How safe are trick-or-treaters?

September 2009:

Dr. Levenson has released another NEW paper, it is:

Chaffin, M., Levenson, J.S., Letourneau, E., & Stern, P. (2009). How safe are trick-or-treaters? An analysis of sex crimes on Halloween. Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research & Treatment 21(3).

For copies of the: Full Research Paper -OR- Summary of Research

A snippet from the summary:

This study found no significant increase in risk for non-familial child sexual abuse on or around Halloween. Sexual molesters sometimes use seemingly innocent opportunities to engage children for sexual abuse and therefore might be expected to use trick-or-treat for ulterior purposes. However, this logic does not appear to translate into an increase in sex offenses around Halloween.

The absence of a Halloween effect remained constant over the nine year period, beginning well before the current interest in Halloween sex offender policies and extending to recent years. Any Halloween policies that have been adopted by reporting jurisdictions during that period appear not to have impacted the overall sex offense rate.

Halloween was also typical of other days in terms of victim and offender characteristics, the types of child sex offenses reported, and the categories of victim-offender relationships involved. Children are sexually abused on Halloween, just not at higher than expected rates for any other autumn day.

Reasonable parental supervision and vigilance on Halloween is appropriate, but there does not appear to be cause for alarm concerning sexual abuse risk in particular. Increased vigilance concerning risk should be directed to the summer months, where regular seasonal increases in sex crimes are readily seen.

Other risks to children are more salient on Halloween. According to the Center for Disease Control, children ages 5 to 14 are four times more likely to be killed by a pedestrian/motor-vehicle accident on Halloween than on any other day of the year. Regarding criminal activity on Halloween, theft and vandalism are particularly common. Sex crimes against children by non- family members account for two out of every thousand Halloween crimes, calling into question the justification for diverting law enforcement resources on that day away from more prevalent public safety concerns.

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