10 Ways to Avoid Falling Victim to Kidnapping
By Kola Giwa
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The disappearance of someone through kidnapping is often so traumatic that most victims’ families hardly ever overcome the pains even several years later. Kidnapping is a significant method of feeding the booming Trafficking-In-Persons practice that has become worrisome even for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. This article posits ten strategies to fortify individuals and households against kidnapping and consequential grief.
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When you think of frequent reports of the disappearance of persons in print and electronic media, the agonies of distraught families looking for missing relatives, cases of smuggling of migrants, and the modern-day slavery called human trafficking, you are bound to consider ways of eliminating your vulnerability and that of your loved ones.
Wikipedia defines kidnapping as the unlawful confinement of a person against their will often including transportation/asportation. Others also expanded the definition to include abduction and holding a person captive. The truth is that anyone, irrespective of age or gender, can become a victim of a kidnapping for several reasons. If, for example, you are accosted in a dark alley by four hefty men, you will have to be a holder of a black belt in judoka or well-armed to escape unhurt. Babies and young people are kidnapped and sold to those who desire children or house-helps; young women are kidnapped and sold into the booming sex-slave market as prostitutes; others are kidnapped for marriage, ritual, ransome, or organ harvesting— a situation where human vital organs are removed illegally and sold just like motor spare-parts. This article recommends ten ways to avoid falling victim to kidnapping.
1. Always carry out an objective assessment of your environment to identify new changes. These may include the arrival of a new person(s) in the neighborhood or a newly opened business outfit and activities.
2. Be careful how you relate with new friends or an old acquaintance whom you had not seen in a long while.
3. Monitor your underage activities on the internet. As much as the internet provides the world with limitless opportunities for communication and research, the downside is the uncontrollable access for underage. The unwary youth can easily provide information that compromises personal safety or that of the household and become prey for kidnappers. For this reason, children’s access to the internet should be under the watchful eyes of elders or their devices are password-protected in other cases.
4. Never leave babies or children with strangers or people of equivocal integrity no matter how closely related they are to you.
5. Avoid late-night movement as much as possible. The probability that a kidnapping incident will take place at night is high.
6. Involvement in community activities can facilitate access to crucial up-to-date information. The grapevine is sometimes richer with current information than print and electronic media. Oftentimes, it is difficult to recognize kidnappers before they strike. But useful information about a (serial) kidnapper may reduce prospective victim’s vulnerability.
7. In your household, set definite relationship rules on interaction with strangers and get children to understand such rules. For example, children could be instructed not to talk to strangers unless adults of the household are in attendance.
8. Avoid following a predictable pattern in your daily or weekly activities. Kidnappers can monitor such patterns to identify a convenient time to strike.
9. Avoid walking alone in woods or alleys. If you have to, be extra-vigilant because many have been kidnapped in such areas.
10. Commit two or more telephone numbers of trusted persons to memory and get children to do the same. Such numbers can be useful in cases of emergency.
After all said and done, if you ever suspect that you or your ward is a target of the kidnapper(s), watch for suspicious body language around you, listen carefully to the conversation of the prospective abductors, alert law enforcement agents or possible rescuers at the earliest opportunity and plan your escape as fast as possible.
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