What Predators Look For And How To Head Them Off 

Are you interested in becoming safer in your life? Do you want to feel greater security in your environment? Despite the newspaper reports about growing crimes of violence, there are many ways to avoid becoming the victim of a terrible crime. Here are some tips that can help you understand better what predators look for, and how you can head them off.

What exactly do most predators look for? The answer of course, depends on the type of predator. Child predators look for young children who appear vulnerable. Predators who attack adults are actually looking for much the same thing. The best way to avoid becoming the victim of a predator is to avoid the appearance of being vulnerable. This may mean any number of things depending and your specific situation. If you are forced to walk across a long, dark parking lot late at night after work, try to consider the things that make you vulnerable. As hard as it may be, try to put yourself in the shoes of a potential predator. What is a predator looking for? If you think about it, a predator is looking for someone who is an easy mark. This means that they are probably distracted; appear to be someone who can be easily overtaken, someone who is not prepared to fight back. Think about these things, and try to become the opposite.

Predators look for people who are distracted. This means that in order to avoid becoming the victim of a predator, you have to appear alert and in control at all times, or at least in those situations where you are most likely to fall victim of an attack. If you're walking down that hypothetical dark parking lot, you'll want to be the person with keys ready in hand, a flashlight attached your key ring, and a bottle of mace, if possible. Stay focused in your environment. This means you'll have to put the digital music players away, stay off the cell phone, and avoiding in general doing more than one thing at a time.

Predators also look for people who are alone. Think about it: if you were a predator, who would you rather attack? Would you rather attack the huddle of teenage boys, a lawyer in the parking lot, or the lone woman, busy on her cell phone and digging around her purse for her keys? The answer is pretty self-evident, but that doesn't mean that you are automatically target because you are a woman walking alone at night. However, you are probably much more safer if you choose to buddy up with someone. If you are forced by your job to be in a less than safe location at a less than safe time, try to counteract the inherent dangers of such a situation staying in a group, or at least buddying up with another person. Statistically, you are much less likely to be attacked if you are in a group.

Predators also look for people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is often difficult to choose where we work and to fix our own work schedule. But we can nearly always make our own decisions about where we choose to play. Avoid late night destinations with reputations for being unsafe. If you must frequent these types of places, make sure if you do so in a group, and that you can avoid the worst times. If you feel like your place of employment is potentially unsafe, create strategies that allow you to feel more secures. For instance, you can arrange to have someone pick you up closer to your building so that you don' t have to walk across a long, dark parking lot. You can arrange for someone to escort you to your car, and you can buddy up with another person who is on the same shift.