r/SelfDefense • u/Shadow-Pie • 2d ago

How often is someone attacked by more than one person?

I'm talking about when someone is attacked of course. When someone is attacked how often is it by two people? Or three? Or more? I'm sure the statistics are out there but I can't find them myself.

4 Upvotes

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3

u/anonymouscal 2d ago

in my personal experience with getting robbed (more than once) it is always more than 1 person.

bullies at school acted alone.

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u/Shadow-Pie 2d ago

Interesting can you tell me how many aggressors there were each time you got robbed?

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u/anonymouscal 2d ago

4 gunman stormed my work.

2 guys (1 driver and 1 gunman) robbed me in a parking lot.

another occasion 2 guys came at me on foot at a self car wash but I ran away

basically young men hanging out in pairs is what I am watching out for. they're bad news

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u/slurpyspinalfluid 1d ago

how are you getting robbed so often😭

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u/Jyrsa 1d ago

How do you know it's often? Maybe they're 80 or something.

More probably living in a high crime area.

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u/Extension-Snow-265 1d ago

I've heard the same thing — the research on violent crime suggests two attackers is the most common setup, then one, then three-plus. That matches the street logic: robberies and group assaults are rarely solo projects.

For training purposes, I'd treat multiple attackers as the default assumption. Most one-on-one sparring drills build habits that fall apart against a group — you can't stay tied up with one person while his friend circles behind you. The big takeaways people drill are: keep moving so they stack up in front of you instead of flanking, don't commit to the ground, and your first priority is finding an exit, not winning the fight. Honestly, practicing footwork and disengaging beats most of the fancy multi-attacker techniques you'll see in videos.

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u/Dry-Independent-3656 2d ago

In Germany, group-SA (which is obviously only one portion of group assaults, however one of the most cruel ones) has risen to over +700/year, which would be ~2/day - and obviously only the reported ones.

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u/Shadow-Pie 2d ago

Thanks but what I’m curious about is the specifics of how often a self defense scenario involves two aggressors and how often a self defense scenario involves three aggressors etc.

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u/ZalewskiJ 1d ago

I’ve been robbed exactly once in my life and I was with my girlfriend. I’m a kickboxer and I’m a purple belt in BJJ and it was 6 wonderful dudes. I told my girlfriend to run and call the police while these dudes beat the living shit out of me, I had time to protect my head and that’s about it. But I survived and my girlfriend was safe.

All those videos you see on the internet aren’t false, no one wants to fight alone anymore. I however have no need to fight as I’m gonna put a 45 caliber bullet in your forehead at the first sign of danger

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u/Pale_Respond2689 1d ago

Look at both state and federal law enforcement agency crime statistics for different types of crimes, whether it's home invasion, armed robbery, muggings, assaults due to social violence clashing or gang related crimes in certain urban areas, or even carjackings.

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u/Jesse_Ambret 1d ago

I'd have to look again to find it, but the order of likelihood is 2, 1, 3 and then up

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u/FAFO8503 1d ago

I think it’s more common than people think.

Most home invasions are usually at least 2 people that enter the home with someone waiting in the getaway car.

A street mugging is probably a single person event more often but not always.

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u/VeritablyVersatile 1d ago

Most assaults/robberies are multiple-attacker, most sexual assaults or kidnappings are single-attacker, but multiple attacker sexual assaults are not wildly uncommon either.

The kind of serial rapist/killer/kidnapper scenario that people prepare for is generally gonna be one guy, but that scenario is also vanishingly uncommon. The much more common "threaten them and take their stuff" attack is usually going to be a small group, two to four.

Unfortunately not able to find any actual statistics affirming this so take my editorialization with a grain of salt.

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u/samcro4eva 1d ago

Often enough 

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u/sirvoon 14h ago

I would say often enough that we should all be training for it. It’s a huge oversight at martial arts schools.

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u/Designer-Photo-8840 2d ago edited 2d ago

Speaking purely anecdotally being attacked by multiple people usually involves a group of men who are in their early teens to early twenties who have something of a pack mentality and are extremely machoistic and very narcissistic. They want to prove that they can't be messed with and that no one is up to deal with them. They're usually somewhat anti-social and don't have a particularly fulfilling home life (to put it mildly).

They'll maybe target younger men or those who maybe seem defenseless (seniors or adolescent females). 

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u/Shadow-Pie 2d ago

I see what you’re saying about the type of people that would attack someone as a group, but I want to know how often there would be different numbers of attackers.

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u/Jyrsa 1d ago

What do you do with this information? I'd always assume there are multiple assailants and act accordingly (scanning, GTFO etc.).

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u/Shadow-Pie 1d ago

I was thinking about whether I should have a revolver or semi-auto for self defense. The number of attackers is relevant for deciding between them because revolvers typically only have 6 rounds and you might have to shoot an attacker more than once. If you only have 6 shots and have to shoot each attacker 3 times then that’s only 2 attackers you can take down.

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u/Jyrsa 23h ago

Two points:

  • You won't hit with all of your shots no matter what
  • What do you think will happen after you shoot the first assailant? Will the others attack because they have a suicide pact?

Oh, and if you don't know how to use it properly, a gun for self defense is more dangerous than no gun for self defense.

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u/Shadow-Pie 20h ago

I guess your second point is correct, but for your first point I don’t know why you think you couldn’t hit all your shots. In a self defense shooting the assailants would be relatively close so it would be pretty realistic to hit all your shots.

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u/Designer-Photo-8840 2d ago edited 2d ago

I found a statistic from the bureau of justice which stated that 80 - 85 percent of crimes involve just a single offender.

That sounds intuitive to me personally because generally speaking most people with anti-social characteristics are typically socially isolated. It takes a very specific type to attack people as part of a group.

The best way to avoid group assaults is actually just to avoid places where groups of people reside which includes dense urban areas (downtown, near malls, etc). Only go outside when it is daylight. Avoid large tourist destinations and recreational centers (movie theaters, pubs, dense boulevards). That alone will prevent you from the overwhelming majority of such instances barring some extremely remote possibility.

I happen to be a younger adult man and I've been threatened multiple times by groups of people. Narcissists like to huddle where there are lots of people and where things feel sort of fancy and Instagram friendly. They'll bump into you and try to seem fearless. Most of it is a show but it's best to avoid that kind of thing.