9781422280577

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Chapter One

Understanding Our Fears

Were you warned about “stranger danger” when you were younger? That’s the phrase child-safety experts use to educate little kids about avoiding predators such as kidnappers. Some kids are even taught to run screaming from strangers who approach them in public—that’s called “yell and tell.” But this strategy has been criticized in recent years. These days, some experts prefer to talk about “tricky people” instead. “Tricky people” emphasizes that only certain adults are unsafe, rather than making it sound like all strangers are to be feared. The debate over “stranger danger” versus “tricky people” shows the difficult challenge of talking to kids about safety and crime. The truth is, kidnappings are very rare (more on this later), but they do happen every once in a while. Mass shootings are not an everyday event, and yet it seems like we see them on the news all the time. Terrorist attacks are even more rare—but again, it would be wrong to say they never happen. That’s our reality in the 21st century.

Words to Understand assault: an attack on someone’s body, such as punching or hitting. breach: to break through a barrier, like a wall or, here, computer security. civilians: people who are not in the military. predator: here, a person who attacks or takes advantage of someone else.