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Learn to recognize when you are in a fringe area | Know what is normal for that area | Parking lots | Stairwells | ATMs | To and from an event/location | Some places you might not have thought about Further Resources

Fringe areas are places "in between." And it is here that criminals usually operate. This is where you are most likely to be attacked, mugged or raped.

It isn't until you begin to consciously look for them that you begin to see how many you pass through each day. A fringe area is not inherently dangerous, which is why we don't normally notice them. There is no reason to fear them; it is what lurks there that you need to fear.

Fringe areas are usually places that you pass through on you way to and from the crowd. In the middle of the crowd, there are too many people for the criminal to operate safely. Too far from it, there is nobody for him to attack. At the fringes, there are enough people going through that the criminal can find victims, but not enough to effectively hinder him.

The main thing to remember is any fringe area is transitional. It is a place that we pass through on our way to something else from something (e.g. from a crowd to your car). This is a large part of why we don't notice them; We are focused on getting somewhere else or on something other than what we are doing. It is that focus on "elsewhere" that the criminal exploits to successfully develop what he needs to attack you.

The best example of a fringe area is a mall parking lot. There are too many people in the middle of the mall for the criminal to be successful. And by the time you are in your car and driving away, you are beyond his reach. A parking lot, however, meets the criteria he needs. There are enough people to find a victim, you are out of reach of immediate help, he can still get to you *and* he can easily escape after he has mugged you.

You don't need to be paranoid about entering a fringe area, but you have to look around when entering one. Things that are "out of place" in fringe areas carry far greater weight than they would in other circumstances. Developing the habit of scanning a fringe area is a critical component of creating your Pyramid of Personal Safety.

As we often say, "You don't want to walk into the lion's den, so the trick is to recognize when an area has turned from a fringe into the lion's den"

Learn to recognize when you are in a fringe area.
Most fringe areas are transitional but, that is not always the case. A fringe area is any place that you are beyond "immediate help." That means: Would it take longer than 30 seconds for help to get to you?

That is all the longer it takes for a mugger to rob you. Granted, when you are staring down the barrel of a gun, 10 seconds seems like 10 years, but the reason most robberies are successful is their blitzkrieg nature. They happen blindingly fast. By the time help reaches you, the criminal is speeding away.

Another standard: Would anyone hear you if you screamed?

Many a young woman has been raped at a party, but, because she is in another room with the door closed, nobody hears her cries for help. Many assaults happen in stairways for the same reason.

It takes no more than a week of paying attention to learn to immediately spot a fringe area. Once you know what to look for, they become glaringly obvious. The next step is accomplished at the same time.

Know what is normal for that area
What is the normal behavior for people in that area/situation?

Before you can accurately assess when something is wrong, you need to have a recognized standard of what is right. While that may sound obvious, most people have never really thought about it. When they see something is out of sync with the norm, the best they can muster is, "I don't know what is wrong, but I know something isn't right." It is during this confusion that the criminal gets into position to successfully attack.

The best example of this is - before reading on further - answer this question: What is normal behavior for people in a parking lot?

Don't be surprised if it took you a few seconds before answering "walking to and from cars" -- or if your answer wasn't that specific. In many ways the answer is so obvious that it is hard to shift gears to recognize something so basic.

Parking lots are transitional places: You are either walking or driving in/out of them -- you are not loitering. If someone is not moving, there is usually an immediately identifiable reason. The car hood is up, they are unloading or loading their vehicle, preparing to drive or gathering something up, getting something out of the trunk, fussing with a problem before they walk out of the parking lot.

It is not normal to loiter in parking lots -- except for very specific circumstances. People will walk to a car and spend a few moments talking before departing. These groups tend to be insular and exclusive. That is to say, they are turned in and talking to each other ignoring what is going on around them.

These are both common and normal behaviors for the average parking lot. You see them so often that you probably don't even pay attention to them anymore. Now, what is abnormal for a parking lot?

