cover image The Danger from Strangers: Confronting the Threat of Assault

The Danger from Strangers: Confronting the Threat of Assault

James D. Brewer. Insight Books Inc, $22.95 (267pp) ISBN 978-0-306-44642-9

Brewer, editor-in-chief of Armor magazine, here stresses that the responsibility for protecting oneself against assaults lies with the individual. He presents a statistical chart profiling a victim and his vulnerabilities, such as alcohol use and hours worked. There's also a scorecard to enable readers to judge their own ``vincibility,'' the likelihood they will be chosen as victims. Brewer discusses the strategies that a victim of assault might use, such as whether, during a mugging or a rape, one should fight back or surrender. Although he includes a wealth of anecdotes and interviews with victims and criminals, Brewer is such a clinical writer that his study will be of interest primarily to professional victimologists. (Apr.)