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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
A very disturbing hidden truth we must all have to recognize. Stay safe and beware of the most corrupt.
http://abookofadifferentcolor.blogspot.com
My sister is a social worker and has spent the second half of her short life working with victims of sexual assault. She read this book as a part of a class in college, owns two copies, and has been talking about this book non-stop for the last 7 years or so.
I finally, finally, decided to read it and I am seriously glad that I did. I feel so much better prepared to have kids and to keep them safe after reading this book. Which is why this book is recommended to every single person who has kids and every single person who wants to have kids.This book might become a staple in every baby shower gift that I give from now on. Just so parents have the opportunity to be aware of the dangers facing their children.
Check out my full review at: http://abookofadifferentcolor.blogspot.com
My sister is a social worker and has spent the second half of her short life working with victims of sexual assault. She read this book as a part of a class in college, owns two copies, and has been talking about this book non-stop for the last 7 years or so.
I finally, finally, decided to read it and I am seriously glad that I did. I feel so much better prepared to have kids and to keep them safe after reading this book. Which is why this book is recommended to every single person who has kids and every single person who wants to have kids.This book might become a staple in every baby shower gift that I give from now on. Just so parents have the opportunity to be aware of the dangers facing their children.
Check out my full review at: http://abookofadifferentcolor.blogspot.com
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2018: I reread this after conversations surrounding Brett Kavanaugh and other sexual assault stories made me recall certain pieces of this book.
Overall this has has help up well and so has my review.
A few more things:
I very much appreciate her distinctions between sadists and psychopaths. This is an important piece and this distinction is not made at all, or is obscured, in typical media discussions of psychopathy.
The chapter on staff seduction is particularly illuminating because it shows how charismatic these individuals can be, and who is vulnerable to their manipulation even AFTER these criminals are caught for very violent crimes (and their crimes are known).
What stood out as being weak to me after reading this time around was the parts on deception. She is quite right about humans being very bad at detecting deception. Her remarks on polygraphs, though, have not aged well. Polygraphs are junk science and more useful as an interrogation tool (the results she refers to in the book come from good interrogators who convince the subjects they are able to detect deception). She fails to mention how easy it is for psychopaths to beat the tests in her chapter on psychopathy, a very bad omission, in my opinion. She also discusses statement analysis which is not nearly as useful, we now know, than it seems from this book.
Her core point is that humans can't really tell when people who are practiced at lying are lying, which is completely true and is the real takeaway here. Verify everything, don't be pressured into making decisions, and don't take people at face value.
*********************
I bought this book over four years ago when I was involved at a place that helped immigrant victims of crime, and some of them were victims of the some of the types of predators described in the book. Exactly how that played out for me or what my role was, I won't go into publicly, for many reasons. Suffice to say, some information and background was certainly helpful. I read most of the chapters of the book at that time. Recently, remembering something that was written in it, I picked it up and read the chapters that I skipped when I first bought it.
This is, again, one of those books that can be helpful and informative, and yet is very, very, very difficult to read. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be if you have children. It's not for the faint of heart.
The book is divided by chapters that address some commonalities to predators (types of deception), and break down types of offenders, and then discusses certain common situations, trauma, and then, at the end, a section on detecting deception (which Dr. Salter is very bearish on, for good reason), and a section on what she calls "deflection".
The weakest section of the book, for me, is the last chapter on "deflection." In my opinion, she gave out some inadequate security advice, and this chapter would have been better left to be written by a true security professional. There was too much reliance on anecdotes. However, this was most obvious in the "low-risk" section of the deflection chapter. What she is correct on is the "high-risk" scenario, which essentially distills to: "be present with your children, pay attention to them, know what they're doing, and be involved in their activities". Good advice all around, predators notwithstanding.
Overall this has has help up well and so has my review.
A few more things:
I very much appreciate her distinctions between sadists and psychopaths. This is an important piece and this distinction is not made at all, or is obscured, in typical media discussions of psychopathy.
The chapter on staff seduction is particularly illuminating because it shows how charismatic these individuals can be, and who is vulnerable to their manipulation even AFTER these criminals are caught for very violent crimes (and their crimes are known).
What stood out as being weak to me after reading this time around was the parts on deception. She is quite right about humans being very bad at detecting deception. Her remarks on polygraphs, though, have not aged well. Polygraphs are junk science and more useful as an interrogation tool (the results she refers to in the book come from good interrogators who convince the subjects they are able to detect deception). She fails to mention how easy it is for psychopaths to beat the tests in her chapter on psychopathy, a very bad omission, in my opinion. She also discusses statement analysis which is not nearly as useful, we now know, than it seems from this book.
