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The Gift of Fear

Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence
Jul 17, 2020
The Gift of Fear emphasizes making understanding of common sense and trusting your intuition when a situation seems uncertain, mysterious and even potentially dangerous. Unfortunately, crime is known to exist in the world since the dawn of time and detailed studies show evidence of crime even amongst a host of life on Earth including animal species. Anthropologists have long documented a violent history amongst various characters in the animal kingdom, amongst humans and have described acts of crime and violence as primitive, biological impulses, sometimes regulated and clearly for others, sometimes not. These destructive impulses have theorists suggesting their effects namely that of to control, to gain power, to gain resources, to gain advantage and so forth. A look into the history of crime and punishment shows our earliest ancestors were witnesses of crime and improving society meant creating systems that enable protection of those who are injured and punishing those who are a detriment with their violent, destructive conduct. Justice systems were developed in part to remedy the effects of crime. The Gift of Fear presents "warning signals" to look for in the vast span of everyday life in effort to protect our own lives and those of others. From strange encounters to very evident and blatant signs to look for, Gavin De Becker provides a common sense outlook and strategy for identifying and combatting crime. His idea espouses an individual who is truly cognizant and is trusting their insight and sensory perceptions may be able to better pinpoint, identify and alleviate crime. De Becker provides anecdotes of survivors of violence who, after experiencing odd behavior from criminals, relayed there was distinct, clear, lucid, identifiable activity on behalf of the criminal that in some way was made known to the crime victim. These crime victims then relayed they felt they had an internal obligation to recognize and share what they observed as a crime victim. Some of these crime survivors then shared they were, in essence, gaslighted by those around them. Reasons for gaslighting varied, but in many cases, some of the individuals who exemplified gaslighting were not able to perceive the crime in the same way as the perceptive crime victim did. Some individuals who gaslight became deniers of a crime even though they were an indirect crime victim and the crime was happening and readily apparent. Crime victims then noted those who gaslighted appeared to not be paying attention to their environment. De Becker highly encourages paying attention to your immediate environment and argues paying attention to your direct environment can save your own life in times of criminal crisis. Some episodes of crime involve strategic routine and Gavin De Becker shares his advice for recognizing patterns of conduct and not ignoring these warning signs if something appears out of the ordinary or off-kilter. His argument is we have an innate ability to recognize and deter crime but if we are not trusting our judgment and assessment it may come at a higher cost. Gavin De Becker shares practical, logical, sensible ways to recognize, deal, uncover and ultimately survive crime. This is a suggested read for individuals who are wanting to improve their idea of safety, perception and understanding of cycles of crime and violence in order to live a more safe, welcoming, healthy life. - Review Written by Danielle