When fear of strangers is fatal

Stoking parental fear about predators inspires vengeance

This summer in India, two dozen innocent people died at the hands of mobs convinced that they were meting out justice to kidnappers. One was a software engineer beaten to death after giving chocolates to children outside a school. One was a 65-year-old woman who got lost on a trip to a temple with her family and stopped to ask for directions. All five travellers were stripped naked and beaten with fists, sticks and iron rods. One was hospitalised in a coma. A woman named Rukmani died in the street.

This is what it happens when stranger-danger runs rampant. It