You are right about kids blaming themselves. We teach our kids not to talk to strangers, not to get into anyones car and so on and so forth. We expect so much out of our kids to be able to have the power to ward off the perpetrators. The sad truth is, how can a small child ward off a big man? If the child is taken, the child feels tremendous guilt and horror that they did something wrong and it was somehow their fault right from the get go.
I think these ignorant people that insist on blaming the victim, need to educate themselves, or just shut up.
Exactly.
Kids don't think like adults. They don't react like adults to stressors. What Shawn did and is doing is textbook common. If he HAD done anything different, it would be more the exception.
He was just 11, a boy when taken. In as little as a month, his total sense of self could have been totally destroyed.