Talk:Missing person

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Adaughte.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics[edit]

The European statistics on sexually abused children are unsupported by references as far as I can see. Whilst an immediate search for this stat produces sites which repeat the statement of "one in five children", the links to the main studies they quote define sexual abuse quite widely; including under age (under 16) persons being asked sexual questions in chat rooms. Whilst such activity would not be condoned by most people, I also expect that few people would define this as "sexual abuse". Further, a number of the studies compiled into this Europe wide report include statistics such 'consisting of “indecent exposure (40.8% of victims), touching (25.8% of victims), and abduction (23.1% of victims)"' with only 10% experiencing more than one of these events (from the source). This seems to indicate that the number may be inflated to include abduction statistics, or other crimes aligned with sexual abuse but not comprising of it. Ultimately, without source referencing, the 1 in 5 statistic is hard to justify. If references were added, of course, I would withdraw this objection.

Remove line[edit]

unless anybody has evidence that the vast majority of missing persons are female, I'm going to remove that line - it doesn't seem to be true in my own experience, plus if you want to be politically incorrect and stereotypical, for every woman missing due to domestic violence, there's a man missing due to a drug deal gone wrong.


  • there are statistics of missing persons generated monthly and they DO show many more females missing. Your own experience is not factual. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.54.190.252 (talk) 04:49, 11 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

American statistics[edit]

The article claims that over a million people are reported missing each year. I assume this means a million on the US. This should be made clear, one way or the other.

Photo[edit]

Rather than having a photo of a missing statue in this article, why not post a photo of a real missing person? Maybe it might help lead to that person being found. - Brian Kendig 16:39, 9 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed that image. It doesn't really serve any need or add any value to the article other than an attempt at a joke. -- Longhair 16:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Disappearance by paranormal phenomena[edit]

There are some reports of people that disappeared by paranormal phenomena, which are not similiar like UFOs. In some cases it is reported that the person was just away in others the sighting of mysterious clouds moving on the ground, which captured the person are reported. Which cases are known? Which of them are best proofed? See e.g. on [1] , [2] , [3] , [4]

This article need to very sensitive to such people as would search for this article, and it should not wander into alarmist inference, or junk science such as above. Fringe theorists wishing to push this kind of POV spam are advised to take their crap elsewhere. The vast majority of people reported as missing turn up within 48 hours, and UFO or 'mysterious clouds' stuff should be kept to UFO or 'mysterious clouds' pages, and not ones where real people with missing loved ones might visit to see what probability holds. Coil00 23:43, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have any proof that it is something OTHER than paranormal phenomena that accounts for some missing persons? I think it is clearly within bounds to have citations that link a portion of missing persons to 'paranormal phenomenea' if such verifible cites exist.

Closure / Monument[edit]

I have changed the following text:

"On May 26, 2002, a monument to missing persons was unveiled in County Kilkenny, Ireland by President Mary McAleese. At the time it was the first monument of its kind in the world. [2]"

to

"On May 26 2002, a monument to missing persons was unveiled in County Kilkenny, Ireland by President Mary McAleese. It was the first monument of its kind in the world. [2]"

Presumably if the monument was the first of it's kind when unveiled, it will always remain the first of it's kind.

I have also re-titled the section "Monument" as I could not understand why "Closure" was an appropriate title. ColourSarge 10:51, 22 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Application of Biometric Recognition Techniques[edit]

Not that I would wish to break Wikipedia's veracious "No Original Research" policy. However, it seems that Biometric techniques (spotting, for example, the faces of missing persons within a crowd) can be used in order to provide assurance (to the police at least) of the fact that a particular missing person is still alive. Such "facial recognition in a crowd" technology is already used in many situations (mostly to track criminals). Given that criminals are usually defined as missing in some sense (they are, afterall, on the run from the police often) - could it not be said that biometrics have found application to the tracking down of missing persons?

ConfusciousSays (talk) 05:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Misunderstandings[edit]

Does not discuss misunderstandings as major reason. --Daniel C. Boyer (talk) 17:40, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Methods of finding missing persons[edit]

This article should say more about how the government goes about looking for missing persons. E.g., they look at credit card and cell phone activity, right? Tisane talk/stalk 07:45, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No Adults?[edit]

This article only mentions missing children and never shows any statistics on missing adults and teens. These need to be included into the article.--Paleface Jack (talk) 21:50, 12 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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External links modified[edit]

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help to find[edit]

Missing persons and unidentified decedents have seen much better science applied recently. It could be mentioned here: Locate International - https://locate.international/about/who-we-are/ is an example, as is the DNA Doe project. It also helps to say why people go missing and Missing Persons UK has looked into that for children and adults. 80-90% adults have mental illness, about 20% of children. For older adults 40% have dementia. There are better figures on Missing Persons which can be added. For example very high % of missing being found within 2 days. These can make the article more accurate and also more useful for those wanting to help in finding a missing person.

Yes I know this is an encyclopedia, but people will read this article with often an activist framing. 88.112.31.26 (talk) 09:17, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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