NCJ Number
184186
Date Published
1995
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This family guide is a component of the comprehensive "Child Lures Community Plan for Prevention of Sexual Assault and Abduction"; it presents the basic lures used by child molesters and abductors to sexually manipulate children; prevention strategies for each lure are also included.
Abstract
The "assistance" lure is used most often by criminal abductors but is not limited to them. This lure may involve asking children to help find a lost pet or to help carry an armload of packages to a car or house. Prevention suggestions for this lure essentially involve teaching children to refuse any requests for assistance from strangers that involve the child accompanying the stranger away from a place of safety. Another popular lure is the "affection" lure, which is usually used with children who are starved for affection and often involves an adult the child knows. Another lure is bribery, which consists of the potential molester offering candy and toys to children in order to entice or manipulate them into situations or settings where sexual contact and activity can be initiated. Because children are taught to respect and obey adults, some molesters take advantage of this conditioning by using authoritative demands and requests that a compliant or obedient child is not prepared to resist. Other lures described in this booklet are bribery, appeal to ego by promising fame, the pretense of an emergency, the use of fun and games, jobs, appeal to heroes, name recognition, the use of playmates, threats and weapons, the use of pornography, drugs, and online computer access to child users of the Internet. A quiz for parents on the material is presented, along with tips for parents in "lure-proofing" their children. 3 references