Salon Premium reports what I already suspected to be true today — which is that despite the amazing level of media coverage of some child kidnappings this summer, the actual number of kidnappings is down. I have heard a number of people expressing amazement at the number of kidnappings this summer, ignoring both the fact that the media only covers a very small percentage of the kidnappings that actually occur, and that they aren’t reporting on the actual statistics at all. Clearly child kidnapping is a huge problem, and we’d be better off if there were none at all, but creating a panic doesn’t serve anyone well.