PREVENTING NON-FAMILY CHILD ABDUCTIONS - ARE CHILDREN AWARE THEY ARE BEING FOLLOWED

Australia, the United States, and other developed countries, offer ele mentary school programs that heighten childrens' awareness about the p ossibility of abduction. To examine the effectiveness of such programs , an investigation was conducted of the proportion of elementary schoo l children previously taught about ''stranger'' abduction and who dete cted they were being followed. Fifteen children were observed on four separate occasions during a seven-month period. Only 3% of the observa tions were detected by children. Several reasons are proposed for the poor detection rate, and recommendations for elementary school program s are made.