Whether crime is going up or down, all the research shows that fear of crime greatly outways the the actually risk of crime.
With regards to child abuse, the fear of this has greatly gone up. As a child i was left to play outside unsupervised and yet many parents i know are too scared to let their children play outside on their own or to trust strangers. And yet there is no evidence that child abuse has increased, its more that there is greater public awareness and that much more of it is being detected. I doubt that 50 years ago people like glitter would have been caught or prosecuted.
Children do need to be protectec but within reasonable ways and so that they dont loose out of the fun of childhood.
Bookmarks