By: SIERRA SMALLS-GREER
(Gainesville, Ga.) – During a recent study on college age students, ABC’s show “What Would You Do?” took their film crew to a university’s campus posing as reality show talent scouts. Their goal was to see how many students would be interested in the show, give them personal information and get into their van. During this experiment the majority of the students that they approached did all three things.
It was thought that stranger danger should be something that only little kids should be taught, when in actuality college age adults should have this talk as well.
College age students are more likely to get attacked on campus because of simple things. For example, they are vulnerable because cell phones are always in hand or ear phones in ears make it impossible to pay attention.
These things are looked at by predators and they take advantage of it as much as they can.
There was a story published about a sex offender in prison who was apart of a study on what predators look for when they pick a person to prey on. In his interview it was determined that most sex offenders do not actually have a preference on the appearance or type of person they look for but instead qualities about a person that fit into a category.
Girls seem to be more of a target before boys because they are young, may have lack of self confidence and tend to be more physically vulnerable.
It was also found that girls who have a need for money or attention are easier targets for offenders.
Unfortunately college age women have most of those characteristics and cause them to be victims.
Some things that girls should do to protect themselves from the dangers of college life are very simple and could be the difference between life and death:
1. Charged phone. Making sure that your phone is always charged when going out can save your life. So many girls have spent their time all day on the phone and by the time an emergency pops up, they are unable to call 911.
2. Pepper spray. Having mace in hand can help you get away from an attacker by getting them away from you for a few minutes.
3. Buddy system. Walking in a group of people can lessen your chances of being attacked, especially at night.
Always remember these safety tips and apply them to everyday life!
Leave a Reply