NCJ Number
155151
Date Published
1994
Length
273 pages
Annotation
This volume presents an overview of violence and assault and presents practical techniques for increasing personal security and for avoiding and surviving a violent confrontation in a broad variety of settings and situations.
Abstract
The text is directed to lay individuals as well as to sociologists, criminologists, mental health professionals, and others studying emotional and environmental factors that make a person vulnerable to a criminal act and the motivations provoking stranger assault. Based on recent psychological, criminal justice, and security research, the text explains the mind, motivations, and methods of assailants; precautions needed to avoid a confrontation on the street; and the behavioral impacts of an assault on victims and near-victims. Additional sections present a scale on which to measure one's personal attractiveness to a criminal; the specific risks for children, elderly persons, and persons with disabilities; the differences between forceful and nonforceful resistance; and the advantages and disadvantages of carrying or using weapons for self-defense. Based on interviews with victims and offenders and advice from crime researchers, psychologists, and self-defense professionals, the text emphasizes how to avoid a criminal assault before it escalates to violence. Figures, tables, photographs, index, and appended list of support groups