A Choosy Intrusion

Over 200,000 people are reported missing every year, and two thirds of those relate to a child or teenager. That's 200,000 people whose tales recount conflict, boredom and anything in between. They are also 200,000 cases which will scarcely make the light of day in the national media. Amongst the thicket of statistics and reports and outcomes, there is usually, however, one story which pricks the collective ear of editors and journalists. This week, Joanna Yeates became this years scoop. But why her?

The absence of parental responsibility, children's homes or 'bad behaviour' means that when a thriving young woman goes missing, the blank slate of speculation proves too tempting. The journalist who adopts the role of rogue detective has the freedom to contruct the most salacious angle. They paint an image of the normal exterior life this person led; in Yeates' case, the caring family, the successful boyfriend, and a desireable career as an architect. There is a familiarity with which we are assumed to relate to, and ultimately sympathise with.

Yeates' story, like 2009's unresolved Claudia Lawrence case, bucks the trend of missing people over the age of 24. In 2000, 73% were male. It would therefore be statistically unlikely that Yeates is the 1/7,400 individuals who ultimately falls victim to homicide. But these two anomalies are precisely the reason why Yeates' case is deemed newsworthy. As today's Daily Express addresses Yeates as the 'blue eyed blonde', it's not hard to conceive of why the middle class, 'ordinary' female frame has been selected. The intimate details and the smiles beaming from old photographs leave the reader with an unavoidable sense of intrusiveness, that they have been lured into extracting a perverse pleasure from the story.

Now that the media have jointly committed to this particular case, the reader is hooked, like some sort of soap saga. You can almost guarantee an ex-boyfriend story will feature in the next episode. However the statistics for missing adults work against the media's concoction; 64% of those missing have left intentionally. The chosen story will have readers returning week after week, until their interest, much like the case evidence, wanes and fades away. The truth is that rare cases like Yeates' detract from deeper social issues behind the majority of missing contexts. From care home runaways to sleeping rough, the web of disorder in other cases is a complex and frankly uninviting prospect for the news media. Whether it is Kampusch, Laurence or Yeates, the missing female frame is both disturbing and detrimental to the wider plight and under-reporting of young runaways.