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 “If someone tries to abduct your child, your child should resist every step of the way.”
-Supervisory Special Agent Mick Fennerty of the FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit
GENERAL INFORMATION
It could happen in the time it takes to snap your fingers: Your child could disappear. In 1999, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency (OJJDP) reported that there were 58,200 non-family abductions. Fifty percent of children kidnapped in non-family abductions were taken from the street, in a vehicle, or from a park or wooded area. Many didn't know what to do. It happens too often and you can prevent it from happening to your child if you take the time to talk to them.
In an interview with CBS Cares, Agent Fennerty of the FBI who specializes in investigating crimes against children, including child abduction cases, conveyed that it is never too early to start training your child to protect themselves from being abducted. Learn what your child should do in a dangerous situation, so you can teach them what to do to avoid being snatched and what to do if snatched! Know what they can do to save themselves.
HOW DO I PROTECT MY CHILD?
WHAT IF AN ABDUCTOR APPROACHES MY CHILD?
As soon as your child is old enough to talk you should begin teaching them basic facts that will protect them against an abductor. By age three your child should know:
• When it is appropriate to yell "HELP!"
• Their phone number.
• The color of their house and where their house is located.
Teaching your toddler these facts will help protect your child in a dangerous situation by making them smarter and not helpless.
By the time your child is five they can learn how to resist an abductor. Here is a list of tips from the FBI to teach your child in the event that someone tries to kidnap them:
• Draw attention to yourself in any way possible: Scream, Kick, and Physically Resist. Yell "Help!" Yell "This is not my father or mother!" It is vital to your child's well-being that they resist an abductor by putting up a struggle. Any reasonable person who sees a child screaming, kicking, and yelling will offer help. So, informing your child to make a scene could save your child's life.
• Run in the opposite direction of traffic on the sidewalk. This is another way for your child to resist and draw attention to him/herself.
• If you are riding a bike, do not let go of it. It is more difficult to get a child and an object into a car.
If your child can't get away and ends up in the abductor's car, there are still things your child can do to get away. For example, the FBI recommends:
• Roll down the window and yell.
• Jump out of the car at a stop sign or stop light.
• If your child is abducted and is in the front seat of a moving vehicle s/he can either pull the keys out of the ignition or jam the keys in the ignition. How would your child do this? Well, the FBI offers advice for both scenarios.
In order to pull the keys out of the ignition the FBI suggests that if a child is abducted, in the front seat of a moving vehicle, and the vehicle stops at a stop sign or a stop light, in a residential or business district, the child could turn off the vehicle, take the keys, and throw them out the window, in the back seat, or somewhere that the abductor would have to go to retrieve them thus providing the victim a chance to escape on foot.
In order to jam the keys into the ignition the FBI suggests that after the abductor placed the child in their vehicle, the child could, as the abductor walked around the car to get into the driver's seat, jam any other object into the ignition, such as a paperclip, hair clip, or anything small enough to jam up the keyhole so that the abductor could not get their keys into the hole and leave the abduction scene with the child.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION?
The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 74% of children that are abducted and later found murdered are killed within the first three hours after being taken. (University of Washington Study). Do you want your child to be trapped in the hands of an abductor? The only way to keep your child from walking away with a predator is to talk with them. They need to know what to do if an abductor approaches them. They need to know that they should be proactive in an unsafe setting. They need to know that they should do everything they can to get away. That means you need to make sure your child is never complacent in the face of an abductor. Reinforce this with them. Your child should understand that they should never give up and that their best chance is to follow the FBI's advice: resist every step of the way.
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