Is this a case of child neglect?

[salty mud]

Threads like this really show how sheltered some people's lives have been. I mean, I don't think the women from the OP should have got arrested, but I don't think she's particularly smart either. People are sheltered because they refuse to believe bad things can happen.

Where I grew up, you didn't leave a child unattended in a car. The kind of people who lived around me when I was younger meant you did not feel comfortable leaving a child on their own. It wasn't particularly uncommon for houses to get broken into DURING THE DAY. So if you left a child alone for 10 minutes and someone targeted your house, you were in for a bad day. I'm glad so many people grew up in Perfectville where the only bad things happen on TV and exaggerated by the media, but please open your eyes.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I thought I had walked a mile to school every day from first grade to eighth. Then a couple years I drove the route to check how far it actually was and it was only 1/3 of a mile. I had to get across a two lane highway then it was all residential streets with little to no traffic.

I wonder if perceptions are different if the mile is a rural town or a metropolis. (though what the odds of a child being abducted by a stranger in either situation I don't know). The metropolis would seem to have more anonymity for criminals, but also perhaps more eyes to discourage an abduction in the first place, I don't know.

 

[Farm Boy]

I thought I had walked a mile to school every day from first grade to eighth. Then a couple years I drove the route to check how far it actually was and it was only 1/3 of a mile. I had to get across a two lane highway then it was all residential streets with little to no traffic.

I wonder if perceptions are different if the mile is a rural town or a metropolis. (though what the odds of a child being abducted by a stranger in either situation I don't know). The metropolis would seem to have more anonymity for criminals, but also perhaps more eyes to discourage an abduction in the first place, I don't know.

Almost all crime statistics per person seems largely influenced in overall rate by poverty, I think. I would guess that since rural poverty is more pervasive and deeply set that it would kick the rural per person rates over the urban ones.

 

[cybrxkhan]

All that said from what I vaguely remember the chances of a kid getting kidnapped/molested/whatever by a random stranger aren't that high, or, at worst, it's comparable to historical levels. A kid is much more likely to get kidnapped/molested/whatever by someone they're very familiar with, like a family member or the next door neighbor.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Almost all crime statistics per person seems largely influenced in overall rate by poverty, I think. I would guess that since rural poverty is more pervasive and deeply set that it would kick the rural per person rates over the urban ones.

I don't see how kidnappings are as related to poverty as say, burglary and armed robbery are connected to poverty. Perhaps in the 'family abductions' area, but not stranger abductions. I would compare poor, rural areas to places like Cleveland where the three girls were kidnapped.

All that said from what I vaguely remember the chances of a kid getting kidnapped/molested/whatever by a random stranger aren't that high, or, at worst, it's comparable to historical levels. A kid is much more likely to get kidnapped/molested/whatever by someone they're very familiar with, like a family member or the next door neighbor.

Yes, but people believe they have better control over their family than a stranger. "I know X and he wouldn't do that" (even if naïve, this is how most people think). A stranger taking the child is a larger unknown as to the fate of the child.

Even if a child is statistically more likely to be run over by a car than taken by a stranger, more people are frightened by the idea of a stranger taking their child.

 

[warpus]

And that's the problem, people's irrational fears.. and other people pandering to those fears because they don't want to get sued at some point in the unspecified future.

 

[Grisu]

What ? Is this insanity spreading ?
I was walking to and from school (about a mile, precisely) starting from being a 6 years old, and the only crime here is being stupid enough to consider it is abuse.
Thoug doing it as a form of "discipline" is perhaps just as frightening. It's a "punishment" to walk a mile ? Wut ?

My eldest walks about half a mile (I reckon) to and from kindergarden ....I guess, I'm only semi-abusing her

I was being sarcastic. My father liked to imply a lot of things were character building stuff.

Is that you, Calvin?

 

[Bamspeedy]

80% of stranger abductions happen within 1/4 mile of the victims home, so I guess those first few blocks are the most dangerous.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Not totalitarian, merely very stupid.

Of course it is totalitarian because the government invades family life to dictate rules there.

 

[Farm Boy]

There's just something about Florida.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrested-son-park/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[illram]

Yes, let's look out for the child by arresting his single mother and putting her in prison for 5 years. Brilliant.

 

[Farm Boy]

Well, I particularly like it that when they arrested the mom it caused the child in question to get left at home with the 17 year old daughter and her boyfriend.

 

[cybrxkhan]

That's pretty sad.

"Parents I talk to are nervous about doing anything, thinking they could get charged for something without knowing what they're doing wrong," Whitehead said.

I'm getting that vibe from some parents. Heck, my own parents too, I sensed that now and then. When we were little my cheeky little brother often threatened to call the cops of my parents when they were trying to discipline him (nothing bad, mind you, they were just scolding him). My parents had to maintain an air of cool and indifference to my brothers threats, of course, but I could sense they were kind of freaking out. The one time my brother did call the cops, the cop was pretty understanding and chill.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Back in the '70s, in the city neighborhood where I lived, 7-year-olds were routinely expected to walk up to a mile to and from school - morning, noon, and afternoon. As long as the kids didn't cross the train tracks into the next neighborhood, stayed out of the local swamp, and avoided known troublemakers, parents didn't worry.