Citizens Defense League

In the year 2000, W. Hock Hochheim created the Citizens Self Defense League as a regular section of his monthly, international Close Quarter Combat Magazine. For years this publication's section, which reached 29 countries, dealt with crime trends, crime prevention and counter-crime methods.

Since 2000, periodically, Hock would conduct two-day, counter-crime schools as well as cover this material in related segments of regular training seminars. These "Counter-Crime Schools" and sessions deal directly with all aspects of avoiding, detecting and combating crime and criminals, and then dealing with its ugly aftermath on personal and legal dimensions.

Hock knows the inside. Few people are actually qualified and capable of really teaching these topics as Hock can, himself a veteran Texas and US Army detective and patrolman. He amassed some 1,500 arrests spanning three decades that range from catching common thieves to hunting down paid hit men and serial rapists and killers. He has personally interviewed thousands of witnesses, complainants and suspects and done case prep and testified in hundreds of trials. He is a graduate of over 100 schools and academies on street survival, assault/rape and violent crime symposiums, profiling, homicide, gang crime and many other crime and security topics.

Hock has also conducted protection for many actors, singers, bands, authors and political figures such as Tom Clancy Rudy Giuliani and President Jimmy Carter. He has synthesized all this experience and training into survival and achievement courses for police, the military, and the common citizenry. (Just see Hocks Biography and Endorsement pages for more details). You will find that Hock has actually done what many instructors claim they have done, or wish they have done, and even pretend they have done.

"I use my 12 Step, Self Defense Primer Program as a basis for these Counter-Crime Schools and sessions in general tactics seminars. This program is well-researched, well-received and highly reviewed among experts from all walks as the most comprehensive platform from which to prepare for the common and uncommon criminal attack. The program includes lectures, demonstrations, skill development, exercises and hands-on, active scenarios. It answers the big questions, Who? What? Where? How? Why? in a depth and manner few can teach. " - Hock

Contact Hock if you are interested in a short lecture, or business meeting, or consultation, or a one or two day, Counter-Crime School training seminar. Or ask for any martial subject displayed on the webpage and ask to include counter-crime materials. hock.hochheim@sbcglobal.net

Or attend a seminar already scheduled. Click here

The CRASH COURSE for Citizen Self Defense 3 DVD Set!

This 3-DVD Set consists of three hours of internationally recognized and proven, self defense strikes, kicks, escapes and takedowns to end an attack as quickly as possible. Many seekers are content learning just these moves, but many progress on to advanced solutions. This set also includes segments of Hock's 1990s TV show "Your Personal Safety Moment," shown in the Dallas, Ft Worth, TX market. These were highly produced, re-enactments of crimes and how to prevent and survive them.

Plus, get the 12 Step Primer for Self Defense Article. For more: click right here

And Now, A SPECIAL EDITION FOR YOU!

Win! Survive! Escape!

A 12 Step Self Defense Program for Citizens, Police and the Military

by W. Hock Hochheim

(Join us here weekly as sections are published)

Everyone and every malady these days has a 12 step program, right? Don’t they? From Alcoholics Anonymous to Dr. Phil on dieting to a Home Depot home repair job. For years I too have my own 12 step list for the basics of crime prevention, survival, and even military encounters. I usually pick and choose topics from this list when teaching and use points in different modules of physical training. About 7 years ago, Joe Hubbard of England urged me to publish the list, even to do a book or a film on my 12 Steps. He said:

“This is what all these new reality-based people are doing! You do it much better!”

Thanks, Joe. I should have listened back then. And since, I have been reminded again to do so by many others. And so I go on here. I think you will find this the most comprehensive and thought-provoking text on the subject. No brag. Just fact. In fact, I have spent the last two decades bridging the information gap between the military, the police, the martial artist and the aware citizen. Each know things about fighting that the other doesn't, and each benefit by the knowledge of the other. I have always felt that, other than operational intelligence, there isn't a thing a cop knows about crime and criminals that a citizen shouldn't know. Many terrorists and guerilla fighters today prepare and perform like criminals. And, we all desperately need the insight and the research that the aware citizenry delivers. So, at times, what seems to be a military strategy is actually a street survival tip, and vice versa. At times the latest report from the Harvard Journal of Medicine explains human response and abnormal psychology. We need each other to optimize our chance of survival.

We will start with laying some ground work, then move onto the 12 Steps. Lets establish a few foundations and parameters first. You might say primers to the primers. We must start by asking ourselves first, “what exactly is winning and to whom?”

Foundation 1: What is Winning? Surviving? Escaping?

You find yourself in a 6-man foot patrol in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. You suddenly are confronted by an entire battalion of North Vietnamese. Do you stay, fight and win? What if you are surrounded by a gang on supermarket parking lot? Must you win, win, WIN, as so many “Win Instructors" declare and pound into your psyche with their courses? No. Everyone's definition of winning is different.

