> I think this whole fear is a simple case of the media over-reporting child abductions. While I don't have a reference for this off the top of my head, someti

> I think this whole fear is a simple case of the media over-reporting child abductions. While I don't have a reference for this off the top of my head, sometime roughly a decade and a half ago the statistics for American child abductions spiked. This wasn't due to any increase in actual abductions, but rather because the rules for counting them changed, and now abductions by relatives or parents without legal custody were counted as abductions by strangers. The news media, naturally, blew it up into a story about a dramatic increase in child abductions by strangers. Most people aren't great at reading between the lines with statistics, particularly threatening ones, and most parents understandably err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting their kids. This paranoia about strangers, coupled with the common alienation from walking developed by decades of living in car-centric suburbs, means that "protecting kids from abduction" typically takes the form of chauffeuring them about rather than letting them walk alone.