Trying not to scream about this article in the Toronto Star, “Child Abduction and Murder Paint a Chilling New Portrait.” As reader Frankie wrote:
Just the WORST kind of scaremongering!! They use these huge scary numbers but the bottom line is that in all of Canada, coast to coast, there have been an average of THREE kidnappings a year over the past 50 years. THREE. Seems they had to go back 50 years to get enough data to even do a statistical analysis. More pedestrians were killed just in Toronto last month alone. This piece makes me so angry!
While you’re reading the piece, keep asking yourself: Who benefits from a study like this? Full Article
Here’s a brilliant idea; stop focusing on the aftermath of something unfavorable and start figuring out how to prevent people from doing the unacceptable activity years before they are close to doing it. Trace backwards until the victim is not yet at risk of becoming a victim and the perpetrator is not yet at risk of becoming a perpetrator and then work towards preventing either group from traveling down their respective disastrous paths.
People no longer are allowed to be disgusted, horrified, appalled, shocked, or angry each time some new instance of something very few people agree with occurs. The time for complaining expired decades or perhaps a century or longer ago. Societies can either shut up and do something or shut up and not do anything other than blame themselves for not having the drive to do anything else.
I know and traveled to Canada many times including Toronto
Two things: The Toronto Star is a conservative alternative to the larger Toronto Globe & Mail. Anything that comes from the Star has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Second, folks need to realize the context before posting articles from more enlightened places like Canada or Europe. Yes, the viewpoints expressed by some people in those articles can be outrageous but remember, Canada and other industrialized countries don’t have draconian incarceration and lifetime registration laws like the US. Therefore, article message usually gets ignored in public opinion. And the results of some lame study normally doesn’t get translated into a country’s public policy & criminal justice approach
However, these kinds of articles are ripe for uninformed American consumers, victims advocates, and politicians. Therein lies the danger