Article: "3 Techniques Predators Use to Hunt Women"

An article by Corinne Mosher at Warrior Poet Society. She writes:

Having studied this platform of evidence-based “real world” violence [i.e., surveillance video of crimes available on the Internet], particularly where the victim has been a female, I have identified three techniques that criminals consistently use to subdue or incapacitate a victim in order to take what they want. The lucky bad guy may only need to use one technique, the truly talented ones can use all three. I call them by the acronym A.D.D. which stands for Ambush, Distract and Disparity. 

By "ambush," she means "to attack by surprise, to fall upon, lay a trap for, lie in wait for," and it can be accomplished where the environment allows the criminal to surprise the victim, or because of the victim's lack of awareness. 

     Of course, we should all be familiar with the "distract" and various techniques of distraction. After discussing this topic, Mosher adds:

THE BEST resource I can recommend for learning to identify sophisticated distraction techniques is the book The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. I beg you to read this book. In it, Gavin breaks down these methods: Forced Teaming, Charm and Niceness, Too Many Details, Typecasting, Load Sharking, The Unsolicited Promise and Discounting the Word “No”, and lays out a clear defense for each one. 

     By "disparity," the author means "[t]he variable that gives one party a decided physical advantage over another." The author notes that criminals will generally not attack if they don't believe they have a disparity of force. Moreover, nature has generally given men greater physical strength and weight than most women.

    One point I would add to this, and it isn't always limited to cases where a woman is the victim, is the ability to intimidate or cow a victim into compliance, generally through fear, but it could also be because of perceived authority. For instance, a criminal might use a loud or forceful voice to order a victim to do something, use threats of violence, or express rage or some other act of violence to gain compliance. Someone that is naturally meek or subservient will be more easily manipulated by these tactics, even if it is more bluster than bite.