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Student Name
English 1121-11
Arguing a Position
Draft Two
10 October 2011
America’s Pathological Fear of Child Snatchers
In a world that becomes more dangerous by the minute, parents examine the best
possible way to protect children from harm. For many years the phrase “stranger danger” has
been used to teach children that people they do not know are dangerous. The “Stranger Danger”
method of promoting child safety has been used for centuries and the idea of avoiding strangers
can be traced throughout history. The media overstates abductions by strangers leading parents to
believe that they are commonplace. Full of fear, parents teach their children that anyone they do
not know is dangerous. The phrase “Stranger Danger” should not be used when teaching
children about safety for many reasons: first, children do not understand what a stranger
is; second, most abductions happen by people the child knows; and finally, it creates
unnecessary fear with negative effects. More accurate phrases should be used to teach
children safety.
Many would agree that stereotypes are natural mechanisms that help people understand
the world. However, stereotypes are often incorrect and child abductors are not easy to spot
based on appearance. The “Stranger Danger” method relies on the ability to stereotype a
dangerous stranger, making it unreliable. According to the National Center for Missing and
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Exploited Children, because the “stranger-danger” method of teaching relies on stereotypes, it is
too complicated for children. Children cannot maturely decide whether a person may be trusted.
Unfortunately, parents cannot just recognize and point out kidnappers to their children. Parents
often talk to strangers; however, they have the benefit of experience, giving them better
judgment and decision-making skills. Despite this adults may misperceive potential dangers. If
parents are not always able to identify “bad” people, then children, with much less real world
experience, cannot be expected to do the same (McBride). The Center for Missing and Exploited
Children’s stance on the issue is not misguided. In the spring of 2012, MSNBC’s Dateline did a
series titled My Kid Would Never Do That, which included an episode on stranger danger. In the
episode, children were tested to see how well their parent’s stranger safety warnings translated to
real life situations. The kids gave their addresses, full names, phone numbers to the stranger (a
hired actor) who claimed he was looking for actors for a new television show take their photo.
In another scenario, the children even climbed into the back of the stranger’s ice cream truck,
lured by the promise of free ice cream and a tour (Cole). These situations exemplify children’s
confusion of what a stranger is, or how to identify a potentially harmful situation. Instead
children should instead be taught what scenarios to be wary of.
Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted at age eleven and held captive for eighteen years. She
was kidnapped by a complete stranger on her walk to the bus stop. Her mother and step father
decided she was mature enough to venture out to the bus alone, and this decision stole Jaycee’s
childhood (Dugard). In July 2011, Leiby Kletzky, at the age of eight, asked a stranger for
directions. He was found dismembered in his kidnapper’s freezer, less than two miles from his
parents’ home (Baker, Robbins, Goldstein). Harrowing stories such as these are covered
extensively by the media, causing parents to tell their children that all strangers are
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dangerous because they feel such violent abductions are common. However, destructive
kidnappings account for the minority of child abductions. According to NISMART, a study
done by the US Department of Justice published in 2002, there were 203,900 kidnappings by
family members in 1999. In these cases, the majority of victims were returned unharmed. In
1999, there were 58,200 kidnappings by nonfamily members. Of the nonfamily abductions, 53
percent of children abducted by nonfamily members were abducted from people the child knew.
The breakdown of this statistic is: 38 percent abducted by a friend or long-term acquaintance, 6
percent by a person of authority, 5 percent by a neighbor, and 4 percent by a babysitter or other
caretaker. Of the 58,200 non-family kidnappings, only 115 were stereotypical kidnappings,
meaning the abduction was “perpetrated by a slight acquaintance or stranger in which a child is
detained overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom or abducted with intent to keep
the child permanently, or killed” (Qtd. in Finkelhor, Hammer, Sedlak). Using the phrase
“stranger danger” is not an effective slogan to keep children safe because it implies that strangers
are the only dangerous people they will encounter; while in actuality they are more likely to be
abducted by someone they know. The reason stories like Jaycee Lee Dugard and Leiby Kletzky
make such international headlines is because of their rarity. Political blogger Kevin Jones said
“the United States is a really big country, which means that no matter what…you go looking
for… you'll find what seems to be a fair amount but really isn't. It's why so many parents worry
about their kids being snatched off the street by strangers: only about a hundred abductions a
year fall into this category, which seems like a lot. But in a country of 300 million...It's
incredibly rare” (Jones). The way children are taught safety needs to be reformed; because
strangers don’t pose the greatest threat-it’s the people the child thinks are trustworthy.
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Parents have been instilling fear of the unknown into their children for centuries;
however in modern society the phrase has created negative effects. Many still use of the
“Stranger Danger” phrase because it has great precedence. Although not in the exact words, the
message is littered throughout the stories that have been told to children for generations. Little
Red Cap, a German folktale, is essentially a warning against trusting strangers. The Grimm
Brothers used the wolf to symbolize strangers, saying of him: “She did not know what a wicked
animal he was, and was not afraid of him” (Grimm). The story serves to scare children because
they cannot tell who is wicked. Other stories, such as Hansel and Gretel, also serve as stranger
warnings. The siblings foolishly trust the old woman, who lures them into her house made of
gingerbread and covered in candy (Grimm). Today, children are taught not to accept sweets
from strangers. Although tradition dictates that children must be taught that strangers are
dangerous, it creates an unnecessary fear in children and those around them. According to BBC,
almost half of parents (49%) said they did not let their children play outdoors because of fears
about “stranger danger” (Safety Fears ‘Hinder Outdoor Play’). However, strangers are not the
people parents and children should let influence their daily activities, and this unnecessary fear is
damaging to children. National Public Radio did a segment on the change of children’s play. In
the segment, Howard Chudacuff is interviewed, a cultural historian from Brown University.
