I have mentioned in other threads, the tendency of Law Enforcement in the 70's and 80's to dismiss missing teenagers as "runaways". This definitely allowed predators to kill and to continue to kill with impunity.
It is true however that many kids did runaway in that era. There were scenes in many large cities where lots of kids 13 to 18 gravitated to where they were able to survive with little interference from Law Enforcement. My impression is that these "destinations" are far fewer now days so there is less "successful" running away.
I know someone who ran away from So Cal to Berkeley in the late 1960's and survived by moving in with a series of guys. She eventually married one of them and is now a middle aged, middle class housewife/grandmother. She did re-contact her parents after two years. Her story is not at all atypical. Still, from what she told me of those years, there were a lot of dangers. She hitch-hiked a lot and she often "went off" with guys she knew to be petty criminals, drug dealers or otherwise sketchy characters. It sounded pretty dangerous. I'm sure many runaways later became victims of predators and them probably account for most of the "Jane and John Does" from that era.
Like my friend, I would assume most runaways did re-contact their families. Once you are 18, you aren't a runaway any more. Of those who didn't, most would not attempt to change their identities. While it was possible to get a "new" Social Security Number before about 1978, it wasn't easy and, and realistically, it wasn't necessary, At the time, it would have been extremely difficult for parents or law enforcement to "trace" someone through Social Security number activity. I'm sure most runaways would have learned "from the street" that they could safely work using their real names and SS numbers. Generally, the only reason to do this would be to avoid serious legal or financial problems.
(If anyone is interested in finding a missing close relative, write a letter to that person asking them to contact you or whatever, and take it to a Social Security office. Assuming they are able to identify that person in their records, they will tell you nothing {there are legal privacy considerations} but they will forward that letter c/o the last employer.)
The upshot of all this is that a runaway will most likely be locatable eventually. A runaway from that era who never turns up and whose SS Number is never used is cause for serious concern.
