Predator Abductions
Why should the term "stranger abduction" be changed to "predator abduction"?
Should I teach my child "stranger danger"?
Stranger Danger is a failed concept. Stranger Danger is from a time when we didn't have good information on child safety. By telling a child not to talk to strangers you are doing certain things. You are creating a hypocritical environment because your child sees you talking to strangers all the time, and that becomes problematic in its own right. You're also limiting your child's choices, and you're giving them a paranoid vision of life that suggests that they shouldn't expand themselves and they shouldn't get out and talk to people. You're also limiting any assistance that they might be able to utilise in a dangerous situation, because the vast majority of people in this country, in this world, are good people and would do anything they can to help a child that finds themselves in danger. What we want to do instead, is we want to substitute good information. We want to tell our child that they should check with mum and dad. We want to tell our child that they should always be with one other person, at least, when they are outside because there is strength in numbers (that's obvious) and that they should trust their feelings. We want to tell them that if something feels wrong they should put distance between themselves and whatever that is, and then again, finally, that if they are endangered and they feel threatened that they could go to strangers to help them out of that difficult situation.
Who is at the greatest risk of a "predator abduction"?
Young girls. Young girls between the ages of six and twelve years old, and there's no doubt about that at all.
What are common patterns of a predator abduction?
The patterns are really simple that an individual who wants to sexually exploit a child will oftentimes number one - put themselves in positions that give them access to that child so there'll be school teachers or there'll be daycare providers or there'll be little league coaches or there'll be paediatricians or there'll be youth ministers, I mean it really becomes rather insidious. Secondly, they then will groom the children and look for certain types of children, children that are indecisive or children that don't seem to have a lot of self esteem or self confidence and then they'll spend a long time trying to gain that child's confidence all with the ultimate plan of getting that child alone some place so that they can ultimately sexually exploit that child. Now very interestingly, NBC's Dateline To Catch a Predator program has given us a great insight into who these individuals are, and the fact that they seem to be working on impulses they have absolutely no ability to control whatsoever. So what we notice is that there is no stereotypical kind of a pattern that these can be any kind of a guy and they tend to be guys going after just post pubescent or pre-pubescent children for purposes of sexual exploitation that's why it's so important to Number one - make sure the kids have good information, Number two - try to prevent the kids from being alone so that they can't be exploited to begin with.
What is a child predator "lure"?