First of all, someone loitering is showing wrong behavior for a parking lot -- especially if he doesn't have an immediately identifiable reason for being there. People who are waiting for someone tend to wait right next to their car. And in fact, if you think about it, it is rather obvious if it is his car or not. (People who sit or lean on cars, don't tend to have nice cars). More common however, is that the driver waits for the person by sitting in his car.

Unless their car is broken down, people don't generally wait for other people to pick them up in a parking lot. Usually they wait inside an establishment, or if they are waiting outside, they wait by the door or on the corner. If they do wait in a parking lot it is either near their broken down car or at the driveway for easy pick up and in plain sight from the street. You don't loiter in a "generalized way" in the depths parking lot. That shows something is not quite right.

The idea of a "generalized manner" is important. Another indication that something is amiss is lack of "laser focus." It is a binary focus, there is your car and your destination, everything else is background and not worth notice. There is no casual meandering from car to car, taking the scenic route or hovering around a non-specific area. This is why someone who is wandering through a parking lot, looking into cars stands out like a sore thumb. While casual glances at cars occur, a methodical search is glaringly obvious.

When you walk into a parking lot and a group of young toughs are lined up against the wall and watching people pass, something is amiss. Normal people tend to cluster. While they may glance at you, they quickly return their attention to the group, dismissing you as unimportant. If they don't, something is wrong, and you better not walk into the middle of it. This is why watching who is watching you is such an important robbery avoidance tip.

Another point of normal is "how do people walk through parking lots?"

Generally pedestrians will follow the driving aisles. If they do cut between cars, it will be consistent with their goal (i.e., heading for the entrance). Cutting between cars is a "short cut" to that goal. What is important to realize is that they still have that laser sighting on their destination. A person who is meandering or changing his course to intercept you is not acting in a normal manner for the location. He should be considered dangerous or up to no good.

We unconsciously know what is "normal" for a great many situations. We see it every day. In fact, we see it so much that we don't see it anymore. It has become a part of the unnoticed background. Unfortunately, it has become so commonplace that we have forgotten why abnormal behavior in that situation is abnormal -- we know it isn't right, but we don't know why. It isn't until we consciously sit down and think that we can slowly explain what it was that we saw and knew...but couldn't figure out in time.

This is a small sampling of what is normal for parking lots. And if you think about it, there is nothing we have said that you didn't already know. We unconsciously know these things. Because we take them for granted, however, we are often at loss when things go wrong. It isn't until we spend time consciously paying attention to what we already know that we can immediately identify what exactly is wrong with a situation. There are many other situations and locations that you need to review -- especially the ones you regularly find yourself.

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Parking lots
Although there are many fringe areas, we tend to emphasize parking lots. Simply stated there is no place more likely for you to be robbed than a parking lot. They are a hotbed of carjackings. And most personal robberies happen here(1). The presence of vehicles also makes it easy for rapists to kidnap a victim and take her to a secondary location for rape.

Parking lots offer the best advantages of fringe areas. They are close enough to where people congregate to offer enough passerbys to choose the best victims. Parking lots are isolated enough that a victim will be beyond immediate help. And someone rich enough to afford a car will have money (or goods worth stealing). Most people are "wrapped up in their own head" while passing through the area and not paying attention to what is going on around them. This makes it easy to set them up for a violent assault or robbery. In addition, the areas offer easy escape routes for the criminal(s) in that they have easy access to the streets and they can obstruct your view (by jumping into a car the next aisle over and speeding away, odds are that you will not see the license plate).

We have already explained many of the identifiable behaviors that tell you something is amiss, but there are a few more refinements. It isn't just loitering in a parking lot that is a danger sign, but *where* someone is waiting. Although there is extreme paranoia about specifically targeted assaults (e.g., the guy hiding under the car and grabbing your ankle) those kinds of attacks are, in fact, so rare as to be almost statistically meaningless. An overwhelming majority of attackers are loitering by the pedestrian entrance of the parking structure or area.

