THREE GENERALLY ADVISED ACTIONS FOR AN IMPROVED OUTCOME • Never let your attacker take you to a 2nd location. • Make as much noise as possible – shout “ help, rape, police” • Fight back if possible. what empirical evidence is there? That these strategies are likely to achieve better outcomes? Be advised that individuals who have experienced sexual assault may read this thread. Please post with due care and attention. This thread is intended to specifically discuss empirical evidence for the recommended responses to a sexual assault. Please do NOT post accounts of individual incidents as this is not what the thread is intended to be about and it could cause stress to readers. Can we please take the comments about good habits for self-protection as written. There are ample other threads that deal with these. A LINK TO SUPPORT for people who have experienced or witnessed a crime whether or not it has been reported to the police. Phone: 0808 16 89 111 (24/7) Home - Victim Support
I think if you are looking for quantitative empirical evidence, you would be hard pressed to find it here on MAP, unless there is a criminologist amongst our number that works in that specific field. The above advice I think stems from a qualitative assessment of a very specific type of sexual assaulter, which in some quarters (see Rory Miller) has been called a is a Process Driven Asocial Predator. So a Resource Driven Asocial Predator for example a thief or mugger, is not primarily driven by social dominance games (though it may factor in), so they whole schtick is to get close to mark and use a combination of Charm and/or Violent Blitz to cow the target into handing over their 'resource', which could be wallet, car keys, valuables etc. They consciously or unconsciously may make a quick risk assessment of the minimum amount violence it takes into achieving their goal, and unlike a Social Dominance Violence/Monkey Dance in order to keep doing crime and getting resources, they need to do it in as little time as possible and require as few witnesses as possible. A Process Driven Asocial Predator differs from the above in that it's not the resource they want...It's the person themselves. They will use many of the same selection techniques as Resource Predators: (Mark is lost/incapacitated/under influence/isolated/distracted) and use many of the same Charm/Blitz techniques (Forced friendship, interview from side position, sudden shocking violence followed by promises it will stop if they do exactly as they say), but while a resource predator wants to get the resource handed over there and then as quickly as possible, a Process predator absolutely needs to subtract a person from the initial scene of the violence before any witnesses will arrive. They calculate that because the stakes are so High being caught once could mean a long stretch where they can't indulge in their particular asocial self actualisation. Not moving their mark to a second location, doubts arising if the shouts for help have been heard by witnesses, signs of violent struggle that leaves evidence in public place, all make its harder for a process driven Predator to continue their activity and may affect their calculus. But moving them to a second location they can control seems to be the one thing that distinguishes often them from resource Predators. I have a well known example from 2 years which illustrates why this is so, but as you say a public forum is not the place for discussing something this traumatic. PM me if you want to discuss further.
I think botta is right - the modes of assault matter. Sexual assaults primarily happen to women and children and often happen within friend groups, social relationships and families. They type of assault differs also depending on the target and perpetrator. This probably isn't the best format to discuss this but if your in the UK stats should be publicly available or upon request. Bear in mind that its grim reading.
[QUOTE="Sexual assaults primarily happen to women and children and often happen within friend groups, social relationships and families. They type of assault differs also depending on the target and perpetrator.[/QUOTE] Thanks for this. I had meant to write in this caveat but totally forgot about it when constructing my message. I think its important to remember that the vast majority of sexual predators are known to the victims. Unknown predators modus operandi are well publicised even if rarer and you can usually dissect their methods in hindsight. But as far as I've understood when they are known to the victim the modus operandi changes significantly and may not always include physical violence as a form of coercion, but things such as gaslighting, shaming, grooming, isolation from peers and other psychological techniques. MAP may not be the best place to ask about this though, Unfortunately for good or ill our focus is usually pretty narrow. That's why its important if you work in martial arts or combat sports that you do a child/vulnerable adults protection course to spot the signs amongst individuals. Its not something that can be mitigated with a wrist lock or a punch in the face.
