Wolfe, M. (2022). 

In the mid-19 ^th century, increases in global migration and mobility produced a discernable rise in the number of ambiguous absences. This shift, combined with a novel expectation, linked to improved communications technology, that such absences might be resolved engendered the emergence of missing persons as a social category.

An abstract is available online with restricted access to the full article. Theory and Society, 51(3), 511-541. 

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