There is a good chance many readers have heard victims of crime described as being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Granted this may be the case, but if we take a moment and examine crime for what it is, a premeditated attack on an unsuspecting person, we learn there are more factors at work then initially thought. Interestingly enough people can control circumstances that lead to victimization by learning about risk producing behavior, and understanding that crime is not as conveniently dismissed as being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are few areas we should examine to help minimize out chance of becoming a victim.

The first, environmental, can be described as how we conduct ourselves from day to day. Being aware is not enough. Take the time to study our environment when things are “right”, so when something is “wrong” we are more adept at perceiving the change in our environment. People often refer to this as intuition; and for the most part they are correct. The trick here is to understand that intuition and the ability to perceive are closely linked. Like all other skills our survival instincts intuition and perception can be developed.

The second and most important is to consider the cues we transmit. Victims of crime are often selected because they appear safe. One criminal described victim selection in a rather unique way. We don’t pick our victims, they pick themselves. People sometimes participate, often unknowingly, in risk producing behavior, meaning we don’t look like a threat, able to defend ourselves, appear lax, disorganized, distracted or vulnerable. To compensate for this go beyond the often recommended strategy of projecting strong, confident body language. If you are mentally weak assailant will see through this and no amount of physical posturing can help. In short you are deceiving yourself. Instead focus on developing mental toughness. When the mind is prepared only then will the physical posturing be successful.