Would-be robbers in parking lots most often position themselves in a place where they can observe people passing by and either follow them to their car or intercept them along the way. The criminal is not psychic. He doesn't know where your car is when you enter the parking lot. This is why loitering off at the far end -- which while good for drug deals and illegal drinking -- is not a winning strategy for mugging someone. If he were to take such a position, you likely get into your car and drive away before he can reach you. This means he or they usually take up a position at the pedestrian entrance or within the first third of where you enter the parking lot. From there, they can easily intercept or follow you to where ever you are going.

When you enter a parking structure and you see a loitering person or a group, the bells need to go off. This is a serious sign of not potential, but probable, trouble. Continuing on is literally walking into the lion's jaws -- especially if they focus on you. This is one of the reasons you need to pretend you are a mugger for a week. Once you have done this exercise, seeing someone in this position will scream danger to you.

It also is not uncommon for muggers to "hang out" at the mall entrance under the guise of smoking. Although not as common, selecting a victim who is in the mall and then following her out to her car also occurs. Both of these can be foiled by simply looking around -- and that includes behind you -- when entering a fringe area. If someone follows, return to the mall.

It is also important to remember that within a large fringe area there can be several smaller ones. For example, a wide-open parking lot can be checked in its entirety with two two-second glances (one when you enter, one when you reach your vehicle). However, a parking structure or a "wrap around" parking lot (the sort where parking is so vast that "wings" wrap around the building, obscuring your view of the front door) may require four or five checks as you enter into new "blind spots" or levels.

We mentioned earlier that there is a certain element that does "hang out" in parking lots. Generally speaking, such people are up to no good anyway. This is not to say that they are robbers per se, but if a police car were to pull up, their lives would get rather interesting. It is not uncommon to see these types hanging out near liquor stores or other places of interest to them. Basically the easiest way to handle this situation is to take your business elsewhere. In fact, you might want to take yourself elsewhere because you are not in a nice part of town if this kind of event is occurring.

Generally speaking, however, these types will not be immediately near the door of the business. A savvy business owner will run them off rather than let them linger too close to the door and chase away business. As long as you can park next to the door, they should not be much of a problem. It is when you have to walk by them that they can become a problem.

These people usually want to position themselves far enough away to see a police car approaching. That allows them to start wandering away and divest themselves of anything that would result in their being arrested (this also holds true in parks). As long as they stay over there, it is no problem.

While individuals will come and go from time to time, such a pack doesn't generally move without reason. If you enter such an area and the pack goes into motion GO BACK! That's right, turn around and return to where you came from. If you are wrong about their intentions then they will pass from the area. If they are up to no good you will have foiled their attempt to rob you. (If you see a pack following you from an entrance, obviously don't turn back into their midst, but instead loop around, putting obstacles between you and head for the entrance)

A serious danger sign is when you enter a parking lot and see a group spread out along a wall. Do NOT continue as it is a specific type of trap described in the video Safe in the Street. When present in a fringe area, you are literally asking to be raped, robbed or shot if you proceed. Return to the establishment and inform management. From there, the manager will decide if he needs to call the police.

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Stairwells/Elevators
Enclosed stairwells are often the loitering place for those who have no place to go and are seeking shelter from the weather. The fact that such a person is homeless proves that there is something wrong with his people skills to begin with. The question then becomes "just how twisted is this person?"

More importantly, do you really want to find out?

A stairwell is the ultimate in transitional areas. They are not an area where you linger, loiter or hang out. If you see someone standing there, something is wrong. In open air staircases you may find someone smoking on the stoop, when that cigarette is done, the person returns to the apartment or business from whence he or she came. If you see someone smoking on the stairway and you aren't sure about them, wait a few minutes until the finish their cigarette...if they linger, you know something is amiss.

In an office building it is better to take the elevator. If you insist on taking the stairwell, take a cell phone. If you encounter someone suspicious on your way down, turn around and head back upstairs. If the door locks behind you, call someone in your office and ask them to open the door.

