The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker Discussion Questions
Humanities
1. What percent of homicides are committed by strangers?
2. According to de Becker, what are satellites?
3. According to de Becker, what percent of serial killers were abused as children?
4. Name and briefly describe the methods used by criminals to evade our survival signals.
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5. Intuition is always right in two important ways. What are those ways?
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6. What is the order of intuition signals (from most important to least important)?
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7. What is the role of humor in intuition?
8. What are de Becker’s general rules about people?
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9. What are the eight characteristics of psychopaths?
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10. What is the “rule of opposites?”
11. What does the acronym RICE stand for?
12. What are the four elements in predicting violence (JACA)?
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13. What are the 11 elements of prediction?
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14. What is the difference between threat and intimidation?
15. What role do “amendments” play in evaluating a threat?
16. Under what conditions are threats the best predictor of future behavior?
17. Describe a problem employee de Becker labels “the Scriptwriter.”
18. What are the 17 characteristics of a person with high potential for workplace violence?
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19. What are the eight interview questions that de Becker advises employers to ask?
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20. What are the 10 rules to firing an employee?
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21. What percent of spousal murders happen after the woman leaves?
22. On the basis of de Becker’s discussion of restraining orders, do you think they work?
23. What advice would you give to a friend who is being stalked?
24. What are the childhood risk factors for future criminality?
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25. What are the ten behaviors common to assassins?
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26. What are the two rules of fear?
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27. What are the four rewards of worry?
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