It is the narrative of the darkest fairy tales — the child who vanishes, snatched at the hands of a stranger. When a new Pew study on American parenting released in January, no one could have been surprised that the results revealed a whole lot of anxiety about kids struggling with depression or being bullied. But also right up there on the list of parental concerns — above struggles with drugs and alcohol, above pregnancy, above getting shot — was "being kidnapped or abducted."
For those of us who grew up looking at the faces of missing children on our breakfast table milk cartons or Soul Asylum videos, it's a nightmare indelibly imprinted on our imaginations. But now, in the age of security cameras and helicopter parenting, "stranger danger" is all but extinct. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that between 2016 and 2020, a mere 366 of their case intakes "involved children who were abducted by someone who was not a family member." That's fewer than 1% of all children reported missing. Even among children who are abducted by strangers, Reuters notes that 57% of them are returned home safe. Why, then, are we still so afraid?
