The Criminal Mind Part 2

By Peyton Quinn

In Part One of this article we pointed out that a potential criminal assailant will be far more likely to attack someone when they have a passive victim. We presented the example of a young man who seldom made eye contact with anyone, who spoke in a very low voice and who shuffled his feet as he walked with his head down. Being smaller than average and a racial minority in an ethnic neighborhood he had been assaulted many times by bullies and he was hospitalized from these attacks.

After a weekend of scenario based training at RMCAT he improved significantly and this made him a less attractive victim. He then went the longest period in his life without of being attacked after this training. Now realize, he still could not really fight effectively, he had just became more "assertive" and he showed less obvious fear when confronted. This man is a fairly extreme example of the fact that how we deport ourselves can determine if we are selected for assault. Once again, the criminal is looking for a victim and not a fight.

We interviewed a number of convicted felons (whose crimes ranged from forcible rape to murder and armed robbery) and asked them what they looked for in selecting a victim. We also asked them what behavior they might observe that would discourage them from selecting a person as a victim. Though greatly compressed here is the essence of what they told us.

Most of them would make some sort of intelligence gathering effort to see what the state of mind was of their potential victim. In my first book I referred to this as the "Interview". For the bully types this would most often consist of some sort of verbal abuse or challenge. An example might be a very surly "What are you doing here?" or "What are you looking at?" Of course their language would be more profane and colorful than what we choose to print here.

These predators would then see if their candidate for assault showed (1) denial, that is if they pretended not see or hear the threat and simply ignored it, perhaps hoping it would just go away ? and /or (2) Did they display other obvious signs of fear like not making any eye contact at all, or if they replied verbally did their voice betray their fear and uncertainty?. Indeed, their initial selection of victim potential even before this active interview stage was made among those who initially showed the more passive behavior.

Among the armed robbers we would hear thing like this: (1) "Well if before I even get into the store the clerk behind the counter sees me and makes eye contact, then I’m out of there" or (2) "I’ll ask him some irrelevant question like ‘Do you have this kind of beer?’ even though I see it right their in the cooler. His voice tells me if he’s scared or if maybe he already knows what’s up and he’s prepared to deal with it, or (3) If the guy stays behind one certain area of the counter, like he may have a gun there or maybe even in his hand already behind that counter, well then I’m gone. I’m not there to wrestle over no gun or to fight, I’m just there for the money and if I can’t get it easy there then I’ll just go down the road where I can".

Armed robbers differ in some ways from bully types. The armed robbers are more business like and also often more easily deterred than just "bullies". The bully just wants to make himself feel better by beating and humiliating another person, but for the most part they still look for passive game and they do not want a fighting contest of any kind.

As one person told us " …so I have him down on the ground and I make him say stuff to me like I’m sorry’ or ‘Uncle’ or something like that? It shows that I’m not such a ‘loser’, if I can control this guy, …that at least I’m better than him, I want to degrade him and that makes me look better to the other people in the bar or whatever"

Hence, we see that they are both looking for easy prey in either case, be it the armed robbery or the bully who attacks others in the bar or even in a street setting. Let me add, this is basically always the case with forcible rapists too. Rapist will very seldom choose a woman who walks with an assertive posture and who appears to be very alert.

But does this mean that we should try to act "tough" around such people? No, it certainly does not in my estimation. For one thing it is most often a real mistake to be provoking or challenging to this cretins. We must therefore clearly recognize the difference between being assertive and being aggressive or challenging.

The predator is very much aware that he can become prey too. This creates an exaggerated sense or an extreme need in him to be feared and to not be disrespected or "dissed". One convict we interviewed talked about jumping over the counter at a McDonalds to attack a cook who simply refused to re-scramble his eggs the way he wanted. In his criminal/predator mind this was being "dissed" and so it had to be dealt with immediately. So how do you think that predator might respond if you coldly told him ,"just get lost dirt bag!"

Yes, some can be scared off by such a display of "bravado", but this is most often tactically foolish to gamble on. It is also just not necessary either. One would do better by loudly and with some assertive projection demand that him to "Back off man! Just back off!" You might not see how different these two approaches are, but to the predator’s mind they are "night and day". "Back off!" most often is interpreted as "Just let me be, I am prepared to fight if need be but it does not have to go there". This way the aggressor has an honorable exit and is not being directly "dissed". But if you say, "get lost dirt bag!" or anything along those lines, to him this means " Your just trash and not a man so I don’t have to worry about you. You’re afraid or incapable of really backing up your threat and so I can scare you off with just a few barks".

Be assertive, not confrontational or even disrespectful. Make eye contact but do not try to "stare him down" in any way. Let him see that you are very much aware of him and his intentions and what is happening around you. Project your verbal boundary strongly, loudly and very assertively.

Of course sometimes it will take more than this to defend yourself, but even these harden convicts told us that such actions will sometimes motivate them to find more "passive game".

Peyton Quinn