Legal fears of possible neighbor interaction

[Bob]

Bri... I think you're being a little bit overboard here. Just wear what you want, act normal, don't initiate interactions with the neighbor's kids, but be casually friendly if they initiate interactions with you. Things will likely go fine.

[AMM]

I can't help feeling there's a lot of hysteria going on in this thread.

Like the fears of poisoned Hallowe'en candy, I hear a lot of "people might," but very few verified happenings. I'm not saying that unsubstantiated accusations don't occur, or that people aren't ever imprisoned due to false claims of child molestation, but in the absence of hard numbers or anybody I know or know of having had it happen to them, I'm going to continue to believe that it's rare. (I have known a number of adults -- men and women -- who report having been molested as children, mostly by family members, where they were not believed or were ignored when they told people, so I would say that child molestation is not rare.)

The question in my mind is: how much are you going to let fears of a fairly uncommon risk rule your life? It's no different from worrying about someone breaking into your home and torturing and killing you: it could happen, and you can put bars on your windows and armor plate on your doors and make your house as hard to get into as a bank vault, but what kind of life is that? Especially if you're going to get into your car and go on the highway, where you're far more likely to get killed in a car crash than ever have someone force their way into your home. (Yeah, I know, there are neighborhoods where break-ins aren't all that rare, but I don't think any of us live in them.)

So I'll continue to talk to kids in the subway or who I meet on the street, regardless of what I'm wearing, and not worry about whether some nut case might decide to put the worst possible interpretation on it.

[Departed Member]

I can't help feeling there's a lot of hysteria going on in this thread.

... I'm not saying that unsubstantiated accusations don't occur, or that people aren't ever imprisoned due to false claims of child molestation, but in the absence of hard numbers or anybody I know or know of having had it happen to them, I'm going to continue to believe that it's rare.

Yes! We thought much the same as you - until our family came up against a malicious accusation. What I've already outlined (& I'm not going to go into detail), is first hand - not hypothetical. As for not being rare, our sleepy little town has around three times as many SS CPU operatives as it does nominal Police numbers 'on the street' (would that they were!). To be fair to them, they do acknowledge having around 80% malicious calls - which is why it is clearly NOT hysteria. Personally, I would have expected the USA % to be worse in this respect(?).

It's no different from worrying about someone breaking into your home and torturing and killing you: ..

You're right, of course! It's all about keeping your own 'house in order', as best you can, but still being aware of potential 'risks'.