Halloween has never proved one of my favorite holidays.
Certainly as a kid, yes. But I must be one of the few adults who prefers a movie over the macabre because over the years, the true October surprise (IMHO) is the morphing of this larger than life holiday into a favorite second only to Christmas.
For those who love Halloween, yet prove restricted to participation, take heart with the latest research. As taxpayers living in a skeletal economy, this study also raises discussion of how police could be better utilized on this holiday, since RSO family or not, we and our neighbors continue to foot the law enforcement bill.
As reported by TODAY, 10/30/2009:
Sex offenders not a Halloween scare for kids...
Study shows that children are not in extra danger while trick-or-treating
Study shows that children are not in extra danger while trick-or-treating
(...)
A new study shows that the public has little to fear from sex offenders on Halloween. The research, published in the September issue of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, examined 67,307 non-family sex offenses reported to law enforcement in 30 states over nine years.The researchers wanted to determine whether or not children are in fact at any greater risk for sexual assault around Halloween. The answer was a conclusive no:
"There does not appear to be a need for alarm concerning sexual abuse on these particular days," the researchers state. "Halloween appears to be just another autumn day where rates of sex crimes against children are concerned."
Not only is the hype and fear unwarranted, but the study also suggests extra taxpayer dollars spent monitoring sex offenders on Halloween are wasted. All the mandatory counseling sessions, increased police presence, and so on had no effect at all on the incidence of sexual abuse on Halloween.
---TODAY, 10/30/2009
Dr. Jill Levenson, Lynn University and Detective Robert Schilling, Seattle Police Department are interviewed.
- States, municipalities, and parole departments have adopted policies banning known sex offenders from Halloween activities, based on the worry that there is unusual risk on these days. The existence of this risk has not been empirically established. National Incident-Base Reporting System crime report data from 1997 through 2005 were used to examine daily population adjusted rates from 67,045 nonfamilial sex crimes against children aged 12 years and less. Halloween rates were compared with expectations based on time, seasonality, and weekday periodicity. Rates did not differ from expectation, no increased rate on or just before Halloween was found, and Halloween incidents did not evidence unusual case characteristics. Findings were invariant across years, both prior to and after these policies became popular. These findings raise questions about the wisdom of diverting law enforcement resources to attend to a problem that does not appear to exist.
SEX ABUSE, Vol. 21, No. 3, 363-374 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1079063209340143
Read
How Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters?:An Anaylsis of Child Sex Crime Rates on Halloween in its entirety here.
How Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters?:An Anaylsis of Child Sex Crime Rates on Halloween in its entirety here.
Mark Chaffin
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Jill Levenson
Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida
Elizabeth Letourneau
Medical University of South Carolina Family Services Research Center,
Charleston, SC
Paul Stern
Snohomish County Prosecutors Office, Everett, WA
(...)
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Jill Levenson
Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida
Elizabeth Letourneau
Medical University of South Carolina Family Services Research Center,
Charleston, SC
Paul Stern
Snohomish County Prosecutors Office, Everett, WA
(...)
It might be argued that Halloween sex offender policies are worthwhile even if
they prevent only a single child from being victimized. However, this line of reasoning
fails to consider the cost side of the cost–benefit equation. The wide net cast by Halloween laws places some degree of burden on law enforcement officers whose time would otherwise be allocated to addressing more probable dangerous events. For example, a particularly salient threat to children on Halloween comes from motor vehicle accidents. Children aged 5 to 14 years are four times more likely to be killed in a pedestrian–motor vehicle accident on Halloween than on any other day of the year (Centers for Disease Control, 1997). Regarding criminal activity on Halloween, alcohol-related offenses and vandalism are particularly common (Siverts, 2002). Although we do not know the precise amount of law enforcement resources
consumed by Halloween sex offender policies, it will be important for policy makers
to estimate and consider allocation of resources in light of the actual increased risks that exist in other areas, such as pedestrian–vehicle fatalities. Our findings indicated
that sex crimes against children by nonfamily members account for 2 out of every
1,000 Halloween crimes, calling into question the justification for diverting law
enforcement resources away from more prevalent public safety concerns.(...)
