After a session in grade school where we learned all of the walking/traffic rules for safety, for the longest time I thought "jay-walking" meant walking across the street naked.

Cyren

When I was very little I thought that there was a serial killer in England who would kill children. Reason? I thought that if you yelled into the vetalation (sp?) system loud enough, people in England could hear you and would answer back, but all they ever said was "bloody child" (My loving parents). The next year, we went to Britain for our summer holidays, and I was convinced my parents had made a deal with the killer. Did I mention the killer was named "Jack the Tripper" ? I got three's company and Jack the Ripper mixed up. (Don't ask me how I knew about the 1800's serial killer when I was 5.

Jaymie

When I heard someone was arrested for having sex with a minor, I thought that they were having sex with someone who works in a mine. Also a friend of mine thinks that a women should not have sex with a miner because they were unclean.

Anon

Growing up in the late 70s in Detroit, there was a lot of crime news on tv.
Being young and not knowing the word rape, I thought that the newscasters were saying a woman was "raked" and it was someone scratching a woman with a metal rake (like you use to till earth.) Still a violent image, but weird how your brain compensates.

stacy

I used to be such a goody goody so i thought of course nobody would be bad enough to actually shoot somebody i thought they had toy guns so whenever i saw on tv someone was robbed, i thought, why doesn't the person just say no i wont give you my money byebye. and the criminal would go o man and try the next person.

T.L.

I was about five years old when Nickelodeon started showing the cartoon Doug. One of the first episodes had Doug thinking he was responsible for a fire in the science lab or something like that, and he felt guilty and ran away to become a bandit. Now, I'd known how to read since I was two, so it wasn't like I was a dumb kid. But I thought that being a bandit was a good thing; that it was like being a secret agent or something. I used to go around telling people I wanted to be a bandit and I didn't know why they'd give me weird looks when I said it, until I saw Home Alone and realized that bandits were BAD people. Um, yeah.

Laine

When I was about 6 I was afraid that someone might break into our house and kill us while we slept. I figured they would use an axe, for some reason, so I always slept under four or five blankets, for extra protection.
Anytime it rained, I didn't worry about the killer that night, because I figured he would wait for a non-rainy occasion.

this is just the beginning...

I first heard of a woman being raped When i saw Monty Python's "The Life of Brian" and Brian's mom said something and he was like "u were raped?!" and i thought it meant a guy ripped her clothes and ran away so I'd be playing with Barbies and i'd rip one of their clothes and she'd say "You raped me!" Wasn't i brilliant?

Ashley

When a person goes to jail, I thought that "jail" meant "hell" and they would spent 1-2 years burning in agony.

Anon

I used to think that adultery was illegal (because it was one of the commandments). One day I found out that my next door neighbours had moved because she had had an affair. I discovered that it wasn't illegal when I asked my sister if she would come with me to visit our neighbour in jail.

Anon

I thought that "statutory rape" were meant to rape a statue.

Anon

When I was little, I had always heard that when people go to jail, they eat nothing but bread, and drink nothing but water. Naturally, since I loved eating bread, I thought that jail wouldn't be such a bad place to go.

Heide

When the news were talking about "movie pirates were arrested for camcording a movie in the theater," I thought that they meant pirates from the seas.

Anon

When I was 10-12 and the world news would talk about "Software Pirates" or "a person was arrested for pirating computer software" I thought they seriously meant the pirates from the seas and I thought that the pirates from the boat were planning to steal videotapes, software or music.

Anon

I used to believe that "Prosecuted" meant "Executed". When someone said they were prosecuted, I thought they were gonna die.

Anon

When the news were talking about death or jail sentences, I thought that they were writing complete sentences about jail and death.

Anon

I overheard a conversation while at primary school in which a boy told that people could get locked up for being too rich. As I was only around the age of 6, I believed this for a few years.

J. A.