One of those night time shows did something on this a little while ago...one of those prime time type "what would you do" shows. They had a litttle kid on a pretty busy street crying, whimpering or just looking plain old lost. #1 it was sad how many men and women alike simply walked by, but if I'm remebering correctly women where more likely to actually stop and make sure the child was ok or found it's parent. Men did stop, but not as frequently. The one's who did were great, but it was more rare. I think most men are just plain old afraid to do this in today's world, not a good excuse but tells you something about our world. There was one woman, a grandmother, who was awesome...not even believing the host of the show at first and making sure the child was indeed safe and not going off with a stranger.
I know it's not a "perfect" answer but I'd be more inclined to tell a child to look for a woman as well. That's not to say that only women would help a child or only men would harm a child, but in my area the Megan's Law site has well over 250 offenders that I counted and of those 5 are women. In all honesty I'd probably tell a chld to look for a "woman or man with kids" and if there were none then a woman. But that's just me
