The thing is, though, this crime is not a cautionary tale. It's a bolt from the blue. There is nothing that the victims being 'more aware' could have done to change the outcome. In fact, we have heard that one was a websleuther herself.
How would being more aware of a crime like this help a young person? Wouldn't it just cause fear of something unlikely to happen, that is completely out of their control to prevent?
MOO
After the murders, students in Moscow were scared. They flew back home. Those who stayed, locked their doors and traveled in groups. I bet they researched how to prevent someone from entering a slider, or moved to a home without one. At least the women did.
The roommates didn’t do anything wrong. The murderer is the only one who did. But predators exist. They are real, and awareness of them can help you stay alive.
I’m a night owl. I resent not being able to do anything at night by myself just because I’m a woman. Being raped, being abducted, being murdered are unlikely to happen, but my exposure to true crime hammers home what it would be like if they did happen.
True crime immersion doesn’t guarantee you’ll heed the warnings, though. You can treat cases simply as a puzzles to solve, lurid spectacles that only happen to feckless, drunk women—not smart, tough women like you.
Perhaps it’s impossible to learn from true crime until you are older and have collect enough life experiences to drive the possibilities home.
I wasn’t as careful when I was younger, before I faced the facts of what can happen to women. I was accosted at night, while running alone. Not raped, luckily. Still, I never ran alone at night after that. I knew what could have happened and what might if I pushed my luck.
It’s unfair. Men get to do whatever they want at night. And that is the very reason that I can’t.
In spite of my experience, my roommate’s girlfriend continued to walk home alone even later at night, through the neighborhood where I was accosted, along a dark, lonely waterway, miles away. She ignored my experience. She was even younger than I, knew martial arts. No one would dare accost her. She was tough.
Every time she left the house, I worried. I needn’t have worried though. She never was accosted—she really was tough. Or just lucky.
The young feel impervious, invulnerable, tough.
And predators like that.
