Young people’s experiences of running away: a question of protection or development ?
This article presents the results of research conducted between 2008 and 2011 on young people’s experience of running away. Semi-managed interviews were conducted with 90 respondents (young people with experience of running away, parents, professionals, and police officers). This article concentrates on both the stories these youth (n=33), particularly the girls (n=17), tell about the dangers they faced during their experience and the interpretation that they give to this lived experience. The results indicate that girls do not deny that there are risks in running away, nor that there may be difficult experiences associated with it, but consider these risks to be secondary to the need to demonstrate their autonomy. In planning interventions with such youth, considering their personal development seems to be as important as considering how to protect them.