Dealing With Spontaneous Violence

Subject

Officer/Employee Safety

Topic

Spontaneous Assault

Class Level

Novice to Experienced Employees

Pre-Requisites

Justified Force Theory
Beneficial: Officer Safety Fundamentals

Description

Employees are at greatest risk when they become complacent and least expect a situation to turn violent.

Programs such as “spontaneous knife defense” are incomplete and ineffective. Many involve a “crash course in martial arts” that narrows the focus to ONLY knife attacks and involve learning to fight with a knife, and then learning how to defend against someone who knows how to fight with a knife. Approaches like these are negligent and dangerous.

The reality of sudden acts of aggression is that a sudden act of aggression may involve an unarmed attack or the use of a contact weapon, but it is unlikely to know the difference.

The focus of this course is on preventing and enhancing awareness about the potential for a sudden and unanticipated attack as opposed to unrealistic physical skills that require extensive training to achieve and the pre-awareness of the existence of a weapon.

Objectives

Students will learn to understand and be prepared for the threat of spontaneous violence.

They will learn a working definition of exactly what a spontaneous assault is and a broader description of what a contact weapon could be.

They will learn about the human factors associated with being able to prepare the mind to be able to anticipate, detect and respond to the existence of a contact weapon.

They will learn about both misconceptions and the realities of contact weapon assaults.

They will come to an understanding of one’s tendency to be complacent and how they can cultivate awareness and recognition skills to detect a threat as soon as possible.

They will be provided with a variety of awareness and prevention strategies that relate to any kind of sudden aggression.

Finally, students will be provided with a range of response options to consider if they were to encounter a contact weapon threat as well as a primary response strategy to optimize safety and performance at the first recognition of an armed threat.

Course Length

4 to 8 hours

Class Size

20 students

Delivery Requirements

PowerPoint
Classroom Set Up