NCJ Number
172694
Journal
Law Enforcement Trainer Volume: 12 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 1997 Pages: 10-13
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Community policing should include education of citizens about self-defense skills, because the police cannot be everywhere at once; the Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D.) System comes the closest to being an appropriate national standard.
Abstract
Women and children are victims of countless acts of violence daily; one of every eight women has been the victim of forcible rape. Therefore, police agencies and public safety departments have an obligation to educate the community they serve about violence, how to reduce the risks of violence, and the many options for deterring violence. Self-defense includes an array of options, ranging from awareness and risk-reduction strategies to the self-preservation act of compliance in certain situations. Instructors should avoid giving rigid step-by-step guidelines. Instead, they should provide enough basic information and physical practice to enable people to make their own objective decisions about what is appropriate in a particular situation. Instructor certification is the single most important decision a police agency. R.A.D. Systems is well researched, structured, responsible, defensible, and dynamic. Founded in 1989, it has been endorsed by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. It has certified almost 2,000 instructors, who have taught the programs to more than 45,000 women and children nationwide. Instructors create drills and scenarios to enable participants to develop and refine critical strategies. It covers risk reduction, avoidance, confrontational dynamics, physical defense principles, personal weapons of the body, and selected target areas designed to stun an aggressor and allow the student to escape. The program uses a simulation training suit and creates the chaotic elements of real confrontation. Photographs