A group of rapists and date rapists in prison were
interviewed on what they look for in a potential victim and here are some
interesting facts:
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1
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The first thing men look for in a potential victim is
hairstyle. They are most
likely to go after a woman with a ponytail or other hairstyle that can be
easily be grabbed. They are
also likely to go after a woman with long hair.
Woman with short hair are not common targets.
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The second thing men look for is clothing.
They will look for woman whose clothing is easy to remove quickly.
Many of them carry scissors around to cut clothing.
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They also look for women on their mobile phone,
searching through their purse or doing other activities while walking,
because they are off guard and can be easily overpowered.
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The time of day men are most likely to attack and
rape a woman is in the early morning, between 05.00 and 08.30 am.
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The thing about these men is that they are looking to
grab a woman quickly move her to a second location where they don’t have
to worry about getting caught.
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Only 2% said they carried weapons because rape
carries a 3 – 5 year sentence, but rape with a weapon is 15 – 20
years.
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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 realise that
going after you isn’t worth it because it will be time-consuming.
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These men said they would 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.
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Several defence mechanisms he taught us are:
if someone is following behind you on a street or in a garage or
with you in a lift 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 line-up,
you lose appeal as a target.
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If someone is coming toward you, hold out your hands
in front of you and yell “stop” or “STAY BACK”.
Most of the rapists 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.
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