It is small-minded, inexperienced, immature and plain wrong for instructors to preach this “must always win” mentality to everyone, every time. Their perspective isn't from a high enough altitude to see these win messages spread across the board to police, military and citizens, all the while creating a generic, confusing and dangerous message. Missions are different. Daily life is different. Citizens, soldiers and cops have different goals. Even so, for all these groups, we share the temporary solution that discretion may be the better part of valor, at times. Live now to fight another day when there is chance to win.

To a police officer winning usually means arresting the suspect, or at times. just staying alive. To a citizen it usually means escaping a crime or escaping injury, or possibly confining a criminal until the authorities arrive. For the officer or citizen, this may also mean killing a criminal. If you are in the military, winning means - winning. Both small and big battles. And it may mean also winning the hearts and minds of the populace around you. Winning may mean also mean escape to fight another battle another day. A prisoner of war wins by escaping, not stopping and fighting every guard and soldier along the way in hand-to-hand combat.

Who are you and what is winning, surviving, escaping? We all share these same possibilities and goals in the situational combat of crime and war. I warn you to be leery of these Win-Only courses and Win-Only teachers. Their altitude and perspective are unsophisticated, short and low. Their message is dangerous. Crime and combat are not like a Sunday football game. In real life, even a tie or yes, even a loss, can be a win.

Several ways to "win," or to "finish" a fight:

1) Escape from the opponent (using the "Orderly Retreat" concept)

2) Threats, demands and actions to make the opponent surrender and/or desist and leave.

3) Less than lethal injury to the opponent. Injure and/or diminish to a degree that the opponent stops fighting and chasing you.

4) Control arrest, contain and restrain. Capture and escort the opponent. Or, you detain/capture the opponent and await the proper authorities.

5) Lethal methods. We fight criminals and enemy soldiers. Sometimes we kill them.

Foundation 2: Research and Intelligence

Critical to proper planning is good research and intelligence and wise analysis. An in-depth study in the history of crime and war is an essential basis from which to proceed. Many systems and instructors miss their mark or completely fail when providing training because they really do not know what criminals and enemy soldiers can and cannot do and you lean much of this by knowing what they have and have not done. Your instructor must be a learned, intellectually hungry and people-savvy professor of humanity, from the very DNA and science of life to psychology and cultural, social science. College degrees in sociology psychology, military history, biographies crime and police science, then experience in the field, or reading books about them and from vets are some of the best ways ways to learn the latest methods of crime and war. Great places to hunt for information are college bookstores that also sell used books. Often you will find academic paperbacks on crime studies conducted on convicted criminals. Interviews. Statistics. Narratives. Commentary. Know thy enemy.

"Know thy Enemy"

“The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools,”

- so said Sparta’s King Leonides. So goes martial training.

Foundation 3: You/Him Duality

Dualism is a two-fold division in several spiritual, religious, and philosophical doctrines. Confusing sometimes, but at times the best and necessary means to proper explain the diverse aspects of complicated life.

When we ask a question or pose any of the primer questions to follow, each category possesses a duality and asks, “his AND yours.” For example in Primer 1, we ask "who will you be fighting," and then we dissect this enemy. But there is another personality involved here. That would be you. I then will also ask you, “who are you?” Who are you actually? Really? A superhero, or a guy with a bum knee and a glass jaw and not in our best physical shape?

In the classic movie Magnum Force, Dirty Harry reminds us, “every good man knows his limitations.” At first it was a cool, throw-away line movie line, somewhat off-putting because it reminded us that even our favorite tough guy had weaknesses and limitations? Yet, we still hear this 1970s phrase repeated by police and military trainers to this day. It is a mantra to realism.

Play to your strengths. not to your weaknesses.

Foundation 4: The Continuum from The Big and the Little Questions

When I ask you the big questions like, “when do yo think you might be mugged?” You might answer with something like, “at the ATM.” Good answer. Big answer to the big question. But the “when” question has many little ‘whens “ to it also. Like - when does he step too close to you? When does he actually pull and show his gun? When does he actually turn and leave? Why are the little questions worth mentioning here? All fighting is situational and positional. The big when question is the situational part. The little questions are the small positional parts. A lot of fight training eventually concerns itself with positions. These precise answers, the small and little physical steps of the enemy are important when planning to fight or run for your life.

As you learn these upcoming twelve steps, please remember the big-through-the-small issues surrounding your planned confrontation. We cannot ask every single question, big and small, every time, and keep at it, over and other again. Remember the big picture and therefore, the little pictures inside it.

"When will he actually draw the weapon? When will he say something? The small questions.

