Child's reaction

Children are people and like other people can have any reaction possible

Milenio said:

I understand, but I have more experience, as an adult, with adult reactions, thoughts and emotions. Children are different and I just need to get a better idea of "Would a child do that if..."

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Perhaps a better way to look at it would be "would my character do that if..."

Any response by a child is plausible if you create that characteristic within the character.

Milenio said:

I understand, but I have more experience, as an adult, with adult reactions, thoughts and emotions. Children are different and I just need to get a better idea of "Would a child do that if..."

Click to expand...

Children do not vary from adults as a group in terms of range of emotions or triggers for emotions. What they vary by compared to adults are physical and financial abilities, experience and training. It is perfectly plausible that even a small child would strike back in any of the situations in your OP. They may have the brains to figure out how to kill an attacker...as long as they realized they would only get one chance. There are plenty of stories of abused children managing to get a hold of a pistol and killing their attacker. Granted that is by far the exception, but it is due to physical reasons and not emotional.

Like GeorgeK said, each child would react differently. I have three girls. They have very different personalities despite having the same genetics and being raised in the same household with the same rules.

My oldest would fight tooth and nail. She would kill someone given the opportunity because she is a fighter at heart. My middle is a quiet child and very much doesn't want to disappoint anyone. In a kidnapping situation, she likely would not fight. She would do as she was told and certainly wouldn't disobey her captor for fear of someone hurting her family. The youngest is more like the oldest but would probably freeze under pressure because ultimately she's not as self-confident as her older sister.

This part will turn your stomach, but realistically, there's a lot of money to be made on a child that age. A true trafficker is not going to keep a kid for 5-10 years just to groom them. Taken at that age, and they'll be turned out, used up and discarded quickly. There's too much money on the table. Trafficking is a $32 Billion business, and it's too expensive to keep a kid that long without some sort of "return on investment."

If a trafficker wants a young teen, there are plenty who are running away from home. Most runaways are turned out within about 72 hours of leaving home, especially if they've been in unknowing contact with a trafficker online. And once they're turned out, they end up servicing 10-15 people a night.

Grooming is on a much more intimate level, and typically means a single molester picks a target and grooms them for his own usage. Traffickers may "court" a girl online, but they're not really grooming her in the typical sense of the word. A trafficker might be working several girls at once. Very easy to do if you think about it.

Google searches for something like child trafficking or sex trafficking are not going to raise the eyebrows you think they are. It's becoming a hottish topic these days, and there are tons of statistics and videos full of information out there. There's a couple of TED or TEDx talks on Youtube with statistics and stories that will give you nightmares.

(My first series has dealt with trafficking, and I've done a fair amount of research lately.)

Beyond that, consider searching for psychological effects of trauma on children. That's a pretty safe search.

Also, Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart both have non-fiction books that would likely give great insight from the victim's perspective.

A thing to keep in mind is that children are incapable of complex logic and have no sense of what is normal. They therefore define normal by what is around them. They will then see trafficing as normal, and may have a harder time understanding the people who react strongly to the life they've been forced into.

trigger warning:



to kidnapping---the child would mostly freeze. most of the reactions of children are due to the external influences. like they reflect the stuff they are facing. if the child is in an environment where he is allowed to speak his mind, he'd be more affirmative. whereas if he's grown in a situation where he's made fun of or reprimanded at small mistakes, the child may end up submissive. a child that small(5 at age of kidnapping) doesnt have a firm personality and can be groomed, like his thoughts are malleable. even adults can be groomed(fooled). maybe watch youtube videos on neuroplasticity.

the child may swing between 2 extremes like become completely silent or enraged at sudden times.

stockholm syndrome--probably he'd feel guilty, like even though kidnapper is beating me, kidnapper is also getting me food. many kids/wives tolerate abuse cause they feel guilty to stand up to their parents/husbands

its not uncommon to experience pleasure during abuse. google can help you. its natural for the body to react positively. its the defense mechanism of the mind. like someone is tickling you, u may laugh but that doesnt mean u want it. or ur playing video game, it's bad for eyes but ur addicted to it.

after grooming the child would probably end up as an addict. like his neural pathways would be set n he'd look forward to more n more sex n more clients.

google search pavlov's dog theory/experimentation. brief:
you have a dog--->slap dog each time before giving food--->dog gets used to slap n looks forward to getting slapped--->so earlier dog who wouldve bitten back if slapped would not look forward to getting slapped as he thinks slap=food.

being passed on---he may actually enjoy it. he's been treated like a commodity, he doesnt know anything else, so he'd want to be the best commodity. that's his view point now. sex is all that he knows. he'd jerk off a lot. that's a common symptom to sexual abuse, excessive n public masturbation. like a frog in a well he thinks life is all about having sex n pleasing others.

Keep in mind that a child can be groomed for a pedophile ring without being kidnapped. It's horrifying, but parents can use their own children for sex videos or prostitution, or they can secretly groom their child's friends for the same purpose. If the abusers know what they're doing, the kid's parents might never find out, since the child will be threatened--perhaps, "We'll kill your parents if you talk." And the adult might kill a family pet, to prove they're capable of murder. Or the child might dissociate from the violence, shoving those memories deep inside their mind and walling them off, so they can live a normal life with absolutely no idea of what's happening to them on the weekends. Some abusers can reinforce this with hypnotism. It sounds corny, but it happens. You can't testify against your abusers if you don't remember you're being abused, right?