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Status:
"Enjoying Little Rock AR"
(set 3 days ago)
Location: The New England part of Ohio
24,140 posts, read 32,557,987 times
Reputation: 68438
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizita
A lot of people believe that the world is becoming increasingly dangerous with more child abductions, murders, molestation and other dangers that didn't exist at the same extent a few decades ago when kids could safely run around the neighborhood. Do you believe that to be the case or do you think that society is no more dangerous now than it was in the past?
I don't think so. Violent crime is down. Extreme physical discipline is almost universally frowned upon. So I voted a qualified "no".
At least, the latter does not occur in most middle class families.
Poor and working class children may have a tougher time of it, though. Having children with multiple men has lost it's social tabu among certain people, so many children are exposed to multiple boyfriends and step parents, who are statistically at a higher risk to abuse and kill.
I read a statistic that the most dangerous place for a child under five is inside her home.
Sad.
Even so, forty years ago, there was no national reporting system for child abuse. While it's imperfect, it is better than nothing.
I think the world is just different. Safer in some ways and more dangerous in others.
I don't believe the middle class and above, are exempt from negative child rearing techniques - I do believe they have more resources and are better adept at staying within the letter of the law and avoiding any public embarrassment that might come of it. There are plenty of ways to be abusive that don't involve physical violence. Doesn't make it necessarily "better".....
I think it's generally safer for children. More vaccines, more safety measures in cars, etc. In terms of infant mortality, in 1950 the rate was 29.2 per 1,000 births, and in 2010 it was 6.1 per 1,000 births. In addition, the mortality rates of children ages 1-4 has been declining at a steady rate since the start of the 20th century. In 1970, there was a higher rate of "unintentional injuries" (49%) causing death to children ages 5-14. In 2007, deaths due to unintentional injuries was 36%. That reduction is mostly due to fewer deaths because of influenza, pneumonia, and birth defects.
I think everything seems scarier now because so many of the scary things are hot news items. There's no reason why people in one state need to hear about a child abduction somewhere five states away, when there's no reason to think the abductor has traveled that far, and yet the news will still often report that abduction. My local news (Utah) will report a murder that took place in Florida or somewhere else far away. Why? That murder has absolutely nothing to do with my local area. It's all for high ratings. Unfortunately, people enjoy the drama of kidnapping and murder, and they like to watch it on the news. Because of all this sensational reporting, I now go to the Internet for most of my news, so I can avoid hearing about abductions and murders that won't ultimately affect me in any way, other than to cause fear.
The mortality rate for children aged 1-4 years declined from 1,418.8 deaths per 100,000 population in 1907 to 28.6 in 2007 (3, 4). The mortality rate for children aged 5-14 years declined from 307.5 in 1907 to 15.3 in 2007 (3, 4). In 1900-1902, 90.2% of U.S. children aged 1 year survived to age 15, compared to 99.7% of children in 2007 (2, 4). Despite such impressive reductions in overall child mortality, large racial and ethnic
disparities have continued to exist in the United States, and the recent evidence points to a widening of socioeconomic inequalities in child mortality (2, 3)
If we look at abductions, it is certainly possible that familial abductions (the most common kind) have increased as divorces have become more common. But stranger abductions are very few in number. They may be reported more than they used to be. The US may have more ransom kidnappings due to the wealth of the parents. In the early 1930s, America experienced a rash of kidnappings, many of them involving relatives of high-profile men. Following the Lindbergh kidnapping of 1932, U. S. Senator John Kendrick wrote to Manville and Diana regarding the safety of J. B. Kendrick II, who was not only his grandson, but the grandson of U. S. Surgeon General Hugh Smith Cumming.
I was born in the 50s, raised in the 60s/70s and have plenty of friends who experienced the same thing. Most are pretty normal, whatever normal is.
How many people here have had abductions, murders, or molestation happen to their kids in the last 40 years? How many know someone this has happened to?
I bet the numbers are lower than whatever horrifying results the evening news would have you believe through their 'journalistic' reporting.
Don't start me on Nancy Grace.
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