"Friend of a friend" is a dangerous category. Many parties go bad because someone brings an uninvited guest.agbullet2k1 wrote:Even while we were dating, I made my future wife carry pepper spray everywhere, including to her friend's houses, just because you never know about that "friend of a friend." She resented the idea at first, but warmed up to it after an incident where one of her friends ended up having 3 guys over, 2 of which where friends of the 3rd friend, and were giving her bad vibes the whole time. Nothing happened, but not having a plan to protect herself in case something went wrong rattled her. Now she has a can of OC in her purse, in her car, in my car, in the nightstand, and in the piano bench next to the front door. If only she let me keep that many guns around....seamusTX wrote:I have a comment about the slower decline in the occurrence of rape: Certainly the fact that women are less likely to be armed or otherwise able to defend themselves emboldens rapists. However, most rapes are not committed by strangers. 64% are committed by acquaintances or relatives, including so-called date rape (I hate that term). 60% occur in the victim's home or the home of an acquaintance. These rapists are not afraid of the consequences either before or after the crime. They may think that the woman will not report it.
The UCR statistics are sliced and diced here: http://www.aardvarc.org/rape/about/statistics.shtml
None of this is to say that women should not bother arming themselves. Of course they should. But they need further training on threat assessment and self-protection.
People my age (over this hill and picking up speed) don't have to worry about this much, but it is a real problem for young people.
- Jim