What a Convicted Mugger Can Teach You About Personal Safety

According to Salarno, approaching a victim doesn't necessarily begin with an obvious threat. It may begin with a perfectly ordinary question.

"What time is it?"

"Can you give me directions?"

The question provides a reason to approach you and may encourage you to stop, look away or allow the stranger closer. Once the person has entered your personal space, Salarno explained, he is close enough to grab you.

That makes maintaining your personal boundaries a critical part of situational awareness and pay attention to the subtleties of aggressive body language. You don’t owe a stranger physical access to you simply because they ask an innocent-sounding question.

You can answer someone without allowing them to continue closing the distance. Keep moving when appropriate, remain aware of the person's hands and positioning, and don't become so focused on your phone, watch or directions that you stop watching the individual who approached you.

If someone continues moving toward you after you have clearly created distance, treat that behavior as information. Step away, change direction, move toward other people or enter a business. Use a strong verbal command such as "Stop" or "Stay back" if the situation warrants it.

TAKEAWAY: MAINTAIN YOUR PERSONAL BOUNDARIES AND DON'T LET A STRANGER'S QUESTION DISTRACT YOU FROM THEIR BEHAVIOR.

One of Salarno's most important revelations was that a mugger isn't necessarily looking exclusively for a woman or a particular "type" of person. He described looking for the person who appeared to offer the least resistance.

That concept is supported by research into criminal target selection. In a well-known 1981 study by Betty Grayson and Morris Stein, prison inmates viewed footage of pedestrians and demonstrated considerable agreement about which people they considered easier potential victims. Researchers found that movement and body language were key in their assessments.

Later research has continued examining the relationship between gait, body language and perceived vulnerability. The lesson isn't that there is one magical way to walk that guarantees safety. It is that criminals may be watching considerably more than we realize.

Your posture, pace, awareness and behavior can communicate information before you ever speak.

Walk purposefully. Keep your head up. Look around instead of staring continuously at your phone. Know where you're going whenever possible. Make brief visual acknowledgment of people around you rather than behaving as though you haven't noticed them.

Salarno also said he looked for defensive weapons and specifically indicated that seeing someone carrying mace could cause him to choose another target.

That is significant because a self-defense tool can have value before it is ever deployed. A criminal looking for an easy opportunity may have little interest in discovering whether you know how to use the pepper spray, personal alarm or other legal defensive tool in your hand.

TAKEAWAY: LOOK ALERT, MOVE WITH PURPOSE AND MAKE YOURSELF A MORE COMPLICATED TARGET.

When asked about deterrents, Salarno identified two things without hesitation: noise and mace.

That makes sense when you consider what a robber is trying to accomplish. Attention creates witnesses. Noise can alert people nearby. Resistance can delay the crime. Pepper spray can interfere with an attack and give the intended victim an opportunity to escape.

A personal alarm can also be valuable because it allows you to create an immediate, sustained disturbance. Instead of depending entirely upon your voice, activating an alarm can draw attention while leaving your hands available to move, call for help or use another defensive option.

Accessibility matters, however. A personal alarm buried underneath everything in your purse cannot help you quickly. Neither can pepper spray that you have never practiced accessing or don't know how to operate.

If you carry a defensive device, familiarize yourself with its safety mechanism and operating instructions. Carry it somewhere you can reach it quickly when you're entering a potentially vulnerable situation such as walking through a parking garage, crossing a dark parking lot or approaching your vehicle at night.

Fight Fobs® self-defense keychains were designed around this principle by keeping personal safety tools together and readily accessible rather than buried in the bottom of a bag.

TAKEAWAY: NOISE, ATTENTION AND VISIBLE PREPAREDNESS CAN MAKE YOU A LESS ATTRACTIVE TARGET.

While most people are aware of the safety dangers in parking lots or in high crime zip codes, one of the more surprising observations from Salarno concerned suburban neighborhoods. He identified the driveway as a particularly vulnerable location. It isn't difficult to understand why.

When you arrive home, your brain naturally begins transitioning from public-space awareness to the feeling of being safe. You may be thinking about groceries, children, getting inside, unloading the car or finding your house keys. But you're not actually inside yet.

A residential driveway can also have fewer pedestrians and passing vehicles than a busy commercial area. Landscaping, parked vehicles, garages and neighboring structures may provide places where someone can remain partially concealed.

Develop the habit of scanning the area as you approach your home. Look at the driveway and surrounding property before getting out of your vehicle. If you use a garage, look inside as the door opens and close it promptly after pulling inside rather than leaving it open while you sit in the vehicle.

Landscaping deserves attention as well. Bushes and shrubs immediately beside doors, walkways and driveways can create concealment. Keeping vegetation maintained can improve your visibility when entering and leaving your home.

And if something doesn't look right, you don't have to get out of the car just because you've arrived home. Keep the doors locked, drive away and reassess from a safer location.

TAKEAWAY: DON'T SWITCH OFF YOUR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DRIVEWAY.