Foundation 5: The Continuum of Military, Police and Citizen Combatives Planning

The Mission, the Tactics, the Situation, and the Position are all imperative studies in a continuum to organize proper training and take proper action. This is the macro (big) -to-micro (small) preparation needed to design a fighting system appropriate for your goals. I break this down into four categories.

The Mission - Chalkboard planning. What is your big, overall mission?
Tactics - Exercise generic tactical training to execute your plan.
Situational - Define the exact situations you will be fighting in. Fine tune those tactics.
Positional - Define the precise and exact positions you may find yourself?

The Mission, the Tactics, the Situation, and the Position are all imperative studies all in a continuum to organize proper training and take proper action.

The Mission - The Overall Strategy
What is your overall mission? To stay alive and/or win as a citizen against crime and criminals? Is it a mission of enforcement against crime and criminals? A soldier against the enemy? Lets place this questions in terms we all can understand by using a D-Day analogy.

D-Day Analogy: We are all familiar with D-Day of World War II - the great invasion of Allied Forces on the coast of Europe. The generals got together and decided the master plan, being the over all mission is to land and invade Europe. The Strategy? What will the overall strategy be? Boats first, delivering man and equipment with an element of surprise. Then air and sea support. The army invades. Big picture, mission strategy.

Mission examples do not have to be about world wars. Here are some common wishes:

“I just want to defend myself.”

“If my family is attacked I want to know what to do.”

“I want to make it back and forth to work and shop everyday.”

“I want to survive my patrol shift.”

“I want to survive fights against UFC fighters.”

“I want to survive my stint overseas in the military.”

“I want to train people to survive their common predicaments.

“I want to turn little children into upstanding citizens through exercise, morality and karate.”

“I want to become rich teaching people anything I can to trick them into thinking

they are learning self defense or martial arts.”

Select your mission. Take care to select the system and teachers. Then start training for it.

The Tactics
These are the general, basic tactics, the generic nuts and bolts that seem to cross-over into so many diverse applications and situations, moves such as working on a pistol quick draw, slashing a knife, or palm-striking a heavy bag in a sterile environment such as a gym or a school so as to get a command and mastery of the move, You might call this basic training.

D-Day Analogy: You have your invasion mission decided. What big tactical movements will be needed? The tankers tank. The gunners gun. The planes bomb. The men shoot and fight. Medics medic.The participants must be trained the generic skills involved with accomplishing these tasks.

Tactical (and practical) training is the general tactics that seem to cross-over into so many applications, such as - working on a pistol quick draw, slashing a knife, or palm-striking a heavy bag. You might call this basic training. Next we’ll take these generic skills and fit them into the expected situations.

Develop command and mastery in the individual tactics.

Develop conditioning, balance with speed and power, target

acquisition and body synergy- full body support as needed

The Situations - The Actual Situation
We know the mission. We have the basic tactics. Then the problem arises. Fighting is situational. Circumstantial. Situational training requires more study. What are the exact situations you will be in. Where? This is done with crisis rehearsal in replications of scenarios. Who are you? (we are back to Ws and the H again!) Where do you think you will be? What will you need to make through? You might call this the start of advanced training.

D-Day Analogy - Now that we have forces trained in the basics, what situations can we predict the soldiers will face? Rain? Darkness/ Beach? Jungle? Desert? The army must then take these basics and fit them into situational fighting.

We teach citizens and cops to fight. Simple fighting in gyms and schools. But, then we have to look seriously at the actual places and situations they will actually and fight and die in. For a police officer, events surrounding a traffic stop is just one common place of a “cop fight.” A doorman/bouncer can guess his where and whom he will fight. A factory security guard will be fighting at the factory. What are the specifics of these identified environments?

What about street tricks, bank tricks, bar tricks? Robbery tricks? Domestic disturbance tricks? Swamp tricks? Jungle tricks? Simple fighting moves become more broad and complex when ensconced inside the real situation - the before, the middle and the after of a confrontation. Many people simply cannot make this connection from the air-conditioned class room to the muddy, back roads of the real-deal without help in the from of advice and training.

The Positions- The Actual Precise Position
If the situation is a mugging? Then the positional concerns are thing like “where does the mugger stand? What hand does he grab you with? Is his knife tip at your rib or at your throat? Small things. The Devil in the details.

D-Day Analogy- “When you thrust the bayonet into him. Twist it like this!”

This is the last level of training, the smallest, most personal, close aspects of a fight. Expertise knowledge. This is the very "pinpoint" right down to it. The general tactics may well work, but now where exactly and precisely are you and the opponent? This is the real fine tuning of tactics as needed. The finite situation. Like - you are on the bottom-side of a ground fight and his left leg is out posted outward. An arm Wrap trap or your knife hand/arm warp trap of his empty hand. His left hand is on your throat and you are up against a wall.

