Dissertation Research on Missing Persons Profile

[olliewiththeweather]

Good afternoon all,

I'm currently starting work on my dissertation and have been bouncing around with my specific topic. I have been most motivated to do my research on the MMIW crisis, but my advisor has advised that I scale it back to something more general for the sake of doability. I am really intent on remaining focused on missing persons, and am looking for gaps in existing research to focus on, and I thought that this would be a great place to get advice, info, feedback, etc. I would like to do some data collection on developing missing persons psychological profiles, specifically for women, that helps to differentiate people who purposely go missing versus people who are missing due to accidental circumstances or are forcibly missing. I'm from PA so I think it will make the most sense to focus the research in my area in terms of resources, but I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences if they have done something similar or have insight. Thanks!

Ollie

 

[bettyboop]

@olliewiththeweather , welcome to websleuths! I am going to tag some of our great moderators here who might be able to offer some help. @CarlK90245 ; @Sillybilly; @MadMcGoo , are any of you able to offer some guidance for this new member? Ollie, I would help if I could, but these tagged individuals are more informed. JMOMOO

 

[cenazoic]

Hi Ollie,

Sounds like a great topic!

Anecdotally, the research I’ve done into academic and law enforcement papers/theses on missing persons greatly favors children; there’s also a fair amount on ‘forced disappearances’ - this is generally about groups of people who go missing due to to war/politics in countries other than the US.

Online, definitely fish around the FBI, DoJ, NCIC’s stats for 2024, archivx. If you’re enrolled at a university I’m sure you know you have access to various databases and paper collections, but don’t forget to talk to the staff too - they’re valuable resources, knowledgeable about research, and can help you get access to stuff via inter library loan, suggestions for other libraries , collections, or archives, and the like.

Good luck, and I’m sure most of us would love to see your dissertation when you’re done!

 

[otto]

Good afternoon all,

I'm currently starting work on my dissertation and have been bouncing around with my specific topic. I have been most motivated to do my research on the MMIW crisis, but my advisor has advised that I scale it back to something more general for the sake of doability. I am really intent on remaining focused on missing persons, and am looking for gaps in existing research to focus on, and I thought that this would be a great place to get advice, info, feedback, etc. I would like to do some data collection on developing missing persons psychological profiles, specifically for women, that helps to differentiate people who purposely go missing versus people who are missing due to accidental circumstances or are forcibly missing. I'm from PA so I think it will make the most sense to focus the research in my area in terms of resources, but I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences if they have done something similar or have insight. Thanks!

Ollie

Trying to get a clear understanding of your specific interest. If you're starting your dissertation, then your topic has been approved, you have completed related coursework, you have completed your candidacy exam, and you are ready to start research and writing.

Is this a PhD dissertation?

PhD topics are typically narrow focused, filling a specific unsolved problem.

Missing and murdered Indigenous women typically refers to involuntary missing and murdered. Missing typically refers to murdered women whose bodies have not been found.

When you mentioned voluntarily missing Indigenous women, how does that related to missing and murdered Indigenous women?

 

[olliewiththeweather]

@olliewiththeweather , welcome to websleuths! I am going to tag some of our great moderators here who might be able to offer some help. @CarlK90245 ; @Sillybilly; @MadMcGoo , are any of you able to offer some guidance for this new member? Ollie, I would help if I could, but these tagged individuals are more informed. JMOMOO

Thank you!

 

[olliewiththeweather]

Trying to get a clear understanding of your specific interest. If you're starting your dissertation, then your topic has been approved, you have completed related coursework, you have completed your candidacy exam, and you are ready to start research and writing.

Is this a PhD dissertation?

PhD topics are typically narrow focused, filling a specific unsolved problem.

Missing and murdered Indigenous women typically refers to involuntary missing and murdered. Missing typically refers to murdered women whose bodies have not been found.

When you mentioned voluntarily missing Indigenous women, how does that related to missing and murdered Indigenous women?

Hi Otto!

To clarify, my original area of interest was to research the MMIW crisis, and you're correct that this surrounds indigenous people, specifically women who have been murdered or have gone missing. However, this topic is extremely complex and my advisor suggested that because of the range of issues surrounding this topic it would be better if I simplify the direct focus, which could still be beneficial to MMIW research, but for a first time dissertation would still be doable in the timeframe I would like to work in. Because of that, I am simplifying my topic to missing women, which can include women who have gone missing on purpose or forcefully, and is not specific to Indigenous women. My idea from here on out is to further develop the profiling techniques for missing women that include more reference data on more detailed demographics, age grouping, mental health, substance use, relationships, and behavioral patterns.

This is for a PhD dissertation, and I don't know about some of the milestones you mentioned like the candidacy exam? But I am still working on the prospectus stage, which requires a lot of data collection and writing the literature review among other things, if that makes sense.

 

[olliewiththeweather]

Hi Ollie,

Sounds like a great topic!

Anecdotally, the research I’ve done into academic and law enforcement papers/theses on missing persons greatly favors children; there’s also a fair amount on ‘forced disappearances’ - this is generally about groups of people who go missing due to to war/politics in countries other than the US.

Online, definitely fish around the FBI, DoJ, NCIC’s stats for 2024, archivx. If you’re enrolled at a university I’m sure you know you have access to various databases and paper collections, but don’t forget to talk to the staff too - they’re valuable resources, knowledgeable about research, and can help you get access to stuff via inter library loan, suggestions for other libraries , collections, or archives, and the like.

Good luck, and I’m sure most of us would love to see your dissertation when you’re done!

Thank you for the recommendations!