Chudacuff argues that outside, independent child’s play has decreased since 1950 not only
because of increased commercialization, but also due to increased parental safety concerns.
These concerns lead parents to enroll their children into adult facilitated activities like karate or
summer camp in an attempt to keep their children in a safe environment while enriching their
mind. These common place actions however, restrict imaginative development in children and
self-control (Spiegel). The New England Journal of Medicine did a study on the obesity rates in
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the United States in 2005. The study results warn that without a change in eating and exercise
habits, today’s children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents (Olshanky). The
phrase “Stranger Danger” creates unnecessary fear and has negative effects, when children lack
outdoor play they have a decline in health and cognitive development.
“Stranger Danger” is an antiquated slogan that should be replaced. An online
blogger, under the pseudonym TechMommy, says she will not teach her daughter “stranger
danger”, instead opting for “Don’t Keep Secrets from Mommy and Daddy” and replacing
“Watch Out for Men in Vans” with “Trust Your Instincts”. She advocates for parents to free their
children from worry about being abducted by a stranger, and instead teaching them skills to
protect them from the much scarier reality, that those close to your children have the potential to
cause damage (“Saying No to Stranger Danger”). The Dailey Herald newspaper published an
article about a new saying to teach children about people safety. The “Run, Yell, Tell” phrase is
to be used anytime an adult makes a child feel uncomfortable. The idea was created by
considering that most children are kidnapped by someone they know (Orrick). Using this saying
will give children a clearer picture of what to do, and how to react to abductions. The phrase
does not leave children struggling to identify a potential “bad” guy, and provides a plan of action
in a way that is easy to remember.
Although tradition and the heart wrenching stories on the news portray that “stranger
danger” as a fine method of teaching children how to be safe, the phrase is outdated. Parents
should replace the phrase “stranger danger” because children do not understand what a stranger
is, most abductions happen by people the child knows, it creates a unnecessary fear with negative
effects, and more accurate phrases should be used to teach children how to be safe.
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Works Cited
Baker, Al, Liz Robbins, and Joseph Goldstein. “Missing Boy’s Dismembered Body Found;
Suspect Says He Panicked.” The New York Times. New York Times, 13 July 2011. Web.
22 Sept. 2012. <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/boys-body-foundsuspect-being-questioned/?ref=leibykletzky>.
Drum, Kevin. “The Really Big Country Problem.” Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the
Foundation for National Progress, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
Dugard, Jaycee Lee. A Stolen Life. Simon Schuster, 2012. amazonkindle file.
Finkelhor, David, Heather Hammer, and Andrea J. Sedlak. Nonfamily Abducted Children:
National Estimates and Characteristics. N.p.: US Department of Justice, 2002. Vol. 1 of
NISMART. Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/nismart2_nonfamily.pdf>.
Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhem Grimm. “Hansel and Gretel.” The Complete Grimm’s Fairytales.
New York: Random House, 1972. Mordent Design. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.html>.
- - -. Kinder- und Hausmärchen. Trans. D. L. Alishman. Vol. 1. Berlin, 1812. Little Red Riding
Hood. Web. 22 Sept. 2012. <http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html#grimm>.
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Hammer, Heather, David Finkelhor, and Andrea J. Sedlak. Children Abducted by Family
Members: National Estimates and Characteristics. N.p.: US Department of Justice, 2002.
Vol. 1 of NISMART. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/196466.pdf>.
Olshansky, S. J., et al. “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st
Century.” New England Journal of Medicene 352.11 (2005): n. pag. New England
Journal of Medicine. Web. 2 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr043743#t=abstract>.
Orrick, Dave. “New Program Encourages Children to ‘Yell, Run and Tell.’” Daily Herald: 1.
Sep 20 2002. ProQuest Newsstand.Web. 22 Sep. 2012 .
“Safety Fears ‘Hinder Outdoor Play’, Says Survey.” BBC. BBC News, 31 July 2012. Web. 22
Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19065224>.
Spiegel, Alix, prod. “Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills.” NPR Morning Addition. Natl.
Public Radio. 21 Feb. 2008. Transcript. National Public Radio. Web. 2 Oct. 2012.
“Stranger Danger.” My Kid Would Never Do That. Prod. Liz Cole. Narr. Natalie Morales and
Michele Borba. MSNBC. 11 Apr. 2012. Inside Dateline. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<http://insidedateline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/11/11147604-my-kid-would-neverdo-that?lite>.
TechMommy. “Saying No to Stranger Danger.” TechMommy. WordPress, 6 June 2012. Web. 22
Sept. 2012. <http://techmommy.ca/2012/06/06/saying-no-to-stranger-danger/>.
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