One thing I learned while training families to become foster parents is the fact that children are more likely to be abused in out-of-home placements than in their own birth homes. That may sound odd as children are removed from the birth home for a variety of reasons, some which include abuse, but the possibility of abuse sky rockets once a child is out of the home. The abuse may occur because some foster families are unprepared to handle difficult children so give way to abusive parenting. Some abused children find abusive interactions within the home comforting, so will act out until they receive abusive behavior from their new care givers. And the most disturbing reason of all, some pedophiles seek out being foster parents in order to bring children into their warped clutches.

Most newly trained foster parents find the above information hard to believe, but then I received some Google alerts to foster care related news articles and heard about the following story.

In Missouri last weekend a 7-year-old was allegedly raped by the 17-year-old son of the foster parents. How terrible! I feel the pain for all involved, the child, the foster parents, the birth parents, and the young man who obviously needs help. But it also causes me to ask some questions.

How could this have been prevented?

In our home we do not "set our sons up" for such interactions. They are not left home alone with foster children for extended periods of time, over 10 minutes is too long for me, and never 1-on-1 with any foster child. This is for our sons' protection as well due to the real possibility of false allegations from sexually abused foster children.

Is it possible to prevent such terrible events? How do you protect your family? Click "comments" below and share.