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Sex Offenders, Candy and Cute Little Trick or Treaters
Filed under: Holidays, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens
Remember the good ol' days when all we worried about on Halloween was poisoned candy? Now the big fear is sex offenders.
That fear has lead a swath of cities and states to pass laws requiring registered sex offenders to stay at home on Halloween -- sometimes with the lights off. Echoing that concern, one of the parenting experts on "The Today Show" told viewers that no child under the age of 13 should trick-or-treat without a chaperone because, "people put on masks, they put on disguises, and there still are people who do bad things."
I'm sure that people do put on masks and disguises. That's sort of the whole point of Halloween. But do they really proceed to prey on trick-or-treaters or is this just the latest urban myth? After all, Prof. Joel Best at the University of Delaware researched crime reports from 1958 to the present and found that, in fact, no child had ever been poisoned by a stranger's Halloween candy. Not one! So that fear was totally unfounded. How about this new one?
To find out, Elizabeth Letourneau at the Medical University of South Carolina and her colleagues pored over sex crime reports from 30 states, covering the years 1997 to 2005. Their findings? "There is zero evidence to support the idea that Halloween is a dangerous date for children in terms of child molestation," she says.
In fact, she adds, "We almost called this paper, 'Halloween: The Safest Day of the Year,' because it was just so incredibly rare to see anything happen on that day." And by examining the data from 1997 (before the Halloween sex offender laws kicked in) with 2005 (after many laws did), they found no difference. Because Halloween had never been a dangerous sex crime day to begin with.
So the experts on "The Today Show" had it, in fact, exactly wrong. "Bad people" are not out there snatching children off the streets. And yet, spreading that scary rumor is endangering kids in its own right. How?
As communities pass laws requiring former sex offenders to stay home, someone has to make sure those laws are enforced. So cops go door to door, checking.
Meantime, zillions of children are zooming around in the dark. And while there will be no bump in sex crimes whatsoever, four times more children will die that night -- in pedestrian accidents.
If only the cops were directing traffic instead of knocking on sex offenders' doors, they'd probably be saving some little ghosts and goblins' lives.
Our overwhelming fear of child molesters is making our kids less safe. That is a scary thought.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
11-01-2010 @ 6:11PM
Shaun Webb said...As a "registered" sex offender, I do appreciate Lenore sharing this article with everybody. www.amotionforinnocence.blogspot.com is my book blog where you can find out more about me and my situation/writing. I have nothing to hide and will NOT hurt your children! Dakota0526 is my twitter handle! Tanx again Lenore.
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12-25-2010 @ 1:34PM
ks said...First off, children are usually sexually abused by immediate and/or extended family members, or caregivers. That said, Halloween is an excellent day for sex crimes, just for a different demographic: teens and adults. Many people drink on the holiday, and too many drink until they're crazy drunk. Sexual predators love drunk and high people- low resistance and little capacity to remember details... Add a mask and costume and it's a perfect storm for assault... So, please, keep yourself safe!
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1-16-2011 @ 6:53PM
benjikid said...Okay Halloween is nothing to be afraid of...but Pedophilia is a curse and small children have to be watched always. We have in the USA a ton of sick people capable of murder or sex abuse. Children are the most helpless. Need the words "Columbine, Oklahoma bombing, Ft Hood, Elizabeth Smart," and the recent Tuson murders remind us. Parents must be alert that we live in a crazy world.
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2-11-2011 @ 11:41AM
as116 said...first off, halloween is not the safest holiday. Just because research has been done doesnt mean it is the safest, what about those that dont speak up about being sexually raped or taken advantage of, especially kids will not speak up about that due to fear and lack of being hurt again by the same person who did it the first time. Children should NOT be out of SIGHT of the PARENTS on HALLOWEEN.. Many many sick people can dress up, its not like halloween stores do a criminal check on them when we purchase a costume or mask? Right they don't anyone is subjected to get a halloween costume even sex offenders, and sick people. When their wearing a mask or costume how you going to identify them you can't cause millions of people purchase that same costume on halloween. It's impossible so techincally its a sex offenders dream basically on halloween. Thats why parents need to be with their children when taking them up to the door and stay with them at all times, my parents check my halloween candy and I do the same with my children. It's better to be safe than sorry and end up in the emergency room knowing something happened cause you weren't a little more cautious about it just because doctors and researchers made it the safest day NOT EVERYTHING GETS RECORDED INTO DOCUMENTED BOOKS!. Be safe and keep your kids safe..
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