Elevators don't tend to be as dangerous as stairwells. Despite all those movie scenes where a couple proceeds to have wild, passionate clothes-ripping-sex after stopping the elevator, in any building built after 1950 you cannot hit the stop button without alarms screaming.

Also the fact that elevators tend to be continuously peopled tend to make them less dangerous. This doesn't mean you cannot be followed from an elevator. This is why it is best *not* to ride up with someone who makes you nervous. There is nothing that says you can't wait for the next car.

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ATMs
Most ATMS are located so they will not interfere with pedestrian traffic. This often means they are off the beaten path. In some older parts of town and in regions of inclement weather, these are put inside small, enclosed areas. This unfortunately attracts homeless bums who shelter in these enclaves. Do not go into such an area if such a character is present. In order to do your transaction, you have to turn your back on him. And getting hit over the head with a bottle will put you in a hospital.

Before proceeding look around in more open areas with ATMs. If you watch people walking towards an ATM, you will notice that most do not look around. They are so laser sighted on what they are doing that they see nothing else. A simple glance about would show them the mugger is standing in a place where you won't normally look if you are hyper-focused on the machine.

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Leaving an event/location
Any place that attracts large numbers of people is usually safe. Leaving such a place, however, is often dangerous . It is not uncommon for criminals to position themselves along the walkways to and from such areas. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that people leaving an establishment will usually head towards the closest parking lot.

It is a simple feat to position oneself along that route in a way where you can successfully mug someone. Along with the "spread-out-along-a-wall that people will pass by" trap, there is the "pliers in a bottleneck" trap. This is to find a narrow area where people will pass through (i.e. overpass bridges, escalators, stairs or between a wall and a car) and take up a position where the victim will have to walk in between the muggers.

Another common pincer move is to take positions up to 50 yards apart. When you pass the first one and head towards the second, the first begins to follow you. It is the presence of the first following behind you that is the signal to the second that you are the person to be robbed. While you should always walk wide of someone loitering in a fringe area, if you see someone else up ahead, loitering, don't enter the trap. If you do pass someone and another person steps out in front of you, look back over your shoulder to see if the first is following. If yes, take evasive action and return where you came ...even if you have to climb over the face of the first person you passed. One you might be able to handle, but not two.

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Some places you might not have thought about
There are many small fringe areas that you might not immediately recognize as such. That is until you suddenly find yourself alone with a violent criminal, then it becomes amazingly clear.

Public restrooms. While those at beaches, parks, rest areas and bus stations can be downright terrifying all by themselves, when you are familiar with the idea of fringe areas you will discover exactly how isolated restrooms at malls and shopping centers can be. In many such locations, they are put off the beaten path, down empty halls and isolated stairways. During a peak shopping period, they are heavily populated. Off hours, they can be deserted.

Apartment laundry rooms. These are another place that people don't think of as fringe areas until something goes wrong. If you think about it, all an attacker needs to do is close and lock the door, and you are in serious trouble.

Other rooms. As many a young rape victim has discovered, another room in the house can also be a fringe area -- especially if everybody else is passed out drunk or sleeping in other rooms. And this includes in your own home and homes of friends. If there is a party going on and you go to bed, lock your door. Do this especially if there are people of questionable reliability or with whom you are having problems. Don't think that a door that is just closed and not locked will stop a drunk would-be rapist.

As you go through your weekly routine, look around you and see what areas you regularly travel are fringe. Learn to recognize those areas that you regularly find yourself in where you would be in danger. These are the places that you know you don't want to be trapped. If you see something you don't like...don't go there.

In the same vein, most rapes occur in fringe areas. There is however an established human pattern where part of the mating and mate selection process requires for the couple to withdraw into isolation. Unfortunately, it is this very isolation that makes the female vulnerable to rape if she doesn't recognize that the process is going awry.  

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1) According to the Bureau of Justice statistics most personal robberies occur on the" street/highway." Parking lots are included in this definition. Return to text .