Why aren't our children safe anymore?

Question

OK, when I was a kid, I got to run around ALL DAY without my parents even checking up on me. My kids got almost the smae treatment, but with a little more supervision. But thy are growing up, and I am worried their kids won't even be able to play outside, because of all the crazy people out there.

Why is our country becoming like this? does anyone know the reason?

Because punishment is not harsh enough for sex offenders?
Because groups like NAMBLA are free to spread the idea that child molestation is OK?
Because the "free love" movement made people think that all sex is OK?

WHY has this country become so crime ridden, especially sex crimes? Does anyone know the answer? And what can we do to stop it????

Answer 1

Kids can still run around all day! But when we were kids....Mothers were home with the children...if Your Mother wasn't watching out the window (you may not have seen her, but she was) then your friend's Mother was...it went that way through the entire neighborhood!

Unfortunately these days, most Mothers are NOT at home all day with the children. So only a small percentage LET their children out to run all day.

Crime is down...but 24 hour a day news, zapped to you INSTANTANEOUSLY has brought the dredges of society right to your living room.

My son still runs all day outside...and between me and his best friend's Mother, one of us is always looking out the window....Just like my Mother did when her 4 were outside...running all day!

Answer 2

Okay, I'm going to have to talk out of both sides of my mouth here...

My husband and I have dicussed this very subject at length (I am the ETERNAL worrier)...

The statistics ARE lower for those crimes than they were 10, even 20 years ago, BUT....
The media feeds on highly emotional and salacious stories like these because they drive ratings, and ratings=$$$.

The more current day 24 hour news cycle has made the ratings-driven news even worse because we don't just hear about it briefly on the morning and evening news, it's on ALL day! And sometimes the same story is repeated over and over.

Consider Elisabeth Smart... 30 or 40 years ago, her kidnapping would have warranted all of the same police action and local interest as it did. But the news coverage would have been completely different--just a short segment in the morning and evening news, maybe even a couple of times, then probably not again until she was found.

Instead, with the news networks it was all over for days and days, then dulled a bit and was on a couple times a week, then dwindled some more to an occasional mention that they were still looking for her, the parents had issued another plea for her safe return, and so on. Until she was found (thank God! and thanks to a very observant passerby!). And then we repeated the same cycle of nearly non-stop coverage of the pervert who kidnapped her, the sick woman who helped him, how they'd done it, how Elisabeth was doing, etc.., and then eventually the fervor died down again.

So the same crime 30 years ago would not have generated the kind of in-depth round-the-clock attention it received--not that the crime would have been any less heinous then, there just wasn't time to report over and over on the same story in an hour-long evening news broadcast.


That said... I think the rate of recidivism (repeat offenses) among sexual predators and our more lenient treatment of them (40 years ago the man who kidnapped and raped Elisabeth Smart wouldn't have lasted 1 night in jail!) makes us more WARY of the possibility that something horrible will happen to our kids. So in that way, yes, I think that the decay of morals and decency have had a HUGE impact on us because our laws have become much more lenient (and the lawyers better at working around them).

Combine the non-stop coverage of every case of kidnapping, murder, or child molestation with wussy laws and you have a definite cause for concern--particularly with neighborhoods being so much more fluid and loosely knit than they were in the past. (The poster who mentioned you had a whole neighborhood of parents was probably right!)

Unfortunately in spite of writing all of that, I really don't know how to stop it. I recommend you work within your own community to keep your neighborhood safe, get to know your neighbors and your childrens' friends (and their families and neighbors), make sure you know where they are at all times (new cell phones have GPS chips), and work to elect legislature who will write and enact meaningful laws (i.e. Megan's Law) to deter and punish sex crimes, especially those against children.

Answer 3

Well, there has been a serious breakdown in community, due largely to the prevalence of electronic entertainment and the zoning of suburbs, both of which conspire to isolate people from their neighbors and city. As a result, people who are deranged and dangerous can easily stay off the radar. But more to the point, when you were a kid, you probably knew all your neighbours, and it was like having a community parenting in a way. Those days are gone, I believe due to the two factors above more than anything. I would need to see statistics about sex crimes beyond that. From the approximate period of 1993-2003, violent crime and crime in general steadily declined, yet every study showed that fear of crime was going up! That makes no logical sense, to be more afraid of something that is less of a threat. But as we increasingly isolate ourselves, we breed mistrust and fear. Kids are MUCH more likely to be kidnapped or assaulted by someone they know (usually family members), not a random stranger. Is it that much more dangerous, or are you that much more afraid?

Answer 4

Perverts have always been around. There has been child rapes in the 50s but it wasn't talked about at that time and the child was adviced to keep quiet. Many of these children now grown up, talk about this. It was something you didn't talk about nor was it reported it. Now the media is everywhere and children speak out. The FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt was almost raped as a child and he is more than 60 years old. It wasn't the "free love" movement. Sadly, child rapists have been around since the beginning regardless of the years that have gone by.

Answer 5

The world is much safer now than it's ever been.

Violent crime hit a peak around 1970, and has been declining ever since. Teen pregnancy has been declining since the early 1990's. Yet people seem to think both of these things are on the rise. Why?? Simple - the news has become little more than a littany of violence and sex. There is less crime, but we hear more about it, so we think it's worse.

Answer 6

Children in 21st century America are actually safer than in the previous century. Statistically, crimes of all kinds against children are down substantially.

One of the reasons is that /awareness/ of such crimes has increased in the past few decades. People report such crimes more often, those committing them are prosecuted more often and more successfully, and so forth. That's resulted in a substantial drop in crimes against children.

Answer 7

I am not sure that we are worse off than we were before. I would need to see some statistics. I think some things that have led to the decline of the family in general is the introduction of no fault divorce. And since so many of our parents got divorced, fewer of us are getting married, and more of us are getting educated, and we are reversing those trends. I guess it matters what you consider a 'problem'. I thik that the internet being allowed to go on uncensored is a big reason we are recognizing the magnitude of sex offenders in the US. It is also a good way to prey on children...if an adult is not paying attention to their child's computer usage. But i can tell you, my teenage niece has not come up with anymore ways to get into trouble than I have...the clothes and the music are different, but the problems are the same.

Answer 8

We probably are as safe as we ever were. We just watch too much TV now and are more fearful because statistics are kept better and are shoved down our throats with every newscast and 24hr news reports.
Shut off your boob tube, make your kids aware of "stranger danger", and chill out.
You probably won't get killed by a terrorist no matter what FOX news tries to tell you.

Answer 9

Because we have let lobbyists assume control of the federation.

Because politicians love the money lobbyists put in their pockets.

Because we put pot smokers in jail while letting child molesters walk the streets.

Because we can no longer correct (spank) our kids when they are wrong

Because we let people justify the war in Iraq by using 9/11 as an excuse.

Because Lawyers rule this country by fear of litigation.

I could go on....

Answer 10

ACLU and simular organizations is the reason , what we need is a law that states your rights have been taken away for life after beoming a felon . They can wire tap , search anything at anytime , phone records , ect... Just think if an illegal search is done on a previously convicted child molester , they go to court and show 50 video tapes of acts done by this ex felon . But since the search to find the tapes was illegal he gets off . How could this be a system that protects us?