The Psychology of a Criminal: What They Look for in a Victim – and How to Avoid Becoming One
Learn how o defend yourself with Brixton Self Defence
Introduction
Self defence begins before we ever have a physical confrontation with a criminal, our situational awareness, how we manage our emotions, present ourselves and the risks we choose to take all play a factor in how likely we are to run into a self defence situation.
In this article we will explore the psychology of the criminal, what they are looking for in a victim and how to avoid looking like and becoming one!
What Criminals Are Really Looking For
Many criminals are opportunistic and even those with a plan will be waiting for the opportunity to strike. Usually looking for a vulnerable, unaware and solitary person.
The best way to conceptualise a criminal is as a predator. Much like how predators select their targets, criminals tend to seek out the easiest victims, those that pose the lowest risk and offer the highest rewards. An experienced criminal will actively look for these characteristics in their potential targets.
Key Traits Criminals Look For in a Target
Criminals are looking for several key traits for a potential victim:
Lack of Awareness-Is the persons head down, not looking around and not aware? Do they have headphones on or are glued to their phone? Making them easier to sneak up on and ambush.
Poor Posture and Body Language- Is the victims body language uncertain, skittish? Are they uncertain with their movements, look lost? Do they look afraid/uncertain? Easy to dominate less likely to make noise, scream and draw attention.
Isolation- Are they walking alone? On a dark quiet street with no public shops or areas nearby? Easy to isolate and harder for the victim to get help.
How to Make Yourself a “Hard Target”
Now that you understand the way a criminal thinks and what they are looking for in a victim we can look at the best practices you can use so you avoid looking like a potential target to the criminal:
Stay Aware- We have said it before and we will say it again, awareness is the corner stone of self defence. So when you are traveling through London avoid distractions such as your phone and make sure you use all of your senses to be aware of your surroundings, don’t wear headphones!
Use Environmental Awareness- If traveling alone stay on main roads with lots of people, if you cannot avoid quite streets ensure you are travelling in a group and if you really can’t avoid being alone, ensure people know where you are and are there to check in with you when you reach your destination. Regardless if you are alone or in a group try to stay to well lit areas, avoid alleys, blind spots, always be aware of your closest exit and where you can ask for help.
Trust your instincts- We have instincts for a reason, if something in your gut is telling you that the situation you find yourself in is not safe, listen and act accordingly!
The Role of Self Defence Training
I hope that you have gathered from this article that self defence is more than just the physical skills. You need to practice awareness, learn what to be aware of, how to manage fear and adrenaline and practice these skills by role playing real life scenarios.
At Brixton Self Defence we teach all of these skills in a friendly safe training environment where you can learn to manage the fear and stress of a self defence scenario and gain the confidence to be able to defend yourself in the real world, gaining more confidence in your every day life.
Come and Try a Class
If you are in the Brixton area and want to learn real world self defence, you can come and give one of our self defence classes a go to see how learning from us will make you feel more confident and safer. All abilities are welcome and you do not need any previous training to attend one of our classes.
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