I see it as related to the old idea of "predators can smell fear". If your body language and behavior indicates that you're aware of your surroundings but not afraid of them, a potential assailant will -- on a gut level, if not on a conscious one -- evaluate you as being a possible target OR as a possible threat. If your behavior indicates that you're nervous or afraid of your surroundings, that you're studying those around you as though they were threats, then the potential assailant will categorize you purely as potential target. In animal terms, you're acting like a small herbivore. Behavior of "I know you're there, and I don't care" is sending the signal of either "I'm also a predator" or "yes, I'm a herbivore. Of the rhino, hippo, and elephant variety. Don't make me hurt you."

As you say, this doesn't mean that acting like a scared rabbit makes you responsible for someone assaulting you, but it does mean that you're sending signals that will make you more likely to be chosen as a target.

Interesting way of looking at attitude!

As you say, if someone is determined, or out of their mind so that anything moving is a target, then Attitude doesn't help. In some cases even a gun wouldn't help.
Again, not the victim's fault.

"Interesting" is good, I think. At least I'm not coming across as a total idiot. :-)

I have discovered that the correct attitude can and has worked wonders. I spent part of the 80's living in D.C., inside the beltway. A bright smile, a warm "hello" and a confident posture, kept me out of serious trouble more times than I can count or know about. It also shaped my opinion of what is a "bad" neighborhood. If you aren't walking by an active murder scene twice a week or drug deals every day, then it's not a "bad" neighborhood.

It should be noted, though, as pir_anha did in my previous post, that someone who is ill or disabled or elderly may be not be able to project that "confident posture". Attitude isn't foolproof, by any means.

Equally- if the criminal is in a particular mind set the confident posture may simply goad a desire to show you who's boss.

Not that I heard stories while working the victims hotline or anything.

Point taken, which is why I noted the "Jedi Mind Trick - these are not the droids you're looking for" attitude as an alternative.

Oh, I know that. But I've also seen the reverse happen; where the young, able and healthy were the ones targeted. Mostly because they obliviously had money and or gave off the prey attitude.
Attitude isn't going to stop someone who is bent on violence, often, however it will help.

This is a good analogy. You might also add, as noted upthread, that some thrill-thieves take a locked car as a challenge rather than deterrence. But on the whole, I think it works well.

I think of attitude more like living in a low-crime neighborhood, where crime doesn't happen very often but if it does it's somewhat random.

If you think of it as like locking car doors, that makes it something you can consciously do at a moment's notice, and I don't think it's within everyone's reach.

I think I might give off some kind of see-me-not attitude, because people don't hassle me as a rule, but I am not doing it consciously and I don't know how to turn it off. (And it is annoying at parties where I would *like* people to talk to me.)

I really think it's hard to talk about this without seeming to blame the victim, which I find horrible in any number of ways--one is that much good advice DOES seem to blame the victim or CAN be used that way, but still, the advice is out there. I remember bits from police and other sources about eye contact, speed of movement, etc.--specific things that I think most people could learn.

If you think of it as like locking car doors, that makes it something you can consciously do at a moment's notice, and I don't think it's within everyone's reach.

Huh. Actually, I think of locking doors (and, by analogy, attitude) as a trained, ingrained, automatic response, right up there with putting on the seatbelt at the beginning of the journey and setting the parking brake at the end.

Actually, I think of locking doors (and, by analogy, attitude) as a trained, ingrained, automatic response

I'm saying that developing attitude might be more difficult than developing the habit of locking a door.

I don't know, because I don't remember training myself to have attitude.

I kind of do remember developing both an "I see you and do not see you as a threat" and an "I'm not here, you don't see me" attitude, to be used as needed.

a well concealed legal licensed registered handgun is the best deterrent

For those who can and wish to carry, I don't disagree. Not everyone is physically capable of using a handgun, though, and I for one spend a lot of my time (at work) in a place where I cannot legally carry or even possess a gun.

then get a stun gun or taser. Superior firepower will improve your attitude