Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

by Scott Hughes

Activists and social workers take on various causes. Nonetheless, many of these causes do not get the attention they deserve. Unfortunately, I have found one preventable problem that I believe most needs immediate attention – victimizing crime, namely violent crime.

Over 400,000 violent robberies take place yearly in the United States. Almost 17,000 murders take place yearly in the United States alone. Almost 100,000 forcible rapes take place yearly in the United States alone. Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.

When I call these crimes ‘preventable,’ I do not mean to suggest that we can create a utopia with absolutely no victimizations, including absolutely no rapes and absolutely no murders. However, we can drastically reduce these numbers, plausibly to the single digits. The preventability of the victimizing crimes in the United States shows itself when comparing United States statistics to certain other countries. For example, the United States has the highest rates of rape than any other country that reports such statistics. It’s 4 times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan.

However, this problem plagues the entire globe. For example, estimates say that 12 to 27 million people are in forced labor or slavery in the world today; most are female sex workers.

The question remains: why? With all the so-called advancements of our so-called civilization, why do so many victimizations occur? Why has society failed to fix this problem?

Lack Of Knowledge

Similar to many of the social problems that linger in society, ignorance causes this allowance. In analogy, children starve, because people lack awareness of how many children starve and of the preventability of it. In the same way, these victimizations plague society, because people lack awareness of it.

Firstly, many people, and society as a whole, do not realize the prevalence of these victimizations. Secondly, many people, and society as a whole, do not realize the preventability of these victimizations.

Common-sense says that neither people nor society as a whole can fix problems of which they lack awareness. The first step to protecting innocent people from victimization involves spreading facts about and understanding of this important issue.

Corporate Interests

When faced with most social problems, the people of society usually look to the government, the politicians and the so-called leaders. Thus, unsurprisingly, nobody solves the problems, because the politicians and the so-called leaders do not care about our problems or society’s problems. Rather, the politicians and so-called leaders care about their own personal problems and desires. Like almost anyone in their position would, instead of using their power to help other people, the politicians and leaders use their power to help themselves; they want to advance their own careers, make money for themselves, etcetera.

The private-owned prison industry creates a huge obstacle, because they do not make good profits with a murder rate as low as Japan’s. Greedy lobbyists, corporations, and politicians find a lot of money in law enforcement, weapons production, prison building, etcetera. With such high crime rates, multi-million dollar government contracts are a dime a dozen.

For that reason, the politicians and so-called leaders have no interest in actually fixing the problem with the allotted resources. Instead, they do such things as promote the enforcement of “victimless crimes,” so that they can waste (i.e. steal) the allotted resources while keeping – and even increasing – the crime rates. Indeed, the U.S. ‘wastes’ over $50 billion a year on the war on drugs, and over 25% of U.S. inmates are charged as non-violent drug “offenders.”

Lack Of Responsibility

Nonetheless, neither lack of knowledge nor corporate interests deserve the bulk of the blame. Indeed, the corrupt politicians and greedy corporations merely take advantage of the ignorance and laziness of us, the general population. To protect innocent people from victimization, we the people need to accept our responsibility and do it ourselves.

Woman are being raped! Children are being victimized!

We need to stop letting the politicians and so-called leaders waste our resources on such things as “victimless crimes” (a blatant oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one). We need to take our resources, our taxes, and our freedom back from the government.

We need to spread facts and information about victimization and the systemic prevalence thereof. For example, we need to research and report the prevalence, the causes, and the nature of victimization such as rape, murder, and theft.

We need to setup neighborhood watches, and physically protect innocent people from victimization.

We need to put the victimizers in jails, and keep them there until – if ever – they have been rehabilitated. (If the victimizer cannot be rehabilitated, which is often the case with psychotic murders and sexual perverts, then never let the victimizer out. In contrast, if the person can be rehabilitated, then rehabilitate them completely and effectively, and release them so that we free up the room and resources for dangerous victimizers.)

We need to learn and spread self-defense information and tools. This not only includes skills and knowledge, gained through such mediums as books and self-defense classes, but this also includes tangible tools such as pepper spray, stun guns, personal alarms, home security systems, cameras, and so on and so forth.

If the government continues to waste resources on “victimless crimes” and such, while victimizations still prevail, then setup private local patrols and security teams, who can work either voluntarily, on donations, or by charging a fee to customers. (I also recommend that one stop paying taxes to such an unresponsive, wasteful, and counter-productive government.)

We need to make sure that women, especially young women, never walk around alone at night. In dangerous neighborhoods, even full-grown men can be at risk. Similarly, we need to make sure proper self-defense measures are taken to protect people, again namely young women or children, who are home alone.

Regardless of whether we’re women, men, young or old, as a society we need to address this serious issue ASAP! We cannot rest so long as women are being raped, children assaulted, and innocent people victimized!

About The Author: Scott Hughes owns and runs this Self-Defense Blog.