SPIRIT
HANDSOFF CHANGING THE MESSAGE
Empowerment, not fear, is the most effective method to help children avoid becoming victims of abduction and sexual abuse. WRITER: JEFF GRIESEMER
68 // HL // JUNE 2015
C
hange isn’t always easy, but when it comes to helping someone we love, we make the effort to change. One such change, which slowly has been happening for a few years, is the way we think about protecting children from sexual abuse, abduction and victimization, such as human trafficking. Even though we may not want to believe a family friend or relative would hurt us or our kids, we have to face the facts and educate our children differently. Parents are scared to death that predators will snatch their child off the streets and the “Stranger Danger” message has passed that fear on to our children. However, this message has some problems. The primary concern is that 93 percent of sexually victimized children know their abuser. Yet, for decades, we’ve focused our energies on the much rarer 7 percent. The hard-to-swallow fact is 9 out of 10 people who molest children are not registered sex offenders, and 39 percent of the time, the abuser is a family member. Instead of scaring kids with misguided fears, let’s empower them. We should