Victim Vulnerability After The Scam – Physical Risks

The Psychology of Scams

A SCARS Insight

Scam Victim Warning: Something We Have Never Talked About!

VULNERABILITY AFTER THE SCAM

You have probably never considered this, but you are potentially in physical danger after your scam ends.

Yes, just what we said. Let us explain …

After your crime ends you are vulnerable for many reasons, but the most obvious one is your emotional fragility. Most victims suffer from trauma that can be anything from mild to severe – this is why we recommend trauma counseling or therapy.

However, it has been our experience that victims can also be vulnerable to other kinds of crime too.

Consider that your decision-making and risk avoidance are going to be poor after the scam, and you will be prone to emotional distress. THIS IS NOT A THEORY, THIS IS AN ESTABLISHED FACT FOR TRAUMA SUFFERS! You will be often triggered and many times these will result in fight or flight – mostly because the triggers will be emotional too.

REAL MONSTERS

However, we live in a world of real monsters. You should have learned that clearly, yet our experience is that most victims have not really learned any lessons about their own safety and personal risk until many months have gone by, sometimes even a couple of years.

We all accept that there are predators around us, right? You should also accept that you are probably not very good at spotting them while trauma controls you.

DID YOU KNOW

Did you know that as a victim, you broadcast your vulnerability?

Did you know that a psychopath can spot victims by the way they walk?

One specific type of body language that reliably distinguishes victims from non-victims is gait.

A previous study found prison inmates who had been convicted of sexual assault identified targets as vulnerable because of certain motions within their walk.

For example: U.S. Serial killer and rapist, Ted Bundy, who shortly before his execution confessed to 30 homicides committed in the 1970s, claimed that

“he could tell a victim by the way she walked down the street, the tilt of her head, the manner in which she carried herself, etc.”

This partly inspired a recent psychology study testing whether psychopaths used the way people walk (their body language) to decide who to target.

It appears that predators such as rapists and muggers select their victims by first observing a person’s body language, which they use to decide about traits such as submissiveness, and therefore ultimately vulnerability to assault.

A new study by academic psychologists based at Brock University, Ontario, Canada, and Westfield State University, Massachusetts, USA, has investigated whether psychopaths are skilled in decoding such body language, giving them an advantage in selecting ‘easy’ victims. This skill appears to be part of their adeptness at deceiving, manipulating, and exploiting others.

The study entitled ‘Psychopathy and Victim Selection: The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability,’ used a sample of violent prison inmates and found that these offenders were indeed more practiced in paying attention to body language clues relating to attack susceptibility.

Study link: http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/02/18/0886260512475315.abstract – but we have posted the study here on this page below.

Psychopathic offenders were found to be more likely to mention gait as a reason for their assessment of target vulnerability.

Psychologists Dr. Angela Book, Dr. Kimberly Costello, and Dr. Joseph Camilleri, who published their study in the ‘Journal of Interpersonal Violence’, found that these ‘victims’ display characteristic body language, specifically in their walking style.

Psychopaths are more accurate than the general population at judging victim vulnerability simply from viewing targets walking.

This suggests that if you change the way you walk or hold yourself, and possibly other body language features, you could better protect yourself from attack, perhaps particularly if you are a woman.

Psychopaths were selected to be studied in this research because they make up 15% to 25% of a typical prison population, and are responsible for 50% of violent crimes. These “social predators” are characterized by manipulativeness, superficial charm, deception, lack of empathy and remorse, glibness, manipulation, impulsiveness, and callousness, which all combine to produce the most dangerous people on the planet.

Psychopaths are particularly skilled in exploiting the weaknesses of others, and this requires that they become adept at recognizing clues of vulnerability in potential victims. Successful predation, therefore, is thought to hinge on signals of victim vulnerability or weakness. Victims are not picked at random but are chosen for specific reasons – for example, they may be less likely to fight back?

Previous research has found that men were more likely to select “submissive” women as potential victims after viewing short videos of the woman in a conversation. The female targets in that study who were perceived to be submissive tended to use “smaller” or more subtle gestures involving their hands and feet. Women who were seen to be dominant used more assertive or expansive gesturing involving their arms and legs.

Non-verbal behaviors, such as eye contact, body posture, and body gestures, appear related to actual and perceived ratings of targets’ dominance.

One specific type of body language that reliably distinguishes victims from non-victims is gait. A previous study found prison inmates who had been convicted of sexual assault identified targets as vulnerable because of certain motions within their walk.

These included long or short strides, weight shifts, and feet lifting. Overall, targets who were judged to be vulnerable to mugging or assault exhibited less synchronous movement in their walk. Another previous study found that women who had less-synchronous walks were perceived to be less confident and more vulnerable to sexual assault.

In another study, women exhibiting slower walking speed as well as shorter strides were judged by men to be more vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

In the current research prison inmates with higher psychopathy scores demonstrated greater accuracy in distinguishing people who had a prior (but undisclosed) history of being victims from non-victims.

Inmates scoring higher on particular psychopathic features were much more likely to consciously attend to a target’s gait when making their vulnerability judgments.

The authors conclude that although responsibility for victimization always lies with the perpetrator, their findings have implications for the prevention of future and repeated attacks.

Targets who displayed vulnerable body language were more likely to report past histories of ill-treatment, and psychopaths identified these individuals as being more vulnerable to future victimization.

Such findings may account for why some individuals become repeat victims; social predators are attracted to external displays of vulnerability.

The authors of the study argue that those at risk can be instructed on how to avoid displaying vulnerable body language, in turn therefore possibly reducing their likelihood of being chosen as a victim.

However, the effects of such training appear to be temporary, and the natural gait reasserts itself over time.

According to another theory, if our display of vulnerable body language is produced by a helpless self-identity, our bearing, posture and movements betray our inner insecurities more than we may realize.

To change the way your walk more permanently, making your pathway through life safer, you may need to not just change the outside manner, but how you feel about yourself on the inside as well.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

It means that after you are the victim of ONE CRIME you are more vulnerable to becoming the victim of another crime.

We have also observed that scam victims especially are far less aware of online risks after their scam, regardless of much they protest that it will never happen again. This is, in part, the reason why the average number of times that victims are involved in online crimes is 3.4 times.

We have also observed that scam victims are more likely to FREEZE if confronted by a crisis of personal safety increasing vulnerability.

LESSON TO BE LEARNED BY THIS!

In your normal life, be aware of this vulnerability. When you are in places where you can be victimized be exceptionally aware of your surroundings.

We recommend that you carry some form of personal protection, if only because it will help you feel more confident. A gun is not a good choice because if you freeze then a predator has your gun and the situation is far worse.

We also recommend that all victims report these crimes to their local police, and you might even consider taking out a protection order against the scammer, telling the police that you fear for your safety – because then if you are ever in a situation the police will respond differently.

Time and support are needed to help you overcome this victim vulnerability. We recommend our support groups (of course) but also trauma counselors and therapists – and make sure you discuss your vulnerabilities with your therapist both for your own awareness and also to get help overcoming them.

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Please increase your awareness of the risks around you. The scam may be occupying your every thought, but that is exactly how other criminals can take advantage!

Be safe out there!

Psychopathy and Victim Selection – The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability

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