Street Robberies and You - The Basics, that arfcom post is called.
Definitely worth reading, I think. A bit more blunt and brutal that what's sometimes offered on the topic, but then we aren't talking about a garden party here. The realities of being on the wrong end of an assault on the street are pretty blunt and brutal too.
What we're about here in ST&T is working up to being able to deal successfully with those realities on the street. Training and practice in the necessary skillsets is part of it. Knowing the opposition - the enemy if you will - is part of it too. Most of us who wind up facing the threat of street violence at all will only have it happen once or maybe twice in our lifetimes, if the current statistics hold that is.
Street thugs practice violence and the threat of violence on a regular basis. It's what they do for a living. For the resource predators among them, the most common type of predator, you are just one more job of work, to be processed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Victimizing you probably won't even raise his heartbeat much if at all.
Of course, the process predator is different, YOU are payoff in the crime, not your stuff. That's the difference between a resource predator and a process predator. The resource predator wants your money and any of your stuff that is portable and worth easy money to him. He wants to get paid and get away to go on to the next payoff.
The process predator wants your body, your pain, your terror, and the pleasure he can extract from those things. He wants you, not your stuff. He wants to get you to a nice private place where he can have his way with you. He doesn't want YOU to get away, because YOU are the payoff. He expects to leave once he's good and ready, after you're in no position to resist any more. Resist anything. Ever.
Of course there is no reason to expect that there isn't crossover between the two predator types sometimes. A robbery might start out as a resource crime and shift to a process crime in mid stride. Making assumptions can be dangerous. If you're going to make assumptions about criminals, you're probably safer to assume the worst and react accordingly as events unfold.
The big issue with those of us who have no or little experience with street violence is successfully accessing the skills we have trained and practiced when we suddenly need them. The transition is not always easy or successful. I'd like to point those of you who are interested to a couple more posts that I think fit in well with the arfcom post linked in the OP on this thread.
Those two posts are at Rory Miller's blog, and you can find them at
http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-3-to-5.html
and
http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2012/01/transitions.html
hth,
lpl