Her core point is that humans can't really tell when people who are practiced at lying are lying, which is completely true and is the real takeaway here. Verify everything, don't be pressured into making decisions, and don't take people at face value.
*********************
I bought this book over four years ago when I was involved at a place that helped immigrant victims of crime, and some of them were victims of the some of the types of predators described in the book. Exactly how that played out for me or what my role was, I won't go into publicly, for many reasons. Suffice to say, some information and background was certainly helpful. I read most of the chapters of the book at that time. Recently, remembering something that was written in it, I picked it up and read the chapters that I skipped when I first bought it.
This is, again, one of those books that can be helpful and informative, and yet is very, very, very difficult to read. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be if you have children. It's not for the faint of heart.
The book is divided by chapters that address some commonalities to predators (types of deception), and break down types of offenders, and then discusses certain common situations, trauma, and then, at the end, a section on detecting deception (which Dr. Salter is very bearish on, for good reason), and a section on what she calls "deflection".
The weakest section of the book, for me, is the last chapter on "deflection." In my opinion, she gave out some inadequate security advice, and this chapter would have been better left to be written by a true security professional. There was too much reliance on anecdotes. However, this was most obvious in the "low-risk" section of the deflection chapter. What she is correct on is the "high-risk" scenario, which essentially distills to: "be present with your children, pay attention to them, know what they're doing, and be involved in their activities". Good advice all around, predators notwithstanding.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Predators by Anna C. Salter is a hauntingly incredible book which gives you an in depth insight on pedophiles, rapists, psychopaths and child molesters. I came into this book expecting the wost of the worst... and it still left me feeling disgusted and terrified of the people that Salter interviewed in the book. I do have to warn you about the people who were interviewed here, it can be very triggering to those who was abused, raped, and child molested; basically, be cautious when reading because even I, a lucky person who has yet to be involved in such terrible events, felt extremely uncomfortable. Although it left me with an upset stomach, I must give this book credit and praise for not sugar coating anything at all and truly revealing the minds of these predators, and giving us useful tips on how to effectively protect ourselves from them.
Author: Anna C. Salter
My rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Anna C. Salter
My rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
This was a very informative and difficult book to read. It's the kind of book that most people won't make themselves read, but it's very realistic in terms of the darkness in the world. (It's worth noting that I skipped the sadist chapter because I don't need more detail to add to my nightmares.) The biggest takeaway, for me, was that predators depend on people to assume the best in them and use that to their advantage.
Insightful. Terrifying. Helpful. This is an important book if you have children under your care.
CW: descriptions of child sexual abuse and rape, grooming, sadism, and anything you can expect from sexually violent predators
I'm glad that I read this book, but it was a difficult one to get through. I've watched a few of her educational videos on Youtube and they're very, well, educational! Most of the material, i.e. interviews, in this book were taken directly from them. So, I was sitting there able to get a picture in my mind of the man who was talking. The book opens up with a 40-page long chapter that spends most of its time refuting people who have said over the years, and recently, that child sex abuse isn't abuse. It's normal and not harmful to the child.
It's sad that she has to open it up like that, isn't it?
From there, it goes into how they use deception, child molesters, rapists, psychopaths, sadists, and how to stop these people in their tracks. The focus of this book is definitely on child sexual abuse. I read this because I thought it would be good for my personal knowledge with my career. I never know when I'll run into a sexually violent predator for a client (not a population I want to work with, but one I might have walk in) or someone who was sexually abused.
This is a very good book and is written by someone who has dedicated her life to this field. But it was just hard to get through, both on an emotional and literal level. It's very dense and things blended together at the end.
I'm glad that I read this book, but it was a difficult one to get through. I've watched a few of her educational videos on Youtube and they're very, well, educational! Most of the material, i.e. interviews, in this book were taken directly from them. So, I was sitting there able to get a picture in my mind of the man who was talking. The book opens up with a 40-page long chapter that spends most of its time refuting people who have said over the years, and recently, that child sex abuse isn't abuse. It's normal and not harmful to the child.
It's sad that she has to open it up like that, isn't it?
From there, it goes into how they use deception, child molesters, rapists, psychopaths, sadists, and how to stop these people in their tracks. The focus of this book is definitely on child sexual abuse. I read this because I thought it would be good for my personal knowledge with my career. I never know when I'll run into a sexually violent predator for a client (not a population I want to work with, but one I might have walk in) or someone who was sexually abused.
This is a very good book and is written by someone who has dedicated her life to this field. But it was just hard to get through, both on an emotional and literal level. It's very dense and things blended together at the end.