The sniper is in a window and you must cross an alley. You must draw a pistol from your holster with a wounded arm. Things such as exact position of the enemy, his arms, legs, hips, head, his weapon grip - may actually dictate life or death!

Sometimes, solutions relate to finite positioning. You could die because his elbow was low instead of high, or his hip was canted right instead of left. The more time you have to study? The more you can learn about the finite. When possible, the properly trained army reaches this high level of training.

In summary, the Mission, the Tactics, the Situation, and the Position, all imperative studies in a continuum to organize proper training and take proper action.

Foundation 6: Staying Alert - The Alert "Needle"

It is quite easy in our classrooms and on our couches to declare to all “stay alert!” and then to Monday-morning quarterback a flawed or failed crime, a raid, or a mission with a synopsis, “well, he failed to stray alert.” But, there are many training issues involved in the simple command of staying alert.

In an effort to promote alertness, Colonel Jeff Cooper created the first, popular color code warning system decades ago. John Dean Cooper of the United States of America, known to his friends as "Jeff", was a Marine Lt. Colonel who served in both World War II and Korea. In 1976, Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute or API. Later this became the Gunsite Training Center in Arizona, training law enforcement and military personnel, as well as law-abiding civilians. He was a war vet, a history instructor, philosopher, adventurer, and author. He was also widely known as "the Gunsite Guru." The Cooper color concept was drummed into my head in police training from the police academies in the early 1970s and later through in- service schools.

Condition White: White is the lowest level of alertness.
Condition Yellow: Relaxed state of general alertness, no specific focal point.
Condition Orange: This is a heightened state of alertness,
Condition Red: You are ready to fight and may indeed be fighting.

It is not uncommon for lessor gun-gurus to extrapolate and write and rewrite, and over-explain and overemphasize the simple message that Colonel Cooper first designed. Even the United States Department of Homeland Security uses a color code. The scale consists of five color-coded threat levels, which are intended to reflect the probability of a terrorist attack and its potential gravity. The Homeland Security color system is:

Severe (red): severe risk
High (orange): high risk
Elevated (yellow): significant risk
Guarded (blue): general risk
Low (green): low risk

The color concept is common sense to define. But at this point in our American history, facing terrorism, the color code idea was considered by the general public as lame advice, a joke and frequently made fun of in the media. For whatever reasons, you cannot over-emphasize the color code concept anymore. Cooper's idea was a brief overview and outline to get your mind thinking about important categories. It is an primitive, elementary school approach that too many instructors and governments over-use and preach as a biblical tenet or worse - a doctorate thesis. And at this point, it becomes the target of comedians, and a symbol of government incompetence.

It is also very easy to order someone to always stay alert. What color? What level? and for what? Here is the rub. Stay alert at about Level Blue What is that? While on-the-look-out for terrorism or crime, most people don't know what to stay alert for. Specifically. This is the largest complaint of US citizens with the color code terrorist alert chart:

"Will someone tell us who and what we are looking out for?” is the common public cry.

Security expert and best seller, Gaven DeBecker will tell you to trust your gut instinct, as the inert gift of fear will guide you. It is just not that simple. If you strip out all the intriguing adventures and stories out of Debecker's book you will be left with a boring, basic crime prevention pamphlet at your local police station. The information is the same but Debecker must be credited for making it readable and interesting Its dramatic message may help readers remember the basic pamphlet concept.

Stay alert for what, exactly? The Department of Homeland Security really has little to add beyond what DeBecker's book said. Their answer is:

“well, you know, look for something suspicious.”

Suspicious? In physical practice the proper training to identify suspicion is nuanced definitive, yet still diverse to cover all crimes. In courts of the world, there are precise legal "tests" and rulings on suspicion. We can get gut instinct suspicions, and that is all well and fine, but this advice does not cover criminal, guerrilla and terrorist methods of operation. The best way is to research and answer questions like these

* Who are the criminals and terrorists?
* How do they select potential targets?
* How do they survey potential targets?
* How do they stake them out to gather intelligence?
* How do they approach them?
* How do they execute the crime?
* Where do they park their escape vehicles?
* If no method of escape, are they suicide bombers?

The military, police and aware citizenry need to know these things. Else they will not identify the steps and tools of the trade to be alert for. Once trained, the information should imbed into the intellectual or gut reaction systems in your mind.

Can you stay forever alert as these gun-gurus and martial arts experts bark at you to be, and then will blame you for failing to do so should you slip up? The answer is no. You cannot walk through your life in this Condition Red or even Orange most or all of the time. Your nervous system will burn and fry and you will be diagnosed with a hyper vigilant syndrome by psychiatrists.

