TEEN SAFETY TIPS

TIPS FOR TEENS
TO PREVENT SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION

• Listen to your intuition/gut/instinct. People often sense potential danger before they’re able to pinpoint exactly why.

• Avoid excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs; the majority of sexual assaults occur in someone’s home when both people have been drinking and/or drugging.

• Staying safe and feeling comfortable is more important than having manners and “being nice”; “respect your elders” does not mean “always obey” them!

• Don’t go to isolated areas alone (take a friend) (if you must go alone, tell someone where you’re going and when to expect you back).

• If there is no weapon AND you are not being robbed – that is, someone is either physically/sexually attacking you or is dragging you away from a public area – FIGHT BACK AND YELL LOUDLY. Perpetrators of sexual assaults look for easy targets. Fighting and yelling make you a difficult target. Also, injuries sustained as a result of fighting the perp are generally milder than injuries resulting from a successful sexual assault.

• If someone says “Don’t tell”: TELL

• If someone threatens you and/or someone you love: TELL

• KEEP TELLING until you get satisfaction

• Don’t take a ride with someone you don’t know well

• Recognize manipulation:

  • charming, flattering: “you’re so beautiful, I can’t stop myself”.

  • forced teaming: “you look like my kind of girl … let’s get out of here”.

  • discounting ‘no’s’, minimizing: “you don’t really mean that”.

  • bullying, making you feel stupid, typecasting: “don’t tell me you’re one of those girls who …”; “why’d you think I offered to …”.

  • unsolicited offers of help (now you owe him): for example, to carry your heavy bags.

  • pressure: “I’m going to die”; “I thought you wanted this, too”; “you were leading me on” or “you were being a tease”.

  • Changing history after an assault: “you know you wanted to …”; “you weren’t crying before when we started …” (the absence of crying just prior to an assault or during it doesn’t mean you wanted it).
    

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