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Hm. I would say that this is probably less true now than at any time in human history.

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On a worldwide scale, the morallity rate of children due to violence has got to be off the charts.

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The risk is still minimal. Parents are more afraid than they used to be, but do not have particularly good justification for that fear.

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what will those crazy kids think of next?!

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Furthermore, the receptivity of specific taste cells can change over time; one reason why people often find their taste preferences changing in later years.

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Although all of the above is established fact, there is some dispute in the scientific community over just how many taste sensations we have. In the west, it's generally accepted that there are four: sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. By contrast, the Chinese believe we possess a fifth taste sensation for pungent foods.
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As for the theory of five tastes, it gained further support in 1908, when Japanese researcher Kikunae Ikeda found that the glutamate contained in seaweed sauce triggered a fifth taste which the Japanese call umami. It's hard to describe umami. It's commonly translated as meaning "meaty" or "savory" but there's more to it than that - an incomparable taste sensation that encompasses all of the senses (one newspaper article I found equated it with perfect sex). Ikeda's discovery led to the mass production of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) a flavor enhancer widely used in Chinese and Japanese cooking. Last year researchers at the University of Miami succeeded in proving that taste receptors for umami exist, making it likely that the existence of five tastes will eventually gain general acceptance.

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During 1950-1993, the overall annual death rate for U.S. children aged less than 15 years declined substantially (1), primarily reflecting decreases in deaths associated with unintentional injuries, pneumonia, influenza, cancer, and congenital anomalies. However, during the same period, childhood homicide rates tripled, and suicide rates quadrupled (2). In 1994, among children aged 1-4 years, homicide was the fourth leading cause of death; among children aged 5-14 years, homicide was the third leading cause of death, and suicide was the sixth

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Overall, the data provided by the 26 countries included a total of 2872 deaths among children aged less than 15 years for a period of 1 year. Homicides accounted for 1995 deaths, including 1177 (59%) in boys and 818 (41%) in girls. Of the homicides, 1464 (73%) occurred among U.S. children. The homicide rate for children in the United States was five times higher than that for children in the other 25 countries combined (2.57 per 100,000 compared with 0.51)

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But let's not delude ourselves with thinking that childhood is innocent. Oh no. Childhood is war and tears, glory and mud.

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- Violent crime rates have declined since 1994, reaching the lowest level ever recorded in 2003.
- Homicide rates recently declined to levels last seen in the late 1960s.
- Rape rates declined after 1991.
- Robbery rates declined from 1994 through 2002 and then stabilized.
- Assault rates declined since 1994.
- The proportion of serious violent crimes committed by juveniles has generally declined since 1993.
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- [Note that] Teens experience the highest rates of violent crime.
- [But] The Uniform Crime Reports overall homicide rate remained stable in recent years. The homicide rate is highest for older teens and young adults.
- [And] Serious violent crime rates declined in recent years for both blacks and whites.

[all italicization added by me]

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The value people place on children makes missing child incidents among the most widely publicized cases encountered by law enforcement.

The reported abduction or mysterious disappearance of a child captivates families, neighborhoods, communities, and entire nations.

In the 1980s, several highly publicized stranger-perpetrated child abduction cases heightened public and parental concerns and fears and led to the widespread belief that stranger abductions had become increasingly common.

This awareness caused parental groups, civic organizations, political representatives, and government agencies to support programs focusing on missing children.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

While public fears and perceptions focused on stereotypical stranger abduction, in which an older adult male from outside the community preyed randomly upon an unsuspecting child for sexual gratification, initial research findings painted a different picture. Studies found that abductions by family members represented the most prevalent child abduction type, ranging from 163,200 to 354,100 cases annually.[footnote 1] In contrast, the national incidence of child abductions perpetrated by nonfamily members ranged from 3,200 to 4,600 cases annually, with only 62 percent of these cases committed by strangers. [footnote 2] Additionally, long-term stranger abductions, where serious risk of victim mortality existed, only accounted for between 200 to 300 cases annually. These statistics included children ranging in age from birth to 18 years and, therefore, displayed diverse victim characteristics and vulnerabilities.

Stranger abductions, although a serious and potentially lethal problem, did not appear as widespread as experts believed originally. More recent child abduction and child homicide research generally supports these findings. ...

