Halloween Special Edition: Is there really cause to be worried about razor blades in kids’ halloween candy?

.

Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, has been tracking “Halloween sadism” — the practice of giving contaminated candies to trick-or-treaters — since the early 1980s. In a short paper summarizing his research on the subject, which he updates annually, he reports that poisoned treats are best seen as legend. “I have been unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating,” he writes. A survey of news reports finds no more than two reported incidents of this type in any given year since 1982, and Best notes that researchers who follow up such stories find they are usually hoaxes.

Source: miller-mccune.com

Halloween recommendation: Most twisted and disturbing thing I’ve read in a long time is the story “Guts” in Chuck Palahniuk’s book “Haunted.”

Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.

Related posts:

New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You Happy

New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful

How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert

Share

Subscribe to the newsletter