Role playing should be done with children once they have been taught about the dangers of strangers. Make sure you let them know that there are bad people as well as good ones. Let them know that there are bad ones who want to take children away and hurt them. Inform them that they may use lies, tricks or just strength to do this. Reassure them that there are ways to prevent the bad people from doing this to them. Feel free to explain all this in your own way. Try to make sure that you get the point across firmly but without leaving them feeling powerless. You also need to make sure the child/children know that in self-defense if they are in a bad situation they need to fight or flight, only fighting if flight is impossible. Since children are normally taught that it’s bad to hurt others it is important to let them know that in a self defense situation it is not only ok to hurt the attacker it is essential. Teach them

To heed their intuition. If a person or a situation feels funny or wrong, it probably is. Get away as quickly as possible. To run. Statistically speaking, running away is the single most effective defense strategy. To never enter a car or dwelling with a stranger, no matter what the threat. Once inside, things can only get worse. (Crime scene #2) To use their voice. Yelling "stop," "no," or "I don't know you" will not only alert others, it will help her mark her territory. Think about the terrifying growl of a dog whose space is invaded. Sometimes Yelling for help might deter the aggressor away

Role playing can be approached as a game that way it makes it lets frightening for them. You take the role of the predator/attacker. You can have the child/children pretend they are walking outside/playing inside/at the supermarket/in a car whatever scenario you choose. As the attacker you can say things to them such as “I need directions can you show me where I need to go” or “I have a cat who just had kittens would you like to come see them” etc This is when the child/children needs to say "no" loudly and begin to run away Let them know that making distance between them and the stranger is important. Let them know not to worry about hurting the person’s feelings, if the person is a genuine nice person they will understand why the child/children are frightened and not pursue them, their feelings won’t be hurt. However if it’s a bad person it’s a very good thing that they ran. You now call after them saying, "Please?" Your child should continue to run away, possibly toward home or the nearest house/adult. Eventually, you grab their wrist and pull. Tell them now is the time when they can hit, kick punch, bite, scratch, yell...anything to get loose so they can run. They can also scream This will alert others in the area there's a problem, and hopefully scare off the attacker. Attackers go for the weak and naive. They often search out a weak victim, depending on the age of the child you can also introduce them to Jeff Coopers color code of awareness (you can find this in the awareness section of this site) Predators don't want someone that will fight them. Let the child/children know that the most important thing is to get loose from their grasp, and run as fast as they can away from them, still screaming. Practice this often, and change up the situations.