Violence is seldom random. Like all behaviors, violent behavior follows patterns that can be observed. Once understood, these patterns can be prepared for. I highly recommend the book, The Gift of Fear, in which the author Gavin de Becker breaks down the behaviors that manipulative or dangerous people use. He goes into depth about how intuition functions to keep us safe. At IMPACT, we teach an Intuition Development class on this topic.
If everyone understood that violence follows a pattern, it would have a profound impact on communities:
1. Individuals would only be appropriately alarmed when a set of behaviors happen, and would feel at peace when they don’t.
2. People could grow closer, not feeling suspicious of one another because of stereotypes or profiling or past experiences.
3. It would make a lot more sense to learn a systematic approach to preventing, defending against, and mitigating the impact of violence.
4. Victims/survivors and others affected by the threat of violence in our society could learn practical skills to avoid, prevent, and diminish violence in their lives and feel safer. By gaining knowledge and skills, survivors can change the idea that it was something intrinsic in them, or that they are victims.
5. Good people regularly profiled as potentially dangerous (men, people of color, those wearing baggy pants or piercings, etc.) could walk down the street and get into elevators without having to worry and put effort into not scaring others.
6. Perpetrators of violence would be seen as using a set of behaviors to hurt and scare (have power over) others, and the behaviors would be addressed more, rather than demonizing the person.
7. We could address the roots of violence and prevent it on that level, instead of continually having to provide victim services and lock up perpetrators.
Violence will always be shocking and upsetting. By focusing on patterns, we discover the tools necessary to change how violence affects our communities.