[Footnotes]
1 D. Finkelhor, G. Hotaling, and A. Sedlak, “Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and ” Thrownaway Children in America,” United States Department of Justice (Washington, DC: 1990).
2 Ibid.
etc
[all italicization added by me]

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Missing children are of considerable concern to parents, children, and the nation. In one study, nearly 75% of parents acknowledged worrying about their children being kidnapped, and 35% said they were very concerned. [footneote 1] The issue of missing children is complex and needs to be dealt with in the appropriate context. When considering how to counsel parents about this issue, it is important
for pediatricians to have a good understanding of the problem.
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There are several categories of missing children. Most children reported missing are runaways and children taken by noncustodial parents, both of which are preventable events. A small but indeterminate number of children are abducted by nonfamily members. Most of these nonfamily abductions occur as a result of direct contact between the perpetrator and the child.
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Although much less common, classic nonfamily kidnappings pose the greatest risk of death or serious harm. According to law-enforcement statistics, a few more than 100 children were kidnapped in this sense in 1999. [footnote 4] Although these numbers are small, the effects on the child, family, and community are enormous.

All nonfamily abductions are part of a continuum. On one end are relatively brief episodes in which there is no physical harm to the victim. At the other extreme are the horrific cases of classic kidnappings that often grab the nation’s attention.
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We all can remember our parents and teachers giving admonitions such as “don’t take candy from strangers,” hoping to keep us safe. Unfortunately, we now know that most people who perpetrate these crimes on children are not strangers in the eye and mind of the child. A neighbor, a familiar face in a child’s daily routine, or someone the child’s parents know well enough to speak to or whose name the child knows is probably not viewed as a stranger by the child.
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The pediatrician’s advice for preventing missing children, as for many other health issues, needs to be a balance of safeguarding children while avoiding generating fear. None of this information needs to be taught specifically as abduction safeguarding, with all its overtones of danger and threat. Instead, it should be taught as developmental achievements to be praised for their own value in the growing child. The appropriate message allows the child to go forward with skill and confidence rather than fear and avoidance.

Pediatricians can help safeguard children older than 5 years by encouraging parents to teach them to memorize their name, address, and phone number, including area code, so that they can be identified readily if separated from their families. Older children can learn numbers for contacting parents at home or at work. Because abductions are rarely conducted by strangers, even in nonfamily abductions, teaching children not to talk to strangers frightens them without any proven benefit. Passive methods of identifying children such as the placement of microchips in the teeth and fingerprinting are primarily techniques for identification of bodies. Their use has become common for fund raising and as a “service to the community” often without considering the potential effect in frightening children and inappropriately raising fears in adults without any perspective provided on the real nature or rareness of abduction.
[footnotes 23,24] On the other hand, keeping recent photographs of children and promptly reporting incidences to the police are extremely helpful measures.
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[Footnotes]

1. Stickler GB, Salter M, Broughton DD, Alario A. Parents’ worries about children compared to actual risks. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1991;30:522–528

2. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Total NCIC Missing Person Entries by State by Year. Clarksburg, WV: Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation; 2002

3. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. June 2003 Review of National Crime Information Center Missing-Person Entries by Age in 2001 and 2002 in the Juvenile, Endangered, and Involuntary Categories. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; 2003

4. US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART-2). Washington, DC: US Department of Justice; 2002

5. Sedlack AJ, Finkelhor D, Hammer H, Schultz DJ. National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice; 2002:4–10

6. Finkelhor D, Hammer H, Sedlak AJ. Nonfamily Abducted Children: National Estimates and Characteristics. Washington, DC: US Department of
Justice; 2002:7, 10
...
23. Bergman AB. The business of missing children. Pediatrics. 1986;77: 119–121

24. Livingston G. Fear of abduction: it’s a business now. San Francisco Examiner. October 12, 1999:A-19
etc
[all italicizations added by me]

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Dan, you have my sympathies.

BTW, I was speaking with my David about your day yesterday, and he said it sounds like a Fellini film. I am compelled to agree, especially given the funeral clown.

How does Sasha like your clown outfit?

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That said, what Chad is really worried about -- and why I stopped arguing with him -- is that certain types of danger have become more prominent in recent years, even as many other dangers have dwindled away, and that he personally is more concerned with the dangers we've recently created than the ones that we, as a society, have defeated. It IS true that teenagers are much more likely to be shot in school by another teen than they used to be, for example; that this still happens very rarely does not change the fact that it happens less rarely than it used to.

To my way of thinking, this is far less important than the fact that, in almost all ways, the life of a child today is better, safer, stabler, and more secure than it was even fifty years ago. Chad disagrees, and I certainly don't have the right to convince him that his priorities are wrong; they're his kids, after all, and if he wants to fear sending them to school, he can.

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