Criminals don’t choose random people to criminalize in most cases. Sure, the occasional psycho who is out of their mind is going to do whatever they want. A criminal with a working prefrontal cortex is going to use victim targeting. Today, we are going to try to help you avoid being a soft target.
The best way to win a defensive engagement is to never be involved in one. There are some immutable characteristics we all have that we can’t change that might make us more likely to be a victim. I’m six feet, five inches tall and 300 pounds; I didn’t think I pinged high on the victim meter. It turns out that the way criminals choose victims is a little more complicated than that.
The Science Behind a Soft Target
Criminals might be scum bags, but they are still humans. Risk-averse opportunists who want their transaction with you to go as smoothly as possible. Victim targeting is the process of finding the right person to assault. In 1981, a study done by Grayson and Stein shed new light on the criminal mind.
