- Understanding violence as related to personal safety
- Many types of violence exist, ranging from bullying to war.
- This information focuses on major types of violence associated with personal safety
- We must understand social violence and asocial violence and how to handle both of them to stay safe.
1. Social violence
- The aggressor sees you as a human being, not an object or resource, and the violence is not intended to end in serious injury or death; rather, the violence is intended to establish dominance or status or to claim territory.
- You may be seriously injured or even killed by accident, but the violence is not intended for serious injury or death
- The violence pertains to establishing, taking, and maintaining dominance, status, territory, and personal identity
- To avoid this kind of violence, we must practice extraordinary self-control
- We can control our own actions, reactions, behaviors, and attitudes.
- Avoidance of social violence starts with your own attitude:
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Don’t be goaded into reacting to other people’s nonsense.
- Control your own temper.
- Do not provoke other people with jerky behavior or arrogant attitudes.
- Try to deescalate the situation and back down BEFORE it becomes physical
- Once the physical violence starts, you are in a fight and it is near impossible to back out once the actual fight begins and someone or both of you will be hurt and you may face legal consequences.
- Avoidance involves good lifestyle choices
- Don’t hang out with violent people.
- Avoid dangerous areas and hangouts (like dangerous bars and night clubs).
2. Asocial violence:
- A predator human is using you as a resource to get what he wants.
- Could be a criminal person, a desperate person, or a full-blown sociopath.
- When you are in an asocial violent situation, do not worry about the hows and the whys, because knowing why this is happening won’t change anything about the situation.
- The person has already decided to assault you for a resource so discussing things with them won’t help.
- You must learn how to deal with the situation as it is and to get out as safely as possible.
- If the attacker tells you to give money, car, keys or you will be killed, then give them the property.
- Property can be replaced but your life cannot.
- Cooperating in property theft is the best way to keep yourself safe.
- If the attacker tells you to go with him, you must avoid that at all cost because the intent is to do harm or kill you.
- Don’t fight over property.
- You should fight to not be taken somewhere, kidnapped, or moved to a new location because the intent is to take you to a more secluded place to further harm or kill you in greater secrecy.
- It is difficult to deal with asocial violence:
- The attacker is not viewing you as a human but as a resource, a means to his end of getting something he wants or needs.
- He has already made the decision to act violently towards you.
- The key to dealing with asocial violence is avoidance:
- Consider the big three elements you can control.
- Make good lifestyle choices to avoid contexts where asocial violence may occur.
- Maintain keen awareness to notice and avoid problems.
- Work on your attitude so as not to appear an easy victim or to provoke others to violence against you.
