Ian Allen/Photographer Yanique Forbes ( right), vice-president of marketing, Scotia Bank, talks with Maxine Taylor-Cooper (left), executive director of Hear The Children Cry, and Nardia Campbell (centre) mother of Ananda Dean who went missing and was later found dead in 2008.
A survey of 523 children, who were reported missing in 2015, found that peer pressure was the main reason for them running away from home.
According to the Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica, published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, 42.9 per cent of children who went missing did so because of influence from members of their peer group.
The survey also found that 23.7 per cent of children went missing because of activities of a sexual nature. Another 19.7 per cent disappeared from home because of disagreement with parents.
A total of 2,281 persons were reported missing during 2015, is 16.4 per cent less than in 2014.
Children accounted for 72 per cent of those reported missing, the vast majority of whom are females.
Females between 12 and 17 years of age represent the largest category of missing persons, accounting for 54.8 per cent of reports.
