Walking With Confidence: How Not to Be a Victim
Criminals are like predators in the wild. Most people do not know this, but those who walk a certain way are often the subject of an attack by criminals looking to exploit their weakness. Often, people who are walking fast and more fluidly are less likely to be targeted than people who shuffle along, drag their feet while walking or show unusual gaits.
Maybe you are skeptical about this information. However, since you walk around from point A to point B so often, you probably do not realize how vulnerable you look, even if you think you are aware of your surroundings. You may have walked around while texting, avoided eye contact, or maybe there is just a lot on your mind, so you are not paying attention. We are all guilty of this, but that mere moment of vulnerability could make a vast difference between becoming a victim or not.
How Your Walk Shows Vulnerability
Betty Grayson and Morris I. Stein performed a study in 1981. In this study, they videotaped randomly selected people, both men, and women, of all ages and ethnicities, walking around New York City in a high-assault area. They then took twelve prison inmates convicted of stranger assault and had them watch that video of those random people. For each person in the video, the twelve inmates were then supposed to determine whether they viewed certain individuals as potential victims. They then had a separate sample of 53 prison inmates who had been convicted of assaultive-type crimes against strangers, anything from simple assault to murder, then had these 53 inmates rate the videotaped persons in terms of assault potential.
What Grayson and Stein concluded with was that there seemed to be an apparent consensus among the criminals about who they would have picked as a victim—and their choices were not based on gender, race, or age. Some small, petite ladies were not chosen as victims, while some big bulky men were. The researchers realized that potential victims were showing certain gestures and body language and that the criminals felt as though they could overpower them. This idea was based on several nonverbal signals such as posture, body language, awareness of the environment, the pace of walking, and even the length of stride.
The pace of walking? Length of stride? Who has ever thought about their stride length before? But potential victims had movements that were perceived to be less fluid and more sporadic. The way they walk lacked organized movement and flowing motion. It may have been subtle, but they were seen as being less coordinated than the individuals they did not view as a victim. These people were considered as less self-confident.
Your gestures and mannerisms while you are out on the street are your unconscious way of communicating with the people around you. These serve as little clues that give away what type of person you are. Criminals are very good at reading body language because that is how they choose their victims in the first place.
Serial killer Ted Bundy admitted in a personal interview in 1985 that “he could tell a victim by the way she walked down the street, the tilt of her head, how she carried herself ....”
That is why it is necessary to understand how criminals think and know what they look for to avoid becoming their victims. If you do not fit that mold, you are less likely to target these attackers.
How to Look Less like a Potential Victim
As you go about your day, always remember to stick to the BASICS – Body, Awareness, Stride, Intuition, Confidence, Speed.
BODY
- When it comes to your body, you need to stand tall and have your shoulders back and chin up.
- Bend your arms naturally at the elbow and swing them as you walk
AWARENESS
- When you walk, you need to be situationally aware by looking around and noticing people and things that may seem out of place.
- Always know where you are going and how to get there before leaving. You don’t want to be wandering around looking lost.
- Be aware of exits and escape routes.
- Split-second glance. (We will go into more detail shortly)
- Take forceful, confident steps with a stride that is neither short nor too long.
- You don’t want to be sluggishly walking along, dragging your feet.
INTUITION
- Trust it. If it feels wrong, it may be wrong. Use that 6th sense and err on the side of caution.
CONFIDENCE
- Always stay calm, relaxed, and collected because it will reflect your confidence outward.
- Make eye contact
- Walk at the same pace as the foot traffic around you, or even slightly faster. By doing so, you will not be drawing too much attention to yourself, and this will signal would-be criminals that you are more athletic and energetic than the rest of the people you are walking with.
- Keep a comfortable distance between yourself and strangers when possible.
As you go on with your day, you want to be casually looking around, seeing what types of people are in your vicinity, recognizing and mentally recording your surrounding environment. This gives your intuition a chance to tune in, taking away any opportunities for a surprise assault.
Split Second Glance
Giving people a split-second glance is also an excellent way to show people around you that you see them. It is your way of telling them, through your body language, that you see them. If there is someone amongst that crowd that is up to no good, they would quickly know that you are not an easy target.
When a predator knows that you have seen them, they may look for another target because, at that point, the element of surprise is lost. Many people may not be comfortable making eye contact with other people, but you need to try and step out of your comfort zone here. You do not need to stare anyone down as you walk by; just a simple glance will do so that you make eye contact with whomever you are passing.
Steve Kardian, a self-defense expert, said that “It can take a seasoned criminal less than seven seconds to size you up. Seven seconds to decide whether you would be easy to rob, assault, kidnap, or whatever else is on their mind.”
If you keep your head down or buried in your phone, then you are not proactively taking notice of what is happening around you. Seven seconds is not a long time, so you need to be constantly aware of yourself and your surroundings. Stick to the BASICS.