Three Main Factors Affecting Personal Safety

1. Lack of Confidence

Many people are not committed to maintaining their personal safety as they lack confidence in their ability to do so. This can have a twofold negative effect on their levels of personal safety.

Firstly, these people generally do not realise the capabilities of their own strength, power and commitment to take active steps to preserve their personal safety or deal with an attack. Secondly, a lack of confidence is also reflected in a person's body language, portraying vulnerability. This puts the person at greater risk of attack, as attackers target vulnerability, expecting these people to be far less likely to resist an attack.

It is vital for police to offer advice that builds the confidence and self esteem of community members. This will not only reduce the likelihood of them becoming a victim of personal violence, as a result of enforcing practical preventative strategies and demonstrating strong, positive body language, but will also empower them to take effective action should they ever be faced with an attack.

• There are a number of methods available to police to increase the confidence of community members including:
• the use of empowering language when providing personal safety presentations and advice;
• assisting people to develop their own personal safety plan;
• encouraging people to form the habit of demonstrating strong, positive body language, even if it is a bluff;
• encouraging the belief in each person’s own abilities;
• encourage attendance at personal development workshops or a self defence course; and
• sharing success stories. These are stories about people who have positively dealt with an attack. They illustrate how ordinary people can be innovative and committed to their personal safety, often realising their own strength and power for the first time. Success stories can be found almost anywhere including in newspapers, magazines, books, on the Internet and commonly by word of mouth.

2. Gender Conditioning

People are generally raised from birth to follow certain behavioural patterns as a result of their gender. Females are often taught to sit, speak, walk and talk like ladies. Many are encouraged to be passive and dependant, particularly upon males. Men on the other hand are generally raised to be dominant, independent, competitive and aggressive. Whilst these stereotypes are certainly undergoing modifications, many of them are still commonly held to be true by a significant proportion of the community.

The result of this gender stereotyping is that it enables some men to view women as easy victims, and use rape or sexual assault in order to gain a sensation of power and dominance. This occurrence is often compounded by the fact that some women believe they must retain these behavioural traits, e.g. to be weak, passive and dependant, even in an attack situation. It is unfortunate that women who stringently adhere to traditional gender roles present easy targets for rape and sexual assault offenders.

In order to overcome the negative effects of gender conditioning, people of both genders must be reconditioned to cast aside limitations placed on them simply because of their gender. The positive effects of gender reconditioning are plentiful, they include:

• Freedom for both men and women to explore and develop new roles based on personal choices rather than gender stereotypes. For example, females can be independent, strong and successful, and thereby equipped with traits necessary for maintaining their personal safety. Males can be nurturing, emotional and intuitive, and able to take on new roles within relationships;
• equality of interaction between genders; and
• increased social, domestic and career opportunities.

3. Lack of Education

Police personal safety advice should aim to address the three factors contributing to why many people do not effectively maintain their personal safety – lack of education, lack of confidence and gender conditioning.
Police advice should firstly aim to educate community members of the common trends of personal violence (such as the prevalence, characteristics of offenders and victims and common locations) in order to dispel the many false perceptions held. Only then can an understanding of the actual risks be gained and practical preventative strategies identified and enforced to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of personal violence.

Police advice should increase the confidence of community members, in their ability to maintain their personal safety, by implementing practical preventative strategies and demonstrating strong, positive body language. This advice should also encourage them to be committed to their safety, and have faith in their ability, to take effective action if their personal safety is threatened.

Finally, police should aim to reduce the negative effects of gender conditioning by explaining the damaging effects of conditioning to community members, and encouraging them to ‘recondition’ themselves, rejecting limitations based on gender. The achievement of these three aims when delivering personal safety presentations and advice has tremendous potential for many positive outcomes within the community. Community members will be better educated, confident, unaccepting of gender stereotypes, and more committed to their personal safety. Their freedom of lifestyle will be enhanced as will their quality of life.