The Changing Face of Crime

 Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump up. But rather than discuss that, I want to review one of his recent articles: "The Reality of Modern Criminal Attacks." We know that crime has fundamentally changed since 2019/2020. Greg summarizes some of the changes:

• Multiple attackers: As Greg notes, the day of the lone mugger seems to be receding in the rear view mirror. We instead see a proliferation of flash mob robberies that might involve dozens of criminals, to groups of 3 to 5 (but sometimes more) robbing stores, people on the street, breaking into vehicles, following people home and attacking them there and more. How many videos have you seen over the past year or two where someone tries to defend themselves against an attack and suddenly a bunch of the criminal's buddies show up on the scene to rescue their buddy and, frequently, administer an educational beat down. Remember my post from early August where a guy in Seattle was chasing down a crook that stole a bag and laptop from out of a car and there were multiple people that tried to intervene, conceal the thief, and finally spirited him away in a getaway car? This is actually similar to what FerFal describes happening in Argentina as the economy collapse, as he noted the increase in crimes committed by gangs. The lesson here is that your defensive plans may need to shift to be oriented around facing multiple attackers. That probably means that if you might want to consider a concealed carry weapon with more than 5, 6, or 7 rounds.
• Declining distinction between resource and process predators: It wasn't so long ago that criminals tended to fall into two categories: the resource predator who just wanted your stuff and the process predator who enjoyed hurting his/her victim. I don't think it was because a resource predator couldn't enjoy hurting a victim but because they wanted to get away quick or didn't want to unnecessarily escalate the crime to one where the police would actively investigate it. But as Greg has noted, an increasing number of crimes seem to involve criminals that not only want to take the victim's stuff, but will take the time (or assign one of the crew) to beat or kick the victim. Greg doesn't discuss the why of this change, but I will offer up two suggestions: First, due to poor policing (especially in urban areas), the odds of the police showing up or investigating has declined and so the criminals have a free hand to indulge themselves; and, second, given the racial makeup of many of these criminals and the messaging from the elites, there is probably racial animus involved.
• Compliance won't guarantee your safety: related to the point immediately above, Greg notes that increasingly it appears that not only won't compliance guarantee your safety, it may embolden the criminals to commit battery. 
• Younger attackers: Greg notes that the ages of violent offenders is decreasing so that the crimes now often involve teens or even pre-teens. Two points here: First, as Greg points out, are you mentally prepared to defend yourself against a 12-year old? Second, I believe we are seeing more because the gangs that are organizing the flash mob attacks and robberies are also increasingly using kids to carry out these crimes.
• Logical reasoning and de-escalation won't work: As Greg notes, you can't reason with attackers that want to victimize you as part of their amusement. 
• Everything will be recorded: You need to be prepared that your encounter will be recorded, possibly from multiple angles. This isn't just because of the prevalence of surveillance and security cameras, but also because an increasing number of criminals like to video their acts of depravity. (See also Greg's article, "Should I Leave the Scene of a Defensive Shooting?" noting, among other things, the widespread use of video evidence). Greg also warns:

Many prosecutors aren’t interested in filing charges against the violent kids who attacked your or stole your stuff.  They won’t hesitate a bit to prosecute you if you make what they perceive is an unreasonable self defense decision.