Hyper vigilance is an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of behaviors whose purpose is to detect threats. For example, a driver who has previously been involved in a car accident may devote so much attention to road conditions and other cars on the road, that he or she does not hear an accompanying passenger while driving. Or, common today, someone is ever on the lookout for attack by criminals or enemy soldiers. Hyper vigilance is a state of anxiety that often (and quickly) leads to exhaustion. Simply put, hyper vigilance is a way to describe a person in a elevated worried state of fight-or-flight.

One other point on this awareness subject. There are also levels of alert inside the general time period you are alert! How alert are you when you are alert? Does this vary? This level may change like needle in a polygraph, or one of those “feeling detectors” that pollsters use when tracking the reaction of focus groups to politicians making speeches we have all seen on TV news. Each second the needle moves up or down, drastically or not, but moves as the voter reacts to the speech. These needle movements are a universal reaction for all of us, the soldier, the citizen, the enforcement officer. And maybe its a problem?

In a common altercation there may be multiple, overt or subliminal reasons to think the tension, or the tipping point of the violence is over or diminishing. Our inert “alert needle”- the actual level of alertness or “guard” is lowered slightly. We may not even notice this! In these split seconds citizens, enforcement officers and military units have been suddenly attacked, injured and/or killed at this very "letting guard down" needle point drop.

I have been in probably a couple of thousand or so of these disturbances and altercations as a police officer, and just a few in regular life. Arguments and fights from domestics to car wrecks, road rage, business partners fighting - just a vast variety of people fighting for a vast variety of reasons. Bouncers and security officers see people tanked up on liquor or drugs and also witness this craziness. And we all know by the survival textbook, we should stay 100%, Red-hot vigilant while involved in these things, but it may be hard as the human animal that we are, we are constantly reading and reacting to the situation, second-by-second. There is a rhythm to these things. A beat. A music. And the surprise attack strikes lowers when the "music" lowers, just like a soundtrack at the horror movies. Learn the song.

Inside the battle, Napoleon once remarked said that the most dangerous time on the battlefield was when his troops thought they had just won. The awareness needle drops. The guard drops. In the Samurai spiritual and practical guide, The Hagakure advises, "after the battle, tighten your helmet strap." Or in more modern terms we revert to baseball's Casey Stengal and worry when exactly does “the fat lady sing?” In all situations, it ain't over, till its over, over and over.

“Will someone tell us who and what we are looking out for?”

Yes, I will. You should have a catalog of suspicious things embedded into your brain, beyond simple gut instincts. And, right here on this webpage and in my training seminars. You can best train to avoid all these problems by following my 12 Step Defense Primer and identify those areas in your life when and where you need to on the extra alert. In fact, this entire 12 step process is really an effort to explain, direct you to, and plan “what to stay alert for!”

The 12 Step Self-Defense Primer Program

So, with the foundations over , let us begin with my introduction:

“Hello, my name is W. Hock Hochheim,” I say at the podium.

“Hello Hock!” You all chant back.

“I am working on my 12 step recovery program. I will never stop working on it.”

And here are the 12 Primers:

Primer 1) Who, What, Where, When, How and Why

Primer 2) The Recon

Primer 3) The Stance

Primer 4) The Fear

Primer 5) The Talk

Primer 6) The Four Targets

Primer 7) The Four Stops

Primer 8) The Four Takedowns

Primer 9) The Ground

Primer 10) The Weapons

Primer 11) The Group

Primer 12) The Aftermath

Primer Step 1: W. W. W. W. H. and W?
Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why? The “Ws and the H.”
These are the classic cop questions when collecting a crime report and investigating crimes. The “Ws and H questions” must be asked again and again here in all 12 steps of the program to further fine tune the answers.

In Step 1, I set out to explain why these questions are so important. Crime and combat is varied and situational which is why there are very few universal answers and actions for people to memorize for every kind of jam. For a quick exercise in Ws and H, imagine problem-solving a potential, common mugging and answer these all the “Ws” and “H” questions. Base this on research and intelligence, you will have studied the victim, the location, the criminal and how he will attack you. This process also works with the most simple street crime on up to armies fighting world wars. Pick a single crime or a single battlefield and then answer these questions.

The First W - Who?

Who are you and who attacks you? In life, we fight criminals and enemy soldiers. Technically, if your favorite brother-in-law raises a fist to you, he officially becomes a criminal and falls into this category. Criminals and enemy soldiers. Sometimes we escape, we run them off, sometimes we take them prisoner, and sometimes we kill them. On the battlefield it is often easy to recognize who the enemy is. He is wearing a different uniform than ours. But armies have also fought disorganized guerrilla fighters since the days of Alexander the Great - men and women dressed in our common, or their indigenous clothing. For the military, the enemy soldier is a mix of all these prototypes, drawn from all personality types, psychologies and backgrounds of society. Here, in my course I will introduce and dissect the common and uncommon, organized or disorganized criminal and these automatically include military enemies.

