James M. McGrew, Think Safe Reviews

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Think Safe: Practical Measures to Increase Security at Home, at Work and Throughout Life
James M.McGrew, Cameo Publications LLC, $19.95, 168 pages, ISBN 0-9744149-6-4 (January 2005), available at bookstores and online at www.cameopublications.com.

In today's society, predators lurk in unexpected places. From the mugger on the street to the credit card fraudster, a host of dangers awaits the unwary. In Think Safe: Practical Measures to Increase Security at Home, at Work and Throughout Life, James McGrew offers a no-nonsense guide to negotiating these traps so that readers don't become "easy prey."

McGrew declares from the outset that his book offers no explanations as to why criminals behave the way they do. While such questions may preoccupy the minds of many people, the author believes them to be of little interest to the actual victims of crime. Rather, his emphasis is on practical, effective measures by which readers can avoid becoming the victims of crime or accidents. His strategies are rooted in scientific study and his practical experience as a law enforcement officer and the president of a private security firm.

The book's seven sections each cover a different area of personal security. The first four are devoted to safety tips aimed at specific sectors of society: parents, women, the elderly and workers. The remaining three sections have a more general focus. Section Five is concerned with safeguards against consumer fraud, Section Six with self-defense against physical attack, and Section Seven with protecting your property.

Think Safe provides safety tips for all the stages of a person's life, beginning at birth with a guide for new mothers, showing them how to prevent hospital abductions of newborn babies. The book then goes on to show ways to avoid, among other things: child abuse, teenage drug use, college rape, bullying in the workplace, street crime and ill-treatment of seniors in nursing homes. Readers would be hard-pressed to think of anyone who could not benefit from McGrew's advice.

McGrew writes in a lively, approachable style. He covers a huge amount of ground for such a slim book, but never overwhelms the reader. Neither is it his intention to terrify. He acknowledges that there are many perils in today's world, but his overall message is upbeat; that all these dangers are preventable. The author's philosophy is that awareness is the key to personal security. Readers of this book will be much more aware, and therefore much safer, than they were before they opened its covers.