As a boy, I roamed my neighborhood from sunup to sundown all summer long.

On my bike, on roller blades, or on foot, I and my friends traversed the entirety of my neighborhood. I couldn’t cross the busiest streets (though I did, on occasion) and I had to check in for lunchtime and get home for dinner, but, otherwise, I had the neighborhood to myself by age 10 or so.

I lived in a somewhat questionable neighborhood in those years. My neighborhood had a gang problem and shootings happened with some frequency. I worked as a crossing guard in fifth grade, one of those kids with the orange belts who help younger kids safely cross the street at intersections. One morning, I walked out to my corner to find it blocked off with police tape and saw a chalk outline on the asphalt.

But neither I nor my friends nor my mother nor any of their mothers worried much about it, because I also lived in the kind of neighborhood where everybody’s mother felt comfortable scolding every kid, and my mom occasionally heard from Mrs. So-and-so a couple blocks over that I’d gotten into some tomfoolery. Mom considered that enough security.

My son’s 13 now and has a lot of freedom when he goes out, but, at age 10, he never would have had the kind of roaming capabilities I had at that age.

And I think a lot of parents nowadays feel the same way about their kids.

But that doesn’t really make sense. By almost every measure, the world is a much safer place today than when I hit the streets.

The year I was born, the FBI reported 734 violent crimes per 100,000 people in Michigan.

In 2020, the most recent year the FBI has data, the rate came in at 478 crimes per 100,000 people, a 35% reduction.

In only 11% of 2020 crimes did the victim not know the perpetrator, according to the FBI, and nearly 60% of the crimes happened at the victim’s home.

According to Statista, a website that collects federal and other data, the number of yearly new missing person files in the U.S. has dropped from a peak 980,712 in 1997 to 521,705 in 2021, a 47% reduction.

According to the Justice Department, those younger than 18 accounted for 32% of missing persons files last year.

Of the files in which the Justice Department knew the circumstances of the disappearance, officials deemed 94.5% runaways. Just 1% were kidnapped by a non-custodial parent. And just 0.1% — 331 cases — were known kidnappings by a stranger.

Now, no parent wants their child to end up as one of those 331.

And, true, those free-roaming kids back in the 1980s and 90s did plenty of stupid things.

I played on train tracks. I once helped carry groceries into a stranger’s apartment. I played around on unsafe ice. I trapped snapping turtles. I jumped ramps on my bike that sent me high and wild enough that I could’ve died on the landing. Once, I mouthed off to a group of tough-looking teenagers and they chased me home (Mom sent them away with their tail between their legs). Another time, I mouthed off to a teenager while he necked with his girlfriend, and he pulled a knife on me (I think just to scare me; he stopped chasing me after a short while).

But I also learned a lot on those neighborhood romps.

I learned how to solve problems on my own. I learned how to stick up for myself. I learned how to socialize with other kids in all kinds of different situations. I learned how to protect myself, how to recognize when I faced jeopardy and (most of the time) how to get myself out of it.

All those lessons made me more surefooted in other areas of my life, and I wouldn’t trade those lessons for anything.

It would’ve been a shame if my mom had cooped me up and kept me from learning them.

Now, it’s up to each parent to decide how much leash to give their child, and I’d never tell another parent they ought to do something with their kid just because it worked out well for me.

But, statistically, kids are a lot safer out there wandering today’s streets than we were a quarter-century ago, and that’s worth knowing.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.