In many ways this big picture of "who" education is the very underpinnings of all following segments. The "who" is about recognition. The who you know and the who you don't know. Keep in mind there is simply no way in this essay to cover the various personality types like pan-violent, frustration-aggressive, by-polar, under-controlled persons and over-controlled persons and on and on. Such is the intense study found in psychology and sociology doctoral programs spanning decades. This essay is about the initial recognition of danger and initial response, survival skills, just a working knowledge of who you might encounter is an achievable lesson.

Fortunately, citizens and police deal mostly with the common, disorganized or at most, somewhat disorganized, criminal and not the soldier. The uncommon, organized criminal uses imagination and planning to execute their crimes and escapes and his plans include the most heinous serial crimes. Start your study by problem-solving the common, high percentage criminals and then then spend time planning on the uncommon ones. Worst case scenarios.

With criminals it is often harder to recognize them at first for many reasons. Often you start out trusting them in the very short term, as when a smiling stranger approaches you; or in the long term, as with friendship. co-workers and blood and non-blood relatives.

“Keep your friends close, your enemies closer”

Who said that first? Shakespeare? Machiavelli? Rasputin? Don Corleone? Rooknaw the Caveman? You may not want to, but you do keep your criminals close whether you like it or not. People are more often assaulted, raped and killed by people they know.

This is confusing when you analyze crime statistics. For example, the New York City Police Department proudly proclaimed in 2007 that they had the lowest crime rate of stranger-on-stranger murders. But, this proclamation is a dubious one when you pull back the wizard’s curtain on crime statistics. Most violent crime is not stranger-on-stranger anyway. Your enemy is close and hardly a stranger to you!

Too close! If you are a women in most so-called, civilized societies, the Centers for violence against women say that 1 in 20 women will have stalker problems. 79% of women know their stalkers; 50% were in an intimate relationship with their stalker and 80% of these relationships were abusive. Your spouse is most likely the one to hurt or kill you. A child is mostly likely molested by someone the child knows. A man will most likely fight with his drunk brother-in-law, friend or acquaintance at a bar or barmitzfa. Burglars often know their victim. Dope dealers know their dope dealers. Gangs kill the names, faces, bandannas and tattoos of other gangs.

Family crime? Murder, aggravated assault assault, rape and other sexual offenses. In the United States, about 300 children a year are charged with killing one or both parents, Paul Mones said in his research book, When a Child Kills. Cases where a child kills the entire family, known as "familicide," are less frequent than ones perpetrated by the father. Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of a forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said familicide is more commonly committed by a depressed or jealous father. Slayings of relatives by teenagers "are usually spontaneous sorts of things," Schlesinger said. "While with the brooding, depressive male adult family murderer, it's not spontaneous, it's much more thought through, with obsessive rumination prior to it. With a teenager, it's almost always impulsive, spontaneous, and there happens to be a loaded gun around."

Mones said such family slayings of all types are typically motivated by one of two factors: "extreme family dysfunction in terms of physical and emotional abuse, or severe mental health issues that pervade the family, whether it's the perpetrator or the parents or themselves.

Still, the majority of family assaults are considered to be of minor in nature. In their book, “Crisis Intervention,” the authors, McKean and Hendricks write that, “To understand intimate partner violence, it is important to make a distinction between common couple [minor] violence and chronic [serious] battering.” The National Violence Against Women Survey (Tjaden & Thoennes) documents that “most physical assaults committed against women and men in relationships are relatively minor and consist of pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping and hitting.” - the difference between serious (battering) and minor (family conflict)

As far as identifying the common criminal it can be very tough, indeed. Imagine a company with little over 500 employees that has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

That company would be the 535 members of the United States Congress. Watch the next State of the Union presidential address next January where most of them are present and try to pick out who’se who.

Who are the most violent criminals? I am a graduate of a criminal profiling police school offered by the State of Texas, taught by both state and federal experts. In this class they identified the most violent criminal to beware of - a white male, between the ages of 17 to 25 or 28. There are a few other markers but the markers about things such as their problem childhood are not things you can quickly know or identify in a short term encounter. You may however learn of these markers though longer-term encounters. The history includes:

- Abuse, torture and sex with small animals
- A physical abnormality you may or may not can easily see
- Trouble with their parents

This generic profile is still true today, but by no means should this be the only profile of a potential violent criminal you should watch for. Criminals and terrorists come in all shapes, sexes, sizes, colors and religions and their identification is much more situational and about what they are doing and wearing and where they are. A totality of circumstances is the legal term and exactly who they are, is just a part of the identification process. In this age of islamic, fanatic and extremism, only a fool would not raise an eyebrow at the 9-11 look-alike's when doing things suspiciously in certain situations. I would expect no less of similar eyebrow raises against white or black people in certain situations. You must be properly educated beforehand and articulate why your brows raised. Stand by for more on that.

