Analysis of Lost Person Behavior

by William G. Syrotuck, Jean Anne Syrotuck (Editor)

Search Leaders... This book can mean the difference between life and death for a lost person! How do lost persons behave when disoriented? What are the probabilities that a child can be found in a mountainous terrain? How far will an elderly person travel? How much time do YOU have to find them? And how much man power is needed? This exciting book answers all those questions! This 63 page book is an expansive study of actual case histories and will reveal new insights to aid you... the Search Leader!

Genres: Nonfiction

63 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Todd]

Foundation of modern SAR statistical approaches to lost person behavior.

[Kate]

Applicable to SAR. A little dry, but evidence/data based. Have to respect that.

[W.C. Clinton]

I bought this book in order to do some research for a story I am working on, and I found it to be a straightforward presentation of search and rescue information. It is based largely on information gathered from cases in Washington State and New York State, and was originally published in the mid-seventies. Despite having been published forty years ago, this work is still cited in articles about how lost people behave.

[Michael McNicholas]

read this when I started search and rescue. Leveraging a data set of Searches, this book gives an overview of how lost people behave in the wilderness- for example young children seeking shelter, whereas older children's attempt to find their own way out may lead to the need for larger search radiuses. I believe some of the behavior included here has changed with the presence of smartphones for example more willingness to climb hills to try and get a signal. But interesting and useful none the less.