BERRIEN SPRINGS – To keep children safe, adults tell them not to talk to strangers.

But when it comes to preventing sexual abuse, that thinking is backwards, says Jamie Rossow, executive director of the Berrien County Council for Children.

For one thing, it puts the responsibility for avoiding abuse on the child and not the adult, where it belongs.

Second, more than 90 percent of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are not strangers but someone the child knows and trusts – a coach, a scout leader, a family friend or even a family member…