Who commits workplace violence? It seems every month some employee or ex-employee shoots up a job-site somewhere in the world. A profile of this character has also been developed. Unlike the young male profile previously mentioned, these jobsite shooters are usually male and over 35, and often have many years of employment at the very place they shoot up. Usually their work history is spotted with odd troubles. Forensic psychologists suggest that, “employers and co-workers should watch for changes in these problem-people’s behavior, attendance, productivity, personal hygiene, and social isolation. Killing sprees usually are the culmination of many years of unresolved personal problems and mismanaged stresses. Problems with alcohol and drugs, financial worries, and marriage and family pressures often aggravated their problems while coping with this fast-paced society.” Some of these business shootings involve perceived or real sexual relationships, or break-ups and divorces.

The next probability factor is an ex-boyfriend or husband comes and shoot's the relationship partner's business place up. Some of these business shootings also involve perceived or real sexual relationships, or break-ups and divorces. Keep an ear open to employees and co-workers in break-ups and really heated divorces. The danger zone includes the business parking lot.

Drugs, Alcohol and the Toll? A nationwide USA Today Poll conducted in July, 2006 stated that 1 in 5 people, or some 40 million adults have been addicted to drugs or alcohol at some point in their lives. Many other users who are not addicted are responsible for all kinds of negative incidents. This effects everyone and the recklessness, loss of control and desperation increases crime and accidents in all categories. This means that 1 in 5 people can cause of lot trouble, but so can the occasional users. When considering who to avoid? This would be a major category.

1) Who is the attacker/enemy?
a) The common, impulsive, disorganized-to-semi-organized criminal or enemy soldier
b) The uncommon. organized and methodical criminal and enemy soldier
c) The person is:

* the familiar person

* the unfamiliar person

* the stranger or enemy soldier

* trained or not trained for violence

2) Who am I? Really! Take a realistic inventory:

* am I trained to recognize violent

encounters before and while they happen?

* am I trained in vocal, de-escalation skills?

* am I in shape to fight for several

non-stop minutes or more?

* am I in shape to run far enough away?

* am I trained to fight properly?

* do I have or need weapons?

Can I fight against weapons?

This covers the who in the broadest sense. The following, other Ws and H will help flesh out more of the who details.

The Second “W” - What?

There are so many, many “whats” to consider that will be covered more succinctly in the following sections. But for now lets consider simple geography and people. What is going on? In general and in specific? Crimes on store parking lots increase around Christmas shopping season. Drug dealers, hookers and robbers flood to military bases around paycheck time. Pick pockets do extra duty at the Mardi Gras. Are you traveling somewhere that has an event-base problem? Do you live or work somewhere that hosts events that cause an increase in crime? If so? What are the events and what are the crimes.

In smaller specific are you near or in a rowdy crowd, bar or sports game? Do you feel the party or group you are involved with is about to turn into a fight scene or a crime. Get a good handle on what is going on in your life and around you, it could be the backdrop, the foreshadowing, telltale of danger.

What we do to the people and personnel when we fight them:

1) We chase them off, or-
2) We escape, or -
3) wound them, or-
4) We capture them, or-
5) We kill them.

What the military does with the enemy’s possessions:

1) we ignore it
2) we steal it
3) we disrupt it
4) we disable it
5) we destroy it
6) booby-trap it

What do you do for immediate help? Establish a plan in advance for getting help.

..a) Citizens call for:

* Shouting to attract witnesses and others at the scene
* Technology- call 9-11 as soon as possible

(if you travel to a foreign country, find out what that nation’s emergency phone numbers are.)

b) The Police call for:

* Shouting - immediate help and witness at the scene
* Technology to summon area back-up personnel

c) The Military calls for:

* more personnel
* more supplies
* air strikes
* evacuation

As you can see, inspecting the who and the what are really honing in important issues, people and places to consider and prepare for.

The Third "W" - Where? The Hunting Grounds

Where will you be attacked?

Where will you effectively strike back?

I began writing an article called The Hunting Grounds back in 1996, and with some research the article quickly grew into the thickness of a book. But, the work tried to cover only one question - where are the hunting grounds where criminals attack you? It quickly became apparent to me that to fully and properly cover the “where,” all the other “W and H” questions came into holistic play. In this newer, broader format here, we can excise, refine and define all the other questions since we cover them separately. Here alone in this section, we can concentrate on “where” we will be attacked.

And where will this likely happen? Have you noticed that everyone teaching self defense these days are so infatuated with the terms "Urban" and "Street fighting?" How many of you actually live deep, downtown in an “urban” environment? How many travel to deep, urban areas? Population demographics show not all that many. You will fight crime as police do, and as foot soldiers do in wars, fighting in the indoors and the outdoors of urban, suburban and rural environments.

