Child can and do fight off abductors

The National Center for Missing or Exploited Children sends out a tipsheet at the beginning of each school year. The tipsheet highlights ways kids can avoid being targeted and taken away by strangers.

Common sense tips for safety

Some tips include never taking short cuts to or from school or staying with a group when waiting for a bus or to cross a street. If anyone does make a grab for them, children should RESIST by kicking, screaming and yelling. And don’t stop.

Most often children fight off abductors

The statistics in the tipsheet are daunting. A new NCMEC study analyzed more than 7000 attempted – not successful – abductions during the last seven years. Children that escape abductions do it on their own 81% of the time. Of those, 53% ran or walked away; 28% yelled, screamed or kicked their way free. Less than one in five attempts was broken up by a nearby adult. It’s the kids who protect themselves.

Girls are most targeted

Preteen and teenage girls are targeted the most. The most common time of day is between 2pm and 7pm as kids walk home from school or after school activities, at a time when a lot of parents are at work.

Suspect is often not a stranger

Amazingly, the suspect is most often someone you know. Of the 797,500 children that were reported missing last year, only 115 were the victims of a “typical” kidnapping, meaning a stranger takes the child, holds them overnight, and demands ransom or intends to keep them permanently. That’s .00014 of all abductions, hardly typical at all.

Empower your children; tell them they are strong

Parents must find a way to talk to their children, especially this time of year as so many of them are starting to walk home after school, without scary them. Children need to know they are not powerless against adults, and more often than not, they are their own heroes when danger presents.

Source: NCMEC