In my post about the Criminal Mindset I discussed what criminals are trying to gain and what they are trying to avoid. In this post I will discuss how to exploit that knowledge for our advantage.

This will not be a laundry list of tips about wear to carry your wallet, or other little factoids but rather some broad principles that can be applied. I will also not discuss active measures such as fighting back, but rather how to administratively avoid being targeted in the first place for random street crime.

Do not advertise your wealth. The risks to the criminal are the same if the victim has $20 or $2,000. If the motivation for a criminal is financial, he would prefer the victim with a higher return. The criminal has to gather intelligence about potential victims to make an educated guess about which victims have the higher pay out. Below a certain threshold a criminal might decide that the potential payout is not worth the risk.

Some people advise you not to carry large amounts of cash but this may only minimize your losses in the event of a successful robbery, it doesn't influence the potential robbers. If you divide your cash in to groups and carry each group separately no one will ever see the total amount at once.

Conceal Personal Information. The more information that you make public the easier you become to target. If you have an altercation in the parking lot and the criminal can see your 'Proud parent of a Twiddler Elementary honor student' bumper sticker, they know where to look for you later.

Work identification cards, uniforms, and parking permits all advertise information about where you can be found. This is helpful to the criminals that want to target you in particular, or can serve as social icebreakers. A stranger that approaches you in the parking lot and saying "Excuse me, Don't you work at Initrode?" appears a lot less threatening or suspicious than the stranger just approaching without talking. By using your personal information they have created a social excuse to get closer than you might normally permit a stranger to approach.

Manage the Circumstances. Many criminal victimizations can only be successful under certain circumstances. If we avoid placing ourselves in situations where the circumstances are right for being victimized then the chances of being targeted go way down. The specific circumstances necessary are different for each crime, but there are some common elements between crimes.

Surprise is frequently an element of victimizations. For our purposes surprise is when the unexpected happens too quickly for an effective response. In general try to keep your distance from strangers or locations that could conceal strangers.

Seclusion is required for most crimes that take time to commit. Locations that are out of sight or sound of passers by are well suited for victimizations. In most major cities ten feet into an alley off of a busy street is secluded enough to carry out a victimization. Criminals might initially contact you on that busy street but move you to the secluded "second crime scene." Seclusion might also be a function of time as in the case of a park and ride lot, where it is very busy around the rush hours and deserted at other times.

Plan your risk exposure. Businesses and systems that are designed for the connivence of customers are frequent targets for criminals. Good prior planning can keep you out of higher risk areas. We cannot avoid all areas that crimes occur, but we can control the frequency of our exposure to these areas.

I don't like lists of specifics, but here are a couple of examples. Connivence stores and gas stations get robbed all the time, filling your tank all the way and buying all of your groceries at the grocery store limits your exposure more than buying a little bit of gas frequently, or stopping by 7-11 to pick up a single soda. Get your cash for the week at the grocery store and you can avoid frequent trips to the ATM.

Optimize for mobility. Being mobile is important at all phases of a victimization (or potential victimization.) Many criminals need to get you to stop for a second or two in order to initiate. If you can keep moving they never get the opportunity to target you. If you do believe that you are being targeted - always keep moving, do not allow the circumstances to fix you in place.