Red Flags by Wendy L Patrick

Author:Wendy L Patrick [Patrick, Wendy L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 2010516532
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

FLAG-ing When Familiarity Is a Façade

Familiarity is a façade that can be fatal. This occurred in a baby homicide case I handled, where an infant died from what is known as shaken baby syndrome—where intentional shaking causes brain hemorrhaging, leading to death.

The suspect was the neighborhood babysitter who everyone used. While this woman was familiar within the community, believe it or not, no one knew much about her. Only a few of the parents had spent any amount of quality time with this woman one-on-one before trusting her with their children. Everyone hired her—because everyone else did.

Here is a good test: familiarity is a façade when you recognize someone, but do not know anything about the person’s FLAGs. This indicates that while you may have become used to seeing them, you do not know anything about them.

In order to determine whether a familiar face is good or bad, consider why the person is familiar. The more information you know about them, the better. Do they walk the same hiking trail you do on weekends, attend the same classes at your university, or work at your company? Shared lifestyle, academic pursuits, or career goals indicate far more common ground than someone who merely happens to park in the space next to you at your apartment complex—which might indicate shared income bracket, but not much else.

Exploring the basis of familiarity is important because of how easily it can be manipulated. Pedophiles admit moving into neighborhoods where there are many children. Social climbers frequent locations where they are likely to interact with luminaries they want to meet.

I have handled cases where stalkers have eased their way into a victim’s comfort zone through strategically increasing their level of familiarity. Knowing where the victims lived, shopped, worked, or went to school, these men would spend time in the areas frequented by their victims, making themselves a familiar face.

One of my more perceptive stalking victims noticed that when her stalker pulled into the gas station where she was fueling her car, his gas pump stopped after only a few minutes. This was a clue that he was not there because he needed gas. She recalled seeing the same man at the grocery store on several occasions, where he only had a few items in his cart. A chilling “coincidence”—all the same brands that she bought. Oh, if everyone were this perceptive.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.