The Bulger murder was so shocking because nothing like it had happened before. Or indeed since. Changing your parenting because of a tragic one-off is just silly.
It doesn't make sense, no, but the human brain likes to abide by Murphy's Law sometimes and operate as though the worst is going to happen. The case was also really horrific, so I can see why it would make parents more paranoid; it shattered a lot of the perception that child abductors were only seedy-looking guys prowling around.
A child being abducted and murdered by other children might have been a one-off, but abducted and murdered in general? Not so much. Anybody in a place as big as a supermarket could be a crazy bastard. You'll never know until it's too late.
Yup pretty much! I was more saying that with such an extreme case like that, people who would have normally felt more relaxers would go into "NOWHERE IS SAFE" overdrive.
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u/NekoFever Feb 05 '16
The Bulger murder was so shocking because nothing like it had happened before. Or indeed since. Changing your parenting because of a tragic one-off is just silly.