"A crime of opportunity is a crime that is committed without planning when the perpetrator sees that he/she has the chance to commit the act at that moment and seizes it. Such acts have little or no premeditation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_of_opportunity
The first step would be to take your face out of whatever is stopping you from having good situational awareness. We have covered situation awareness before yet it needs repeating. If you want to lessen the chances of your security being breached the first habit to ingrain into yourself and your loved ones is situational awareness! Everything else starts from here. You can stop most crimes simply by building good habits. The first step is to build the habit of awareness.
Awareness of your lack of good habits, awareness of the fact there is crime, awareness most crimes are crimes of opportunity and awareness you can cut down on the chances of being a victim of these crimes by practicing good habits.
It may sound simple BUT acknowledging there is crime is the first step. Kind of like the 12 step program some of us might know about. First, you must acknowledge there is a problem before you can address the problem.
Next you must look around you to see what you can do to make the chances of you being a victim much less. There are several studies on the behavior of criminals which tell how they pick their victims for physical attacks, robbery, rapes etc. Each one of these studies has one thing which seems to be included in all of them, the person looked, acted, or gave of a victim vibe.
Which one would you rob if you had to? Which one would you attack if you had to?
Our first habit we need to develop is being aware of what could be around us. Next is to develop a habit of doing things to counter or lessen the chances of us becoming victims. But let's not focus on being physically victimized by someone. Because if you have ever had something stolen from you, you will understand finding your wallet missing, car gone or house broken into is another form of victimization.
This should be an easy habit to form. So easy some of us might feel silly when we do not do it and something happens. Lock your doors and windows to your home.......... I know sounds simple yet so many thieves walk in through open doors or climb through unlocked windows. Even seen the TV show "It Takes a Thief"?
These two guys would show how easy it is to break into most people's homes. They would also show you how to counter the break in's. Good show, was only on the air for a year or two. What would surprise you was how many times they found an open door or window. So often in fact checking doors and windows is the first thing thieves do.
Make securing your home a habit. Before you go anywhere make sure the house is locked up. This might be enough to cause a thief to move on. Remember we are talking about crimes of opportunity here. This also goes for your vehicles or any out buildings you might have. The shed you put your lawn tools in is as much of a target as your home. A person with an addiction will steal your lawn mower or TV, they just want money for whatever they can get. The easier they can get something, the better it is for them. Heck if it is real easy odds are they will be back to take advantage of the easy again.
We are not talking about turning your home into a fortress (yet) when you leave to go to the store, work or somewhere else you go everyday. What we are talking about is taking away the easy ways in. You can never really make your house thief proof, but with the addition of a simple habit you can stop the lazy thieves from having an easy day.
If we had to focus on two habits to put into practice these two habits would be the ones we should focus on the most. Being aware of our surroundings and locking things. How many events or incidents could be avoided if people had these two habits?
Situational awareness stops you from walking down this alley even if the phone tells you the shortest route takes you this way. Instead you take a less victim making route.
Locking doors and windows as a habit stops you from becoming the "easy" victim. This guy made an entire city live in fear because he would go through open or unlocked doors and windows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez
I remember as a child the adults talking about this persons crime spree. They would debate leaving windows opened or closed, which ones to leave open and what to do if they thought they heard or seen something.
(NOTE for the young folks. We did not all have cell phones back then. Odds were the phone was in the kitchen. Which didn't do you a lot of good if someone was already in the house. That summer was hot and no we did not have AC units like a lot of people do now. Yes, it was the dark ages......)
Of course using this as an example is extreme and done on purpose. Yet if we lock our doors and secure the house to keep out the lazy thief we can also keep out the serial murderer......
Start building these habits today. Before you go to bed check every door and window. Go out and make sure you locked up the cars, shed and garage. In the morning and through out the day tomorrow take a look around your neighborhood. Who lives there, who is coming and going on a regular basis, basically who belongs there?
Do this every time you leave the house. Lock the place up and see who is around. Do it all week and see what you learn about your neighborhood. See how many times you find an open window or door. See how many times the lazy thief, or murderer, walking down the street could have made you a victim...........
As Always,
Stay Safe!
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