How to Help Keep Kids Safe From Abduction or Assault

Around 100 children are abducted by sexual predators every year and are either assaulted and killed or assaulted and let go. The main objective of a predator is to befriend the potential victim or to isolate the child from others in order to avoid detection. By helping children learn some basic steps on how to avoid potentially dangerous situations and what to do, parents and society can help ensure the safety of children.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• List of known and registered sex offenders in your area, county, and state as they move around
• Large whistles like gym teacher use on a chain children can wear

1. Set boundaries for your children when playing outdoors. This may be a front or back yard, enclosed playground with supervision, depending on the type of area you reside in. Try to set boundaries that will allow you to look out and watch your children. If possible sit on a porch or patio, where you can watch your children at all times.

2. Make a list of places your children frequent. If they will be walking to and from school, a convenience or grocery store, Sunday School or their Boy or Girl Scout meetings, plan a safe route for your children to follow when going to each of these places. Always transport children if possible or walk with them. If this is not possible, walk with them multiple times until you are positive they will not get lost.

3. 
    

   Encourage children not to use alleys for a shortcut or a place to play. In sprawling urban areas, alleys can be shadowed with a narrow walkway and often separate tall apartment buildings or brownstones. In other areas the alleys may be open and wide enough for a vehicle to drive down, but are dangerous nonetheless. Dumpsters and parked cars could hide a predator. A sexual predator may live in a home fronting an alley, where they could hang out in the backyard hoping a child might walk by.

4. 
    

   Other places children should be encouraged to avoid are enclosed stairwells, the isolated public restrooms at some public parks and lakes, thickly wooded or vacant lots and secluded foot and bicycle paths. If children use foot and bicycle paths encourage them go with an adult or three or more friends. A predator could hide in the woods, behind a tree, or in a gully.

5. 
    

   There was a case in Ohio where two girls were taken to abandoned houses, assaulted and killed. The yards of derelict houses are often filled with debris, weeds and overgrown grass and hedges. Have children avoid all empty houses and yards.

6. 
    

   Teach children if they are ever being followed by someone they don't know they should not panic, but should walk briskly or run, pretending not to hear the stranger. Your children should tell the first adult they see that they are being followed and ask them to call the police, a parent, a grandparent, or other family member. Otherwise, have your children enter the first place of business they come to, no matter what the business is and have an employee call the police. Your child should tell the employee why they came inside.

7. Children should be taught that if they are ever grabbed by a stranger they should scream as loudly as possible without stopping, They should scream out that the person who has them is not their parent but a bad guy, or stranger, that wants to take them and hurt them. Chances are the predator will let them go and flee the area.

8. Make sure you know the adults your children are around the most, including gym teacher or coaches, Scout leaders, church or camp counsellors or ministers and neighbors. Most communities will do checks on these people, if asked. Some will check for free while some may charge a small fee. You can also look their names up on the National Sex Offender Registry. The national website has links to state registeries. Predators and pedophiles will seek employment where they can meet and bond with children.

9. Help your children understand the importance of never going into the home of a neighbor alone, no matter how well you or they think they can be trusted.

10. You, or another trusted adult or family member, should go with children selling products for school fund raisers, Boy Scout popcorn, Girl Scout cookies or products for clubs, etc. The same rule should apply to trick or treating if children go out in the neighborhood on Halloween. Children aged 12 and older should travel in groups of three or more if an adult cannot be present.

11. If you are attending a community sports team your child plays on, or a school team, and you have other children who will be with you, do not let them go off and play with other children unless they will be playing well within your sight. It only takes a moment for a predator to entice or grab a child.

12. Teach your children that if they are on the neighborhood or school playground after hours to always stick with the rest of the kids, whether they know them or not. They should learn not to go with anyone who may offer to show them a pet in his car or seek your child's help in looking for a missing pet. This a common ploy predators attempt with young impressionable children.

13. Finally, explain to your children that the bad guy is not always ugly, dirty, or old. The majority of predators are under forty, clean cut and personable, and know how to manipulate their victims.

Tips & Warnings

• Have your children fingerprinted by a police officer; they know how to do it right.
• Find who the pedophiles or sexual predators are in your neighborhood and in the area you live in and make note of their addresses.
• Ask the police or the local health department and the nearest human services offices to run a check on anyone who acts suspicious around your child.
• If you are a single mom beginning a new relationship, check the person out to make sure they are not on any sexual offenders list. Question them if you notice any odd behaviors around your children. Some predators deliberately beginning relationships with single women with children as a way to get close to the child. Ask the person you are dating if they would let you get a background check on them.
• There are currently 602,000 names in national, state, and local sexual registries.
• A certain number of predators move to a different neighborhood, area, or state without telling anyone so the address in the data base may not be correct or current.

Resources

• National Registered Offenders List

[1magicman]

on 8/8/2008 My name is Scott. It has 30 years this passed July 2
1979 while camping with my family. I was abducted and
taken 80 mile away to a abandoned farm house. where i
held against my will for five days. I was sexually abused
2 to 3 time a day for five days. I am doing OK today
but this can never go away. It is tattooed to me forever. I now have a girl friend. who supports my
feelings 100%. She has a 8 year old son Andy. We keep
track of him with a GPS system. Which we highly
recommend. It pay for itself the first time. Thank
you for listening to me Scott.

[1magicman]

on 8/8/2008 My name is Scott. 30 years ago this past July 2,
i was camping with my family. When i got lost.
i ended up along side a highway where i was abducted.
And taken 80 mile away to a abandoned farm house.
and sexually abused 2 to 3 time a day, for five days.
I am doing OK today. But this can never go away. It
is tattooed I'm my mind forever. I now today have a girl
friend, who is very understanding to me. she has a 8
year old son, that i love very much. We keep track
of him with a GPS system. That i highly recommend.
It pays for itself for the first time. Thank you
for listening to me. Scott.

[arw88]

on 6/15/2008 My 32 year old sister has five children. The oldest is 12 and the youngest almost 1. She is going to check it out. I told her about finding it. If she likes it she is going to print it and use it as a guide. I thought it was really good. It was comprehensive and covered a lot more than most articles like it.