Is Halloween Candy Tampering a Myth?
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By and large, yes. Despite a very few well-publicized cases of alleged Halloween candy tampering during the 1960s and 1970s -- nearly all of which were found to be false or unverifiable upon further investigation -- no child has ever been injured or killed as a result of ingesting adulterated candy, apples, or other treats collected on Halloween.
Nevertheless, what sociologist Joel Best dubbed "the myth of the Halloween sadist" became so firmly entrenched in the American psyche from the 1970s on that aspects of the holiday were fundamentally changed. Most crucially, it became everyone's urgent priority to protect young trick-or-treaters from the malicious acts of strangers. Parents were warned by law enforcement officials to thoroughly inspect Halloween treats for tampering before allowing children to consume them. Hospitals offered the free use of x-ray facilities to detect foreign objects such as razor blades, pins, and needles. And though the moral panic that gave rise to these measures began to subside during the 1990s, parental accompaniment and supervision had already became a widely adopted addition to the trick-or-treat ritual.
This is not to say that parents needn't watch out for their children's safety on Halloween, or that inspecting Halloween treats is never warranted. The point to be gleaned from the research of Best and others is that these dangers were considerably overblown when they first came to light and created an atmosphere of fear and paranoia which, for a time, tainted everyone's enjoyment of the holiday. More recently we have seen an easing of this regime and a welcome change of emphasis in the direction of reasonable concern and due caution.
Happy Halloween to all of you!
