Arming yourself - with knowledge

Your two best self-defense weapons

The single best women's self-defense tip I could possibly offer is for you to arm yourself with knowledge. Along with you brain, knowledge is nothing short of the "ultimate weapon".

The easiest way by far to avoid any kind of trouble - ranging from harassment to violent sexual assaults - is to know how perpetrators and predators operate; how they think, plan and set up their devious acts.

Random violence?

"Random violence", you say? Forget it; a criminal with plans and preparations - however insignificant those preparations might be - is more common than sand in the Sahara desert! I am fully aware how media likes to hype up assaults as being random, but that's another thing all together.

And as you hopefully begin to see the patterns evolve, you stand a far greater chance of avoiding being set upon in the first place.

Here's a recent, quite typical, example

A teenage girl was reportedly the latest victim of an assault on or near a specific bridge in the southeast part of Chatham, Ontario (Canada). There has allegedly been six assaults in that area during the past two years.

A man grabbed the girl from behind as she crossed the bridge around 4 p. m. on a Thursday, according to Chatham-Kent Police. Luckily, the teen managed to fight the attacker off, before she ran away and called police.

Now there are two very obvious patterns here. One is that the attacker strikes from behind. The other is the location - that particular bridge. Why is this so? Glad you asked!

If you start to look at it with the eyes of a criminal, you will see that there are things in common as to why, when, how and where incidents occur. Simply ask yourself this: If you were the perpetrator, where would you be sure to find potential victims walking, jogging or being preoccupied with, say parking a car or similar? Is this place isolated enough; are there any escape routes?

It may very well be disturbing to think like this - I totally understand. However, it is the best way to arm yourself - using knowledge. And in this case here, the bridge in question is a perfect place to for a criminal to strike.

Should you avoid such a place all together? Maybe, but I will not say that conclusively. What I will say is that any place that brings up a red flag like this should at least be treated with great caution and heightened awareness.