Crimes against children drop 

THE streets are safer for children than ever before. New research has
 established that the frequency of child abduction, murder, attack and
 injury in car accidents is lower than for a decade - but parents are
 increasingly anxious, writes Lucy Adams. 

 The myth of lurking danger behind every street corner has so
 alarmed the children's charity Play Scotland that at a conference in
 Glasgow yestersday it set out to convince parents that they are
 damaging children by being unnecessarily overprotective. 

 Stuart Waiton, a PhD research student, monitored 30 children during
 the past year to discover how their lives were affected by parents'
 worries. He found they lost an average of one hour's play time every
 day. 

 Waiton said: "Abductions have not increased in more than 60 years
 but parents are afraid to let children out of their sight and they are
 now suffering. Unsupervised play time is essential for the
 development of relationships and independence." 

 In 1991, almost 380 children died in road accidents in the UK. By
 1998, this had dropped to 206. Between 1988 and 1999 the number of
 children murdered between the ages of five and 16 decreased in
 England and Wales from four per million to three. The number
 murdered under the age of five dropped from 12 per million to nine. 

 The number of offenders in England and Wales found guilty of
 gross indecency with a child dropped from 334 in 1988 to 264 in 1998.
 Child deaths from accidents has also decreased - from 10 deaths per
 100,000 in 1979 to three per 100,000 in 1998. 

 Research by the University of Coventry found that adults who
 played freely in the streets 30 years ago now rarely let their offspring
 out of the house unsupervised. 

 Jennifer Cunningham, a Glasgow doctor, said: "Parents don't dare let
 children out of their sight but without this time by themselves they
 cannot develop crucial cognitive and social skills." 

The Times
June 11 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/06/11/stinwenws


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