Stop Being a Victim

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Summary: practical safety advice
Review: Podrug offers practical safety advice concerning everyday occurrences. A good read. Pretty straightforward experience advice.

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Summary: Victim Empowerment
Review: This book helps you to understand what made you the perfect victim and how to emerge from this role to more self-confidence. 4 Stars only because it is a bit outdated and the advise seems sometimes to general.
However, recommendable as start to the topic and to learn of victim roles and prevention of crime and interpersonal opression.

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Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR EVERYONE
Review: This book is one of the most important books that I have ever read. It tought me what to do not only when I am coming home alone after dark but also how to protect myself with regards to personal affairs.

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Summary: Crime prevention with a twist
Review: This is not your typical how to escape a stalker or how to prevent your house being burglarized -type of book. The book handles these issues as well, but there is a wider perspective in the book. Unlike other similar books I have read, this book has a heavy emphasis on legal survival, and protecting your rights.

The book starts with general advise that people became victims of crime, because they make themselves victims. Podrug stresses that if people would be a little more attentive to their surrounding (and their rights), they would be saved from a lot of trouble. The first hundred pages or so give advise on several legal issues, like protecting your job, how to handle a divorce (from a lawyer's standpoint), buying or selling a house or car, and so on. The emphasis is on advising the reader his rights, and telling how to avoid being swindled.

The latter half of the book discusses how to avoid being assaulted on the street or on your car, how to protect your house or car from being burglarized, security tips while travelling, and so on. This advise is generally very superficial, and Podrug does not really have that much to say on many issues. Rather, he just keeps on repeating the same advise over and over.

After almost every chapter there is a checklist, regarding the subject of the chapter (checklist on buying a car, personal safety checklist, travel checklist, and so on). These checklists are the most useful part of the book, as they include just about all that is said in the text, only without repetiting the same thing over and over.

The author is a divorce lawyer, therefore his advise on how to protect your property in case of divorce, and regarding other legal issues as well are the most authoritative. In comparison, his expertise towards issues of personal safety are derived from his childhood growing up in a rough neighbourhoods, and handling cases of people who have been victims of a criminal assault. In my books, that does not make anyone an authority of the subject. Therefore, I feel Podrug should have just concentrated on the issues he has authority over, and leave the personal security issues for people like Jim Grover, who really know their stuff.