Just today I watched a video from Hard2Hurt (Icy Mike) about the "forgot my phone, turn and walk away from a situation" method of avoiding potentially problematic people. The same tactic can be used if you suspect someone is following you. Pat your pockets, say "dammit", turn and walk back the way you came like you forgot something. If the person behind you is innocent they will likely smile and not impede you. We've all forgotten stuff and had to go back. You may feel a bit stupid but no harm no foul. A few hundred meters up the road you can turn round again and resume your journey. But if the person was actually following you they are now forced to choose if they go through with the attack/approach there and then or abort and find another target. With the added bonus they are now in front of you rather than behind. I think the "don't go to a second location" advice is similar in nature. Forcing their hand. If the criminal could do what they want at the current location they would. Why else try and move you otherwise? By forcing them to act in the moment you are breaking their plan (ooda loop?) and making them choose to carry on or abort. I'd say they are much less likely to abort their plan at the second location because the second location will be pre-picked to be suitable to carry it out. Of course it's not black and white though. There are plenty of cases of people escaping danger while en route to another location in a way that might not have been possible when the situation started. One thinks of people getting out of car boots or jumping from cars while stationary or even while moving.
Yep! Agreed worthy of its own thread. How to recognise patterns of abusive, controlling, or cohesive behaviour. How to get out of harmful/potentially harmful relationships safely and effectively. I don’t know why this is not taught in schools. it is valuable information. If anyone has any links to websites with good content please post them. However for the sake of answering the question of “what empirical evidence is there to support common advice.” I would like to stick to assault outside of relationships. While there is a wealth of publicly available crime statistics. I do not have the skills or knowledge to effectively review them in a scientifically robust and statistically valid manner. Does anyone know of any journals or papers that cover this area.
As far as I'm aware, there has not been enough research to give a causal relationship between actions and outcomes. There is some data though: The effects of resistance strategies on rape. https://www.researchgate.net/profil...d08aef559dc44b53e/Sexual-Assault-of-Women.pdf
Many thanks David. This is exactly the sort of thing I am after. This gives me a great place to start. Realistically it will take a couple of weeks to find the time, but I will have a go at expanding from this paper to see if I can find more authors/ more recent papers. I will report back with what I find.
It may take a while for me to get access to these papers as most of them are behind paywalls. a cursory review of what I have been able to look at shows that their is a reasonable evidence base in favour of the advice. • Never let your attacker take you to a 2nd location. • Make as much noise as possible – shout “ help, rape, police” • Fight back if possible. one additional point which I want to look at further is the distinction between. stranger assault. assault by someone you know and assault within a relationship. on first reading it seams that their is a surprising overlap between actions to counter stranger danger and assault by someone you know. a curated list from my original serch bellow. 2022 Self-defense as an effective and neglected form of sexual assault prevention: A commentary and overdue correction to the literature Cermele, M McCaughey - Sex Roles 2022 An examination of noncompleted sexual offences, offenders' perceptions of risks and difficulties and related situational factors B Leclerc, D Reynald, R Wortley… - Journal of Research …, 2022 - journals.sagepub.com 2021 Senn, C. Y., et al. (2021). Testing a model of how a sexual assault resistance education program for women reduces sexual assaults. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 45(1), 20–36. 2021 Situational crime prevention in sexual offenses against women: Offenders tell us what works and what doesn't YN Chiu, B Leclerc, DM Reynald… - International journal of …, 2021 - journals. 2021 Edwards et al (2021). Effectiveness of a sexual assault self-defense program for American Indian girls. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 0886260521997942. 2020 Orchowski et al (2020). Integrating sexual assault resistance, bystander, and men’s social norms strategies to prevent sexual violence on college campuses: A call to action. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(4), 811–827. 2019 Jordan, J., & Mossman, E. (2019). “Get out of my home and don’t come back!” Empowering women through self-defense. Violence Against Women, 25(3), 313-336. 2018 Hollander, J. A. (2018). Empowerment self-defense. In L. M. Orchowski & C. A. 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