Protecting Our Kids ~ Fact Sheet
We all want to protect our kids, but the truth is we have become victims of media created fear, which has mislead us to what the real threats to our children’s safety are. This causes us to worry needlessly over potential risks that are not accurate to what the likely threats actually are. Author and Founder of the largest, most influential Protection Agency in the world Gavin De Becker has spent over 25 years studying victims and victimizers he has shown that violent and predatory behaviour is surprisingly easy to predict. The following facts are from his books “The Gift of Fear” & “Protecting the Gift”.
- Your child is more likely to have a heart attack than be kidnapped by a stranger!
- Your child is 250 times more likely to be shot with a gun than be kidnapped by a stranger.
- Out of nearly seventy million American children, approximately 55 a year are kidnapped by strangers.
Of all homicides committed20% are perpetrated by a stranger80% are perpetrated by someone the victim knows
Do victimizers prey on certain types of children? Absolutely! We must be vigilant in our protection of children who are:
- Quiet/shy
- Not confident, bold
- Fearful or respectful of authority
- Less assertive
- Eager to please
- Seek affection
- Have few friends
- Lacking stable home environment
Until a child is old enough to understand:
- what predatory strategies look like
- confident enough to resist them
- assertive enough to seek help
- powerful enough to enforce the word No!
Until that happens, a child is too young to be his own protector.