If you live a full life, chances are you will be a victim of a crime. The Department Of Justice reports that 5 of 6 people in America will be a victim of crime during their lifetime. The question is what type of crime will you experience? Crimes range from instrument forgery to murder. In fact some people may experience many different types of crime. Some things, will increase your likelyhood of being a crime victim.



Although in different degrees, any type of criminal activity is damaging to the victim. Home burglary, purse snatching, theft are all common crimes. Even if you are some how lucky enough to have never experienced a crime against yourself you are certainly affected by crimes committed against others. You experience increased distrust among other things.

You almost certainly indirectly experience the cost of crime. The cost of criminal activity is usually transferred to the consumer in the form of higher prices. OK so we know that we will be a victim of crime. Tell us something we do not know.

Crime can be deterred. The key is not to be an easy victim. Think about it, if you are a car thief you want to steal the car from the easiest target. Car thieves want the car in place when it should be, otherwise; it is a waste of their time. They do not want to try and steal the car of a guy who takes a different route to work everyday.

This makes it complicated. They also do not want the person who gets in the vehicle and locks the doors within 5 seconds. Thieves want the guy who fiddles with the cell phone while he hunts for his keys. In other words they do not want to go in the garage when the same car is in a parking lot.

The same applies to home buglary. No alarm, no dog, no lights, all equal a successful burglary. A burglar wants to be invited. He does not want to work. You invite them when you fail to take even the basic security measures. If there are several people living in the house, then you share the risk of what they accept. You may lock all the windows but someone else in the same house may come behind you and open one and forget to lock it.

You may light the house, but the frugal family member may not see the need to burn the lights all night. You may be able to get into the house quickly, but you may have elderly parents who may not be as fast. The idea here is not to eliminate all the obstacles at once, but to know they exist.

Self defense is another area where you become a victim when you miss the basics. The basics are usually inexpensive. Becoming a victim of crime has long lasting affects. Simply looking in all directions when you walk can eliminate the element of surprise. If you are approached, being able to out run the criminal can certainly move you away from the danger.

Criminals do not like attention. Attention equals jail time. They probably will not chase a running screaming person. If you draw any kind of attention to the crime it will probably cease. The key point is that you can and probably will be a victim of crime. With this mindset you have already accomplished the most important part of your preparation.