be found by the police than missing white women in the United Kingdom. This dissertation adopts an investigative journey approach as a central narrative, looking at the multiple factors involved in a missing person investigation. It first discusses the definition of missing people and its limitations, including the conceptual challenges in labelling someone as missing. Secondly, it applies Crenshaw’s (1991) intersectionality theory. It critically examines how the intersection of race, gender, and class impacts the risk assessment process for missing black women and how these factors shape police perceptions of their vulnerability. Finally, by applying The ideal victim theory (Christie, 1986) and critical race theory (Bell,1993), it explores how and why missing black women are looked at in the media and how social media is used to share and amplify the stories of missing black women. The review of the literature on missing people came to three main conclusions. First, the broad and unstandardised definition of missing often leads to challenges in multi-agency working and accurately assessing the extent of missing persons worldwide. Second, negative racial stereotypes can lead to assumption-based investigations of missing black women, resulting in lower classification of risk than necessary in the risk assessment process. Third, the invisibility of missing black women in the media can be attributed to many factors, including the empathy gap (Read & Loewenstein, 1999) and attention economy (Temmerman & Mast, 2020). The findings contribute to the under researched area of missing persons in the UK, how racial discrimination in the investigation process takes place and how racial discrimination impacts the chances of a case being resolved.

Course: Criminology and Forensic Studies - BSc (Hons) - C2039F

Date Deposited: 2024-11-20

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14522.html