Combat Mindset and Criminal Behavior Good article by Tom Perroni:
Criminals must go through certain specific stages of activity before they can assault/rob/abduct/rape/etc. These stages will differ slightly in different types of crimes, but will generally fall into these categories.
1. SELECTION-
The criminal views you as a prospective victim. He looks at your "victim potential", on two separate basis. First, do you have the type of car he wants, are you wearing expensive watches and jewelry, have you flashed a roll of cash, do you fit his rape victim profile? We think of this as, "Do you have what I want?" If the answer is, "Yes.", he moves to the next question.
Then he evaluates you as a threat to him. First and foremost, are you paying attention to your surroundings? Are you aware of his presence? Do you look like you might be a physical problem? Do you look like you might be armed? I assure you he goes through these questions. We think of this as, "Can I get what I want from you, safely?"
If the answer to either question, "Do you have what I want, and can I get it from you, safely?" is "NO", then off he goes, in search of easier prey. Thugs are not looking for a fight. What they're looking for is the easy mark. Someone they can get to, get what they want from, and get away from, without being hurt and without being caught.
Several years ago, a fascinating study was conducted by some psychology students. They took photos of ordinary people as they came and went from a downtown business area. They then planned to show these to criminals and ask them to identify the people they would choose as victims, and identify the people they would choose to bypass. In the preliminary write-up, they said that they expected to see a 10-15% correlation among the "victim" and "non-victim" groups.
They then went >
to a state prison and got a very large number of career violent offenders (rapists, muggers, etc.) to enter a room one at a time and view these photos. Time after time, the thugs said "I want that one", and pointed to others and said, "But I don't want that one!" When it was over, the psychologists were shocked.
There was a 95% correlation rate! Ninety-five times out of a hundred, individual thugs, with no communication among them, picked the same people to be victims, or to bypass.
How did they do that? Body language. The only thing available from these photos was body language, but that was enough for the thugs to instantly identify the true victims as well as the people they would not risk a confrontation with.
Whom did they choose as victims? Gender, size, and age were surprisingly not the keys. Instead, they looked for people who shuffled along, head down, avoiding eye contact, unaware of their surroundings (Condition White).
In contrast, they avoided choosing people, even small females, if they were alert, confident, head up, and looked like they knew what was going on around them (Condition Yellow). Remember what he really wants. He wants to get to you, get what he wants from you, and get away from you, without being hurt or caught.