I'm Warning Washington Women to Avoid Being Alone in These Places

I've got a special message to all women, especially between age of 20 and up. It's a shame that we have to spend more time teaching how to protect ourselves from attacks and other crimes, but here we are. We need to spend more time teaching people to stop attacking women, in my opinion. Then, we wouldn't be in such a big mess!

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Did you know that women in Washington State are most likely to be assaulted by a family member or acquaintance, but the next highest rate is by strangers?

According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chief's latest report, strangers and other unknown individuals are most likely to attack women in certain specific places. I am here to warn you about them!

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Just the Facts, Ma'am

The demographic with the highest rates of assaults by strangers in Washington State is women ages 30-34 (14,247 reported assaults)!

The next highest age demos of women attacked by strangers (by volume of attacks by age) were:

Women ages 35-39 (13,069)
Women ages 25-29 (12,665)
Women ages 20-24 (11,091)
Women ages 40-44 (11,032)

So, Ladies, the more we know, the more we can avoid putting ourselves in the line of attack!

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Stranger Danger: My Own Horrifying Brush with an Aggravated Assault

I was assaulted a few years ago by a complete stranger in a park. I knew better than to have been walking by myself late at night through a park to head to my friend's house, but never once did I think that the "friendly" stranger I noticed across the street would then chase after me and attack me!

Fortunately for me, that person was not carrying a weapon, but I didn't know that at the time. Quick thinking had me dialing the emergency hotline from my phone as he caught up with me. I bravely held up my cell phone in the air and yelled at him in a very loud voice that I was online with the 9-1-1 dispatch.

He punched me in the face and took off running. Police showed up to my location within minutes, but it was too late, the criminal had vanished.

Women in Washington Should Especially Avoid Being Alone in These 10 Places

Gallery Credit: Reesha Cosby

The data shows us the highest instances of attacks on Washington women are for aggravated assault and intimidation.

Aggravated Assault is defined by WASPC as:

“An unlawful attack by one person upon another wherein the offender uses a weapon or displays it in a threatening manner, or the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.”

Intimidation is defined by WASPC as:

“To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual physical attack.”