Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

news and commentary about security, self-defense, and topics like violent crime prevention and bullying

Self-Defense: End Victimization!

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.

By | November 5th, 2006 | SHOW COMMENTS (4)

About

I am the creator of this website, which I use to post about self-defense and violence prevention. I have two children who I love so much. I want them to be proud of me, and I hope what I do here contributes to that. Please let me know what you think about my posts by leaving a comment below. I throw my opinions around pretty openly here, but I am totally open to opposing viewpoints and a productive discussion. So please post a comment. And follow me on Twitter: @scottmhughes

4 Responses

  1. Bernard Smith says

    The Five Stages of Violent Crime:
    Crime and violence are processes that take time to develop. The attack is not the first step, the preliminary triangle must be built. There are five distinct stages that are easily identified:
    1) Intent
    2) Interview
    3) Positioning
    4) Attack
    5) Reaction

    During the first three stages, you can prevent an attack without the use of violence. These are where the criminal (or violent person) decides whether or not he can get away with it. He may want to (Intent), but if he doesn’t have the opportunity (Positioning) he cannot succeed. The Interview is his way to double check if you are safe for him to attack. If these conditions are not met, he will not attack!

    What we are about to say is not hyperbole. Selecting a safe victim is a matter of life or death for the criminal. If he picks the wrong target, he’s the one who is going to die. Therefore, he’s going to make sure he can successfully use violence against you (Interview and Positioning) before he commits himself to act. Once he is sure of his ability to succeed — and has put you in a position where he can quickly overwhelm you — he will attack.

  2. Jeannette says

    I think that once more people start to understand that the political state thrives on human conflict (like crime), they will be better equipped to start taking responsibility for their own lives and end/reduce victimization.

    If conflict did not exist, then the political state, in turn, would have no real reason for existence. Apart from the rhetoric, political leaders are not seriously concerned with truly ending crime because it is not in their best interest to do so. Crime is a huge weapon of fear and intimidation for the political state. It grants legislators, law enforcement officials, etc. a justification for all manner of tyrannical, oppressive behavior.

    Instead, the state, employing the stick method, simply punishes acts of crime in and of themselves, ignoring the root causes of such acts. Rarely does anyone stop to examine why crime occurs and we have grown so accustomed to the parental authority of the state that we expect it to solve all of our conflicts for us. It’s a vicious cycle.

    I believe that only when we can start seriously considering these issues on a mass scale of public consciousness will we come closer to understanding the true nature of crime and how we can end it.

  3. Big Gay Al says

    To quote that great philanthropist, Al Capone,
    “You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.”

  4. dave says

    I understand the need for knowledge in self-defense, but the production of weapons could just as easily be used by victimizers. This is not to say you should or shouldn’t be able to fashion a device to your liking, but it is not a viable solution. I much prefer the neighborhood watch idea, since it relies more on the common morality of human-kind, and will be strong in a healthy society. The strength of the society will in turn be self-enduring out of necessity.
    However, I must disagree with the idea of putting people in jail and then rehabilitating them. They should rather be immediately consulted by their friends and their community, including the friends and family of the victims. I feel that jail is a knee-jerk overcompensation that may only serve to agitate more. In terms of the dangerously chemically imbalanced, they may only stand to suffer more from being thrown in jail. Rather, community actions should be set up designed to care for the mentally sick.

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