• If you often walk home in the dark, get a personal attack alarm from a DIY store or ask your local crime prevention officer where you can buy one. Carry it in your hand so you can use it immediately to scare off an attacker. Make sure it is designed to continue sounding if it’s dropped or falls to the ground.
• Carry your bag close to you with the clasp facing inwards. Carry your house keys in your pocket. If someone grabs your bag, let it go. If you hang on, you could get hurt. Remember your safety is more important than your property.
• If you think someone is following you, check by crossing the street – more than once if necessary – to see if he follows. If you are still worried, get to the nearest place where there are other people – a pub or anywhere with a lot of lights on – and call the police. Avoid using an enclosed phone box in the street, as the attacker could trap you inside.
• If you regularly go jogging or cycling, try to vary your route and time. Stick to well-lit roads with pavements. On commons and parklands, keep to main paths and open spaces where you can see and be seen by other people – avoid wooded areas. If you wear a personal stereo, remember you can’t hear traffic, or somebody approaching behind you
• Don’t take short cuts through dark alleys, parks or across waste ground. Walk facing the traffic so a car cannot pull up behind you unnoticed.
• If a car stops and you are threatened, scream and shout, and set off your personal attack alarm if you have one. Get away as quickly as you can. This will gain you vital seconds and make it more difficult for the car driver to follow. If you can, make a mental note of the number and description of the car. Write down details as soon as possible afterwards.
• Don’t hitchhike or take lifts from strangers.
• Cover up expensive looking jewellery.
• Self-defence and safety awareness classes may help you feel more secure. Ask your local council or your work if they have classes.

Think what you would do if someone attacked you. Could you fight back, or would you avoid resisting and wait to escape? Only you can decide whether to fight back, but preparing yourself for all possibilities could provide a split-second advantage.

• If someone threatens you, shout and scream for help and set off your personal attack alarm if you have one. This may unnerve the attacker and frighten him off.
• You have every right to defend yourself, with reasonable force with items, which you have with you like an umbrella, hairspray or keys can be used against the attacker. The law however doesn’t allow carrying anything, which can be described as an offensive weapon.

• If you are walking in the same direction as a woman on her own, don’t walk behind her – this may worry her. Cross the road and walk on the other side. This may reassure her that you are not following her.
• Don’t sit too close to a woman on her own in a railway carriage or bus
• If you are thinking of chatting to a woman waiting, for example, at a lonely bus stop, remember that she won’t know you mean no harm.
• Realise how threatening actions such as staring, whistling, passing comments and jostling can be, particularly when you are one of a group of men.
• Help female friends or family members by giving them a lift or walking them home when you can. If you do, make sure they are safely indoors before you leave.