Hostile Ground : Defusing and Restraining Violent Behavior and Physical Assaults [Mass Market Paperback]

Edward Lewis (Author), Jon Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2000

Our personal and professional lives often put us in contact with people who exhibit intimidating, menacing and sometimes outright violent behavior. Ed Lewis has faced hundreds of such confrontations as part of a professional restraint team at a mental health facility as well as on the streets as a private investigator, and in that environment he discovered the psychological and physical secrets of defusing such hostile subjects or, if necessary, restraining their attacks. In Hostile Ground, he gives you a graduate course in such topics as handling fear during a confrontation, recognizing different types of aggressors, identifying common reasons for assaultive behavior, reading body language for signs of impending violence, defusing a hostile situation and managing physical assaults if all else fails. Whether your job puts you in harm's way or you're simply an ordinary citizen who interacts with the public on a daily basis, you will learn from this book.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 138 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (January 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581600542
• ISBN-13: 978-1581600544
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,949,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the money, but..., July 4, 2000

By 

George T. Williams - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hostile Ground : Defusing and Restraining Violent Behavior and Physical Assaults (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a decent little book on how to physically restrain a hostile, mentally ill subject. While it is not a comprehensive tome on the subject, the text provides the reader who has little knowledge or experience with a basis for dealing with a confrontational or pre-violent individual. It is worth the money for those individuals.

The first chapters are where the real value of this book lies. It does provide good guidelines for recognizing attack indicators, although, again, they are not comprehensive. A person who has not been in many confrontations will be able to use this information to better prevent assault, and, if assaulted, better respond as a result.

The physical methods of restraint, however, aside from those initially pictured for the "humane restraint of an individual" are basically of no value to the novice or the experienced professional. The illustrated "weapon retention" sequence represents an extremely complicated and outmoded method of police instruction that is thankfully dying out in more progressive training venues. Some of the immediate defense suggestions are of value, as are the author's non-egotistic approach to defense (evade and run if you feel you cannot defend yourself in this situation).

While I know this sounds like a negative review, it is really not. I felt for the average reader, especially one who is not familiar with the psychological aspects of recognizing an attack developing and what is involved in dealing with an assault by a dedicated attacker, the book is well worth the money. This is the reason for the three star rating.

For the experienced professional, whether that is the mental health worker or the police or security professional, this book will have limited value, and you might want to pass. For the police officer who is not familiar with the methods employed in taking down an individual who is mentally ill where limited force options exist (such as inside a mental health facility), the illustrated takedown make the book worthwhile to purchase.

1.0 out of 5 stars Of limited value, February 28, 2001

By 

"dlplant" (Santa Rosa, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hostile Ground : Defusing and Restraining Violent Behavior and Physical Assaults (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this book to be of limited value. At best it only gives the reader a very basic and overly simplified explanation in some of the general aspects necessary in recognizing and managing potentially hostile situations. In other areas this book is grossly inadequate, in that it fails to even mention some basic guidelines that can be applied in the decision making process when attempting to resolve a hostile situation. I would only use this book as a basic introduction to the subject matter and not as an authoritative text. Of greatest concern, is that a novice will read this book and then become unnecessarily injured because of the minimal and/or outdated information it provides.