A fugitive or runaway is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

, a government

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

, government or non-government questioning,

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known as a wanted person, can be a person who is either convicted or accused of a crime and hiding from law enforcement in the state or taking refuge in a different country in order to avoid arrest. A fugitive from justice alternatively has been defined as a person formally charged with a crime or a convicted criminal whose punishment has not yet been determined or fully served who is currently beyond the custody or control of the national or sub-national government or international criminal tribunal with an interest in their arrest. This latter definition adopts the perspective of the pursuing government or tribunal, recognizing that the charged (versus escaped) individual does not necessarily realize that they are officially a wanted person (e.g., due to a case of mistaken identity or reliance on a sealed indictment), and therefore may not be fleeing, hiding, or taking refuge to avoid arrest. The fugitive from justice is ‘international’ (versus ‘domestic’) if wanted by law enforcement authorities across a national border.

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

is the international organization with no legal authority to directly pursue or detain fugitives of any kind.

Europol Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating c ...

is the European authority for the pursuit of fugitives who are on the run within Europe, and coordinates their search, while national authorities in the probable country of their stay coordinate their arrest. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

U.S. Marshals Service The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The Marshals Service serves as the enforcement and security arm of the U.S. federal judiciary. It is an agency of the U.S. Department of Jus ...

is the primary

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

that tracks down federal fugitives, though the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

also tracks fugitives. As a verbal metaphor and psychological concept, one might also be described as a "fugitive from oneself". The literary sense of "fugitive" includes the meaning of simply "fleeing". In many jurisdictions, a fugitive who flees custody while a trial is underway loses the right to

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

any convictions or sentences imposed on him, since the act of fleeing is deemed to flout the court's authority. In 2003, convicted rapist

Andrew Luster Andrew Stuart Luster (born December 15, 1963) is an American convicted sex offender and the heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune. He is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor Sr. In 2003, he was convicted of multiple sexual assaul ...

had his appeals denied on the basis that he spent six months as a fugitive (he was convicted ''in absentia'').

Terminology

While a person is being sought for potential arrest, the person may be described variously as being "at large" or as a "

person of interest "Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...

" to law enforcement. The latter term is frequently used in an "

all-points bulletin An all-points bulletin (APB) is an electronic information broadcast sent from one sender to a group of recipients, to rapidly communicate an important message.Reiter, E. (1970). Police strive to provide protection machines lend valuable assist ...

" issued to other law enforcement persons or agencies. A person who has

jumped bail JuMP is an algebraic modeling language and a collection of supporting packages for mathematical optimization embedded in the Julia programming language. JuMP is used by companies, government agencies, academic institutions, software project ...

after

arraignment Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the criminal charges against them. In response to arraignment, in some jurisdictions, the accused is expected to enter a plea; i ...

in court may be hunted or pursued by his

bail bondsman A bail bondsman, bail bond agent or bond dealer is any person, agency or corporation that will act as a surety and pledge money or property as bail for the appearance of a defendant in court. Bail bond agents are almost exclusively found in the ...

, and a bounty may be "on his head." The act of fleeing from the jurisdiction of a court is described colloquially as "fleeing justice" or "running from the Law." A "

wanted poster A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of a person whom authorities wish to apprehend. They generally include a picture of the person, either a photograph when one is available or of a facial composite ...

" may be issued, especially by the FBI, culminating in the "

FBI's Most Wanted List The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William ...

" of fugitives. "On the lam" or "on the run" often refers to fugitives.

Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

's ''

The American Language ''The American Language; An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States'', first published in 1919, is a book written by H. L. Mencken about the English language as spoken in the United States. Origins and concept Mencken was ...

'' and ''The Thesaurus of American Slang'' proclaim that lam, lamister, and "on the lam"—all referring to a hasty departure—were common in thieves' slang before the turn of the 20th century. Mencken quotes a newspaper report on the origin of 'lam' which actually traces it indirectly back to Shakespeare's time. Mencken also quotes a story from the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'' newspaper in 1938 which reported that "one of the oldest police officers in New York said that he had heard 'on the lam' thirty years ago."

Detection methods

Various methods can be used to find fugitives.

Phone tap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

s and

pen register A pen register, or dialed number recorder (DNR), is a device that records all numbers called from a particular telephone line. The term has come to include any device or program that performs similar functions to an original pen register, includin ...

s can be used on relatives. Credit card and cell phone activities and

electronic transfer of money Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is the transfer of money from one bank account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, via computer-based systems. The funds transfer process generally consists ...

can also be traced.

Wanted poster A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of a person whom authorities wish to apprehend. They generally include a picture of the person, either a photograph when one is available or of a facial composite ...

s and rewards can also be used. Jail records are also sometimes used; for instance, after the U.S. Government determined that

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist who masterminded and perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The bombing itself killed 167 people (including 19 children), injured ...

had perpetrated the

Oklahoma City Bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...

, he was found in a local jail. Other methods include using anonymous tips from members of the public who may have seen sight of the fugitive;

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

and other modes of technology; news broadcasting of public awareness (depending on the severity of the crime the fugitive has committed), and co-operation with local law enforcement teams.

References

External links

AMW.com
(archived)
Interpol Wanted ListFugitives wanted by US Marshals
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727133823/https://www.usmarshals.gov/investigations/most_wanted/ , date=2021-07-27 . Escape Law enforcement terminology Itinerant living

Terminology

Detection methods

See also

References

External links