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Keeping Kids Safe from Harm (Sex Predators and Dangers)-Part 2

Last week we looked at the stats for Sex Predators in the USA.  On 9.10.14, the Miami Herald had an article that in the State of Florida as it paid tribute to the missing children (marked as “Missing Children’s Day”) that in 2013, 32,124 children were reported missing in Florida alone!   It floored me!

So, I will continue to share about those predators out there.  There are just too many missing and abducted children and sex offenders!

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), pedophilia is specified as a form of paraphilia in which a person either has acted on intense sexual urges towards children, or experience recurrent sexual urges towards and fantasies about children that cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.   In strictly behavioral contexts, the word “pedophilia” has been used to refer to child sexual abuse itself.  The cause or causes of pedophilia are not known.  Several researchers thought that low self-esteem and poor social skills are involved.   Some people with pedophilia threaten children to stop them from reporting their actions.  Others can develop complex ways of getting access to children, like gaining the trust of a child’s parent, trading children with other pedophiles or on infrequent occasions, get foster children and abduct child victims from strangers.   Pedophiles may often act interested in the child, to gain the child’s interest, loyalty and affection to keep the child from letting others know.

*We need to protect our children.

Some Characteristics of Predators:

  • Cognitive (pertaining to the mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning) distortions which allow the sex offender to justify, rationalize, and minimize the impact of their deviant behavior (i.e. “I was drunk,” “We were in love,” “She came on to me,” “The child wanted it and I did not have the heart to say no”).
  • Sex offenders use thinking errors to engage in deviant sex.  Examples: Mr. Good Guy: “I wear a mask or false front;” “I give the right answer;” “Poor me. I am the victim of this unjust system;” “Everyone is out to get me;” From the victim stance:  “I am the one hurt;” “I will convince others that I was more hurt than the victim.”
  • Power play:  “It is my way or the highway.” “I will dominate and control others.”
  • Entitlement:  “The world owes me.”
  • Selfish:  “I do not care for others.” “I want what I want when I want it.”
  • Blaming:  “I blame others so I can avoid responsibility for my actions.”
  • Minimizing: “I only fondled the child.” “It wasn’t intrinsically harmful.”
  • Hop Over-“I do not answer questions when I know the answer is unpleasant.”
  • Secretiveness-“I use secrecy to control others and continue being deviant.”

*Sex offenders are highly manipulative and will express a situation in which one family member will not communicate directly with another family member and split those around them.  

Again, I repeat that the chances that a child will be a victim of a sexual predator is 1 in 3 found in the Pedophiles database!

We need to protect the children at your school and the children’s family and friends need to be alert and identifying those sexual predators in your area before they strike.

Next week, we will continue with “grooming” definition and its characteristics!

 

 

 

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