Your Real Travel Checklist
When I was stationed in South Korea with the U.S. Army in the 1970s, I complained to my sergeant that I my world there was so small because I had so few places to visit.

“Hochheim, how many places do you go?” he asked me.

I thought about it and added them up. “Oh, about 7 places a week,” I said.

“If you added up how many places you actually visited ‘back on the block,’” he told me,
“I’ll bet you don’t visit more than 7 places week.”

He was right. I started doing the numbers and back home in Texas, my regular life was just as small as it was in the isolated, Korean village of Kempo Oop, and the attached Army base. When back home “on the block,” I counted up that I traveled to my jobs, a supermarket, a convienence store, a bank, a post office, etc. In fact, normal, weekly life was a very short list of routine trips.

Most people share this same short, common list. In short, the average list is:

1) Your home
2) Your work
3) Your common routine places of business
4) Your common, routine places of entertainment
5) Common deviations from these
6) Uncommon places like business trips and vacations

You begin to realize that forming a safety plan and safety net is not such an intangable or
cumbersome project. You can wrestle it down into manageable sections.

Answer these questions from your travel list:

1) How safe or unsafe am I at my home? How safe is my home when I am away?

"Nine out of 10 burglaries could be prevented if homeowners knew how to burglar-proof their homes," says Jeanne Salvatore, vice president of consumer affairs for the Insurance Information Institute. "The goal is to make your house look lived-in, Salvatore says, while you're living it up elsewhere. With the average burglar carting off $1,381 worth of goodies (not to mention your peace of mind), consider taking these measures before you leave home." Make an educated assessment about your safety at home, be it an apartment or house: What kind of neighborhoods are you in, or are you living very near to?

Neighborhood Tip 1: Evaluate the crime rates by asking opinions of your local police and
reading the local newspapers and watching the local television news. Observe the decay of your or nearby neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Tip 2: You should take prompt action to address area maintenance problems affecting your security such as reporting burnt-out lights, uncollected trash, graffiti, broken
windows.

Neighborhood Tip 3: Does this neighborhood, or your position in your neighborhood offer
quick and easy escape routes for criminals?

Neighborhood Tip 4: Be a good neighbor. Get to know your neighbors and their habits to the
extent that you can recognize deviations from normal behavior. They can do the same for
you. Also consider starting an active neighborhood crime watch.

Neighborhood Tip 5: Call the police when you observe a stranger behaving in a suspicious
manner (loitering and observing, approaching multiple residences without apparent business,
or removing property from a neighbor's residence).

Neighborhood Tip 6: Watch for suspicious neighbors? Many a local crime have been
committed by the adults or teen-agers of local residents.

2) How safe are you in your house?
If you were thinking like one of the “who” criminals we listed earlier in our study, how would you break into your own house?

House tip 1: Remove elements of “flash” about your residence that would cause criminals
to single you out as a wealthy target.

House Tip 2: Install and use burglar alarms and use visable, large “alarm alert” stickers.

House Tip 3: Secure your windows and doors? Do you keep your front, back and side doors and garage doors closed and locked? Can your interior doors be locked and secure from kicking attack? You can buy emergency time by be able to lock a solid door inside your house. Many safety conscious people will install a serious bedroom door with a solid lock in their homes for this reason. Nearly a third of all burglars enter through an open window or unlocked door.

House Tip 4: Install exterior lights where needed in dark and blind spots.

House Tip 5: Some experts suggest installing storm windows and doors. There is an
interesting body of “glass psychology” studies through time, about how another pane of
window or door-window glass may be a deterrent to burglary.

House Tip 6: Obtain a dog with grounding in protecting its people and property.

House Tip 7: Some the weakest links in protecting your house or apartment is through the
attic. Criminals enter into the garage attic and crawl though the attic and simply push open
the ceiling attic door and drop the stairs. In newer homes this attic access door is a normal
vertical door. These attic doors should be a secure, solid and alarmed doors.

House Tip 8: Arrange a way, either through a peephole or a surveillance camera, that you
can examine people at your front door before you open it.

House Tip 9: A safe room. Safe rooms are the single most important means for reliably
separating residents from intruders while providing a safe place to await the arrival of
police or on-site security. These rooms can be made safe from criminal invasion and
natural disasters. Do you have a safe room in your house? The entrances may be hidden or
overt. Ensure you have food, water, weapons and communication capabilities. There are
professional firms that will build these room for you, but you can manufacture a solid one
yourself.

House Tip 10: Have weapons you know how to handle, handy.

House Tip 11: Have phones handy.

House Tip 12: Make efforts to create the illusion of occupancy? That is creating the
appearance that an occupant is present. One example is keeping a car in your driveway. It is like a burglar alarm to most common criminals

Coming Soon! More Segments of The 12