It’s about that time of year when all bloggers offer up Merry Christmas posts. OK, here’s a Christmas present for you: some nuggets of solid gold from Dr. William Aprill’s presentation at our Massad Ayoob Group Reunion in early December. William is a former cop, long since a psychologist, and deeply experienced with analyzing both victims and perpetrators. His message was so important we put him on the schedule twice: Once on how predators select victims, and again on what might be called “the face of the enemy.” Some of those nuggets:
“Random acts are opportunistic. A man trying each car door he comes to is systematic, not random. Most criminal repertoires are far from mindless. Suitable target + inefficient guardian = crime,” William explained.
Dr. Aprill: “Rapists are looking for passive and submissive victims. Rapists love to talk about themselves. One told me, ‘Ya gotta find one who’ll go easy.’ Another liked to walk up to couples, take them at gunpoint, and rape the woman in front of the man. The rapist had done this to one couple and the intended male victim, a doctor I actually knew, drew a gun on him and the man fled. I asked the man why he ran away and didn’t try to shoot the doctor. The rapist answered, ‘I didn’t want trouble, man.’”
Aprill advised, “Focus on not being chosen. They look for ‘babyfacedness’ because youth implies inexperience. They watch for what our colleague John Farnam calls ‘dithering.’ Predators select victims who appear distractable, scattered, multitasking. Someone who might be susceptible to ‘Let me help you with that.’ One of my patients was raped and beaten into a coma in her own home. She said her attacker seemed ‘playfully aggressive’ as he took the bags out of her arms, a clean-cut guy in button down shirt. He carried her stuff to her car and asked, ‘So, where do you live?’ She reflexively told him the area, and he said ‘What a coincidence, I live near there, can you give me a ride home?’ She didn’t want to take back trust she had extended…”
Doesn’t sound very Christmas-y? Consider…
In a season where a byword is “Peace on Earth, good will toward men,” we would all do well to remind our peaceful loved ones that not everyone around them bears them that good will. Whether you believe it was God or Nature who gave you life, that life is your most precious gift. Guard it cautiously, and teach your loved ones to do the same. It would be a potentially life-saving Christmas gift to send your loved one to one of Dr. Aprill’s famous lectures: https://aprillriskconsulting.com/ .
I – and William Aprill, and all who were involved in the undertaking we’re talking about here – wish you and yours a safe, peaceful, and indeed joyous Christmas.
Excellent advice that should be heeded by all, especially women. Don’t trust anyone you do not know well and watch out for phony injuries and physical diabilities. The very evil and cunning serial killer Ted Bundy used to wear a fake cast on his arm or leg and approach young women for help and those unsuspecting good Samaritans who took pity on him ended up brutally raped, ravaged, and murdered. Guys, especially homely ones like me, should always be wary of attractive young women who try to strike up a conversation. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all and stay in condition yellow.
Aim for the groin and fire for effect
Dr. Aprill wrote a great chapter in Straight Talk on Armed Defense edited by Mas. The chapter Violent Actors/Violent Acts: A Conceptual and Practical Overview is based on empirical research- to which I can attest being a behavioral psychologist myself. Dr. Aprill does an excellent job presenting theory and science so that a general audience gains understanding into the nature of the violent criminal actor.
One comes away from reading the chapter with practical considerations for everyday life. That is the mark of an accomplished scientist- translating theory and empirical findings into evidence-based practice. I hope I am fortunate to attend one of his talks in the near future.
Distracted people? You mean nearly everyone who has a smart phone?
To paraphrase Sun Tzu, the wise man is always ready for trouble, even during peaceful times. He knows conditions can change quickly.
Change of subject, but I think it is interesting that, at this time twenty years ago, we were preparing for the Y2K computer glitch.
Have a holly, jolly Christmas!
I seem to recall that liberals had accused the vile Donald Trump of conspiring with the Russians and Ukrainians to cause Y2K before Bill and Hillary ‘HillBilly’ Clinton, with their computer genius vice president Al Gore’s help, stopped him and saved the world.
Merry Christmas to you and yours !!
Ahhh yess, the Why Too Kay hype. I never bleieved in it, but knew meny who were convinced it would bring “the end of life as we know it”. I mostly badgered them with inane arguments… I’d joined a gathering of a diverse lot of friends at a home I knew well. Probably above sixty of us were there, mainly from nid teens into kiddle age. The Patriarch of the clan whose home had been opened was, as I recall pushing 70, still had half a dozen kids at home, and loads of friends. That crowd had many who were awespome cooks, the host was a master at barbecue, so we had INdian reservation salmon on the Que…. tables creaking with piles of food, visiting, live music, many long time friends and quite a few strangers to be made friends. As the HOU approached, the discussion did turn somewhat to “what if….”. I chuckled, convinced we were about to take a big bite out of a nothingburger. The ouse was a rambling old farmhouse, tucked into the head of a shalow valley south and east of tacoma, Washington. It was so rural that one could not see one lamo or light of any sort looking in any direction Even way down valey, nothing… not even a barn lamp. Main floor was grade level toward the road, basement grade level toward the valley, an upstairs bedroom in the gable at the back of the house had a group up there wiht a radio on, listening to the annual palaver from Madison Swuare Garden, preparing for the drop of the big ball. The whole place was well lit. Zach and I were downstairs, outisde the basement and under the deck from themain floor, we were preiaring to activate a signficant number of Indian Reservation Unsafe andInsane pyrotechnic devices, so as to welcome the New Year and Milennium in with a suitable quantiy f smoke, flash, and noise. The countdown to midnight started…. everyoine was listining.. as it hit Hap……. the lights ALL went out, the radio went dead (plugged in it would seem), everything went slient and dark. Since we could se NO lights anywhere, we could not check to see if it was local or global. A number had startd scremin, OH NO< WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO…. Avter a solid and very tense fifteen seconds or so, I heard a faint chuckle in the distance, out toward the road. I instantly recongised the voice as being my prime suspect from the instant tigns went black… the rascally Patriarch of our host family. I hollered out BOBBBBB YOU RASCAL!!!! He broke out with a belly laugh, others joined in, the lights came back on, the crying stopped… the fireworks went up with the requisite smoke noice and light… we all went back inside and raided the food tables again…. Ten years later, at Bob’s funeral a number of people who had been there stepped forward for a “word about Bob, and recounted that story from their perspective. Always the joker, that Bob guy. Barely able to hack out AOL emails, he was a computer neanderthal, but HE know it was all a hoax. I sure miss that guy…..
In God we trust, everyone else we check out . . . but in the meantime, Merry Christmas!
Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All!
I didn’t believe Y2K would be a problem. But then I heard Bill Gates say he thought it could be a problem if not addressed. Since he knows more about computers than I do, I began to take it seriously. I stayed home New Year’s Eve. All I heard about was two mainframe computers in Japan going down. Everything else was OK. I guess all the businessmen spent a lot of money making sure their computer systems were ready for 2000.
Predators never stop their hunt. They watch and prey night and day, at rest, during holidays, during times of chaos and quiet peace always ready for their moment of attack.
Living in a condition yellow, I regularly inhabit the mindset of a predator to be equally watchful, equally ready and to them, unexpectedly prepared.
Thank you Mas.
Stay sharp out there.
Dr. Aprill’s presentation was very informative. Heck, he even makes statistics interesting! Great information, even better advice!
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