NCJ Number
196340
Date Published
2002
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This document from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a resource guide for communities aiming to prevent child victimization.
Abstract
The twofold mission of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is to prevent child victimization and to find missing children. This resource guide serves to help communities select a program for teaching children personal safety. Following a discussion of the NCMEC’s task force mission, this guide presents background statistics in order to illustrate the problems of child sexual assault and abuse, missing children, child abductions, bullying, and school violence. A presentation of the history of safety education for children is followed by a series of arguments asserting that child victimization programs work best on children who are in elementary school or younger, that there is evidence that children can learn and apply personal safety skills, that disclosure of abuse is important, that safety programs do not cause unnecessary fear and anxiety in children, that program repetition produces greater results, and that many different types of presenters are most effective. In preparing a child safety program for community use, the authors suggest defining the need for such a program, obtaining parental and community involvement, utilizing existing child safety education resources, knowing the law, choosing a program, assessing the qualifications of the presenters, providing training, and developing an evaluation plan. A program preparation checklist, a listing of essential program elements, a curriculum scorecard, and a program evaluation checklist are followed by a bibliography of research on child safety issues. Notes