Rape Preventitive Techniques

After professionals interviewed rapists and date rapists in prison on
what they look for in their victims, here are some interesting facts:

The #1 thing men look for in a potential victim is hairstyle. They are
most likely to go after a woman with a ponytail, bun, braid or
other hairstyle that can easily be grabbed. They are also likely to
go after a woman with long hair. Women with short hair are not common
targets.

The second thing men look for is clothing. They will look for women
who’s clothing is easy to remove quickly. The #1 outfit they look for
is overalls because many of them carry scissors around to cut clothing
and on overalls the straps can be easily cut.

They also look for women on their cell phone, searching through their
purse or doing other activities while walking because they are off
guard and can be easily overpowered.

The time of day men are most likely to attack and rape a woman is in
the early morning, between 5 and 8:30 a.m.

The number one place women are abducted from/attacked at is grocery
store parking lots. Number two is office parking lots/garages. Number
three is public restrooms.

The thing about these men is that they are looking to grab a woman and
quickly move her to a second location where they don’t have to worry
about getting caught. Only 2% said they carried weapons because rape
carries a 3-5 year sentence but rape with a weapon is 15-20 years.

If you put up any kind of a fight at all, they get discouraged because
it only takes a minute or two for them to realize that going after you
isn’t worth it because it will be time-consuming. These men said they
will not pick on women who have umbrellas, or other similar objects
that can be used from a distance, in their hands. Keys are not a
deterrent because you have to get really close to the attacker to use
them as a weapon.

So, the idea is to convince these guys you’re not worth it. Several
defense mechanisms he taught us are:

* If someone is following behind you on a street or in a garage or with
you in an elevator or stairwell, look them in the face and ask them a
question, like what time is it, or make general small talk, I can’t
believe it is so cold out here, we’re in for a bad winter. Now you’ve
seen their face and could identify them in a lineup, you lose appeal as
a target.

* If someone is coming toward you, hold out your hands in front of you
and yell Stop or Stay back! Most of the rapists this man talked to said
they’d leave a woman alone if she yelled or showed that she would not
be afraid to fight back. Again, they are looking for an EASY target.

*If you carry pepper spray (this instructor was a huge advocate of it
and carries it with him wherever he goes), yelling I HAVE PEPPER SPRAY
and holding it out will be a deterrent.

* If someone grabs you, you can’t beat them with strength but you can
by outsmarting them. If they grab your wrist, pull your wrist back so
your hand is in waving position (palm facing forward) and twist it
toward yourself and pull your arm away. It is hard to hold onto wrist
bones that are moving in that way. They stumble toward you and you
stumble back, so you can use that momentum to bring the same out and
backhand them with your knuckles in the forehead, nose or teeth.

* If you are grabbed around the waist from behind, pinch the attacker
either under the arm between the elbow and armpit or in the upper inner
thigh. HARD. One woman in a class this guy taught told him she used the
underarm pinch on a guy who was trying to date rape her and was so
upset she broke through the skin and tore out muscle strands – the guy
needed stitches. Try pinching yourself in those places as hard as you
can stand it. It hurts.

* After the initial hit, always go for the groin. I know from a
particularly unfortunate experience that if you slap a guy’s balls
(sorry to be graphic) it is extremely painful. You might think that
you’ll piss the guy off and make him want to hurt you more, but the
thing these rapists told our instructor is that they want a woman who
will not cause a lot of trouble. Start causing trouble and he’s out of
there.

* When the guy puts his hands up to you, grab his first two fingers and
bend them back as far as possible with as much pressure pushing down on
them as possible. The instructor did it to me without using much
pressure and I ended up on my knees and both knuckles cracked audibly.

Of course the things we always hear still apply. Always be aware of
your surroundings, take someone with you if you can and if you see any
odd behavior, don’t dismiss it, go with your instincts. You may feel a
little silly at the time, but you’d feel much worse if the guy really
was trouble.

Please forward this to any woman you know, it’s simple stuff that could
save her life.