goshawk

In general terms: You are in a public place. There are unsupervised children. They are misbehaving... something more than simple mischief but less than blatant criminal behavior. What would you do? What should you NOT do? Would you have them tell you where they live and take them there? Would you call the police? Would you locate other adults to help you? Would you mind your own business? A generation or two ago this wouldn't be an issue... all adults were regarded as parental figures for all children. But today?

[My recent scenario: I came across three siblings (age estimate: 6-14) in a public playground that was adjacent to a jogging track I was using. The older brothers were aggressively bullying the younger sister. There were no parents or other adults supervising these kids. I did intervene, but as a grown adult MALE (with no children of my own) I had concerns about getting to close to strange kids in this sexual-pervert predator-fearing world that we live in.]