Why do so many kids runaway?

Family abuse is one I had to deal with. My father had no hesitation in smacking the unholy hell out of me whether it was necessary or otherwise. I hated his verbal abuse, seemed like I could never gain any praise from him at all. In addition, he was an alcoholic and never held a job down for more than 6 months. Sometimes, I felt if he could get away with it, he would have killed me just out of disgust in my existence. That was quite enough to run away had I known what to do with myself in the outside world. But he never really taught me enough to survive on my own, I had to learn things either from Boy Scouts or by trial and error.
Not a good start to life for a guy who's mixed black, poor and undersized. Sometimes I get into arguments with those "Pro-Life" advocates. Had my parents decided to pull the plug on me, they might have done me a favor!
How's that for your class project?

I think usually family problems if the "runaway" means runaway from home. School problem, they can handle it themself (fight, argument) if not get a group of friends for back up. Friends problems, break the friendship, find new friends. But family problem, what can the kid do if he/she doesn't like him/her parents(annoyed, perants always command what he/she need to do(not freedom), etc)? Argument at first then if get worse fighting, and finally feels he/she hate his/her own home and perants then runaway.

It's really when all of those problems come together and make a huge mess. They have a bad family life, they feel like their friends don't care, and both of these effect school. I think that this is a serious topic and should be looked at on a broader scale though. Every case is different, but it is always caused by the kid having too much stress that they can't handle. It could be relationship problems, bullying, or even abuse.

Young and naive comes to mind.

Ok well I think it can be any kind of problem, but most likely home. I mean if someone's parents are arguing with each other or themselves and they're sick of it then they'll run away. If someone has friend or school problems they'll run away thinking that they'll be running away from their problems too.

I thinks its more because of a family problem. They need to be alone and think things through and just runs away. I ran away twice when I was young and it was because of my parents constantly arguing and involving me in the situation.