To notice rituals and entrapments you
have to be switched
on and have your eyes wide open otherwise you will suffer
the fate of those before you.
If the intent is robbery or rape the dialogue is often
disarming or incidental, 'Have you got a light please?' or
'Can you give me directions to Smith St please, I' m a little
lost?' The attacker is looking to 'switch the victim off' before
attack. In the case of the gratuitous assault where the intent
is attack for attack's sake the dialogue is more likely to be
aggressive, for example, 'What are you looking at?' In either
case the dialogue is employed to gain and distract attention
before attack.
Generally speaking, the greater the crime, the greater the
deception. At the bottom end of the scale the gratuitous
attacker will engage his intended victim with aggressive
dialogue, such as, 'I'm gonna batter you, you bastard!' Whilst
at the top of the scale the rapist or murderer will prime his
victim with anything from a gentlemanly request for
directions to, as in the case of killer John Cannan, sending
his intended victims, (usually women he had spotted in the
street and followed or just met) champagne, flowers and
dinner invitations -the ultimate primers for rape and murder.
The more cunning attackers drop into the thespian role with
Oscar-winning perfection.