Cotton-wool kids II

A friend asked me what the risk of death from abductions were compared to being run over by 4 wheel drives. It is very hard to find data on non-family abductions. This article deals well with the issue and is a very good read on it's own, it's about a family who gave up using a car and had to cope with their children going places on their own. I can't find any information on Australia. The rate in the United States for 1999 was roughly 115 non-family abductions for a population of 75 million children. Most were teenagers. (Most fear-mongering statisticians include runaways and family dispute abductions.) In Canada there were only five over 2 years. Given Canada's population is 33 million and Canada is more similar to us than the US we can extrapolate, at worst, a similar rate. The Australian ABS says the rate of death by being run over by a vehicle is 254 people per year. (I can't find the age specific data). Safe road use is much more important to teach our children than "stranger danger."

The availability heuristic is a false way of thinking we all use; we think flying in a plane is more dangerous than driving because we can all recall vivid images of aeroplane accidents even when confronted with the facts that driving is safer. Likewise we think of Madeline McCann when we think of letting our child run down the street. For our childrens sake, we need to think straight.