Anatomy of a criminal assault

Anatomy of a criminal assault.

Every criminal assault, of whatever nature, will go through several stages, as will the assailant. If we can identify the steps that the potential assailant is going through we can break the cycle and ensure that we do not fit the VICTIM PROFILE.

Every criminal will have:

·           A latent desire or active intent to commit the crime.

The commission of the offence will begin with the:

·           Hunt and interview

This is where the assailant identifies his victim and engages with them.

This could be the ‘Saturday night special’ “What you looking’ at” as quick as “I’ve got a knife, give me your wallet” or as we have heard about recently with the cab driver rapist, “I’ve had a big win on the lottery would you help me celebrate with a drink?”

The assailant will then use:

·           Positioning and holding mechanisms.

This may involve the attacker physically moving their victim to a specific location or positioning their own body to reduce the victims’ options by blocking escape routes or chances of calling for help etc. It may also be them getting into range to launch an assault.

Then will come the:

·           Commission of the crime

Finally there will be the:

·           Aftermath and influencing future behaviour.

 If the attacker walks away with your wallet and the satisfaction of seeing you scared and cowed and doesn’t suffer any consequences they are more likely to offend again, possibly using more violence next time. It will also affect your future behaviour and quality of life, as you will feel like a victim.

If they walk away with your wallet but you were able to get a good description of them and they are subsequently arrested it will affect their future behaviour.

If however they launch the assault and you are able to use justifiable and reasonable force, within the law, to defend yourself. You walk away, and they suffer the effects of their criminal behaviour then their future behaviour will be affected!

Note: Through training you will gain ASSERTIVE PRESSENCE and the criminal will disregard you at the HUNT stage.