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About

My name is Evan Malherbe. I am very happily married to a beautiful woman whom I met while studying at university. We both work in the same field and really enjoy our jobs.

We live in a small but beautiful cottage in a peaceful suburb in South Africa. We own three adorable pets: a rabbit called "Bunny", a cat called "Maisy" and a kitten called "Moxley".

The area that we live in has quite a low crime rate, but we are still careful.

We have an electric fence around our garden, a burglar alarm and we keep our doors locked at all times.

Why I Started Escape Crime

I started this website to help you learn to protect yourself and your loved ones from crime.

I was born and raised in South Africa which has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. I grew up with an awareness of crime and criminals. It is something that is a part of life in South Africa.

Many of my own friends and family have been victims of crime. People I care about have been mugged, robbed, burgled and hijacked (carjacked).

Crime has touched our lives in so many ways.

Luckily, my immediate family has only been touched by less serious crimes up until now. Our family home was burgled when I was a child. We were away on holiday at the time, but I still remember my shock and fear when we came home to discover my parent’s bedroom in a mess.

My parent’s new home was broken into more recently. The alarm company called them about 10 minutes after they had left home for a holiday.

Criminals must have been watching the home and struck as soon as their car was out of sight!

They (the police think there were 3 or 4 of them) kicked in the front doors of the house and ran through it picking up only items of value (a laptop and cameras) before finding the keys to my parent's other car.

The Volkswagen Polo Classic was still parked in the garage. They simply used the remote control for the garage door to let themselves out.

We know it took that long because they were gone before the alarm company's armed response vehicle even arrived (and the alarm company records show a response time of around 3 minutes for that call).

My Interest In Crime And Self Defense

I became very interested in self defense and crime in about grade 10 after being beaten up by a group of younger boys at a party. I was very lucky that I walked away with only minor bruising.

The only real injury was to my self-esteem and sense of safety.

I started my education in self defense with Jerry Peterson’s S.C.A.R.S course. I have spent various amounts of time studying the martial arts of Shukukai karate, Judo, Taekwondo and more recently Unarmed Combat Training, Krav Maga and Amok! knifefighting.

I have spent the last 15 years enthusiastically reading and researching every single aspect of personal safety and self protection that I could find.

Internet forums (a real goldmine of info) and books on the subjects of self defense, crime, criminal psychology and personal safety have been my daily reading materials.

I truly love the subject and find it endlessly fascinating.

There are so many areas to explore. The great thing about this topic is that every tip or bit of advice that I learn helps me to become just a little bit safer.

In addition to my continued education in all matters of self defense, I have been taking action and implementing the knowledge I have gained in order to make myself and my wife safer. I practice focused awareness of my surroundings, noticing people's behaviour, always watching for signals of a criminal trying to set me up for attack.

In case you think me paranoid or believe all this must be exhausting, it's not! It's such a habit by now that I barely have to exert any effort at all. It just comes naturally to me now.

I have also carried and still carry weapons on my person every day of the year. I currently carry 2 knives, pepper spray and a small medical kit in my pockets and on my belt. This combination of tools has undergone many changes over the years as I learned more and more about this fascinating topic.

My knowledge of Home Security has also informed our choices about security gates, alarms and fencing.

I just KNOW you will find some valuable information on this site that will help you become a "hard target" to criminals (in other words, I will help you to avoid them!).

If this sounds interesting to you, join my "Critical Crime Updates" email list. You'll be notified about new and updated pages, get exclusive self defense and home security advice AND...

...I'll throw in my FREE 13 page "Quick Guide: Mental Skills Of Self Defense" (PDF format) and a 23 minute audio version of the quick guide (MP3 format)!

Fill in the form below and click "Get Started"!

My Other Interests

I am also interested in computers, frugality and saving money, reading (my other true passion!) and riding my bicycles (road and mountain bikes).

Cycling has been a physical outlet of mine since I was in school.

I started riding my BMX bike around town with friends. Later I changed over to a mountain bike.

These days my mountain bike gets used less often and my road bike is my favorite! What can I say? I'm fickle when it comes to my bicycles!

There is nothing quite as satisfying...

... as going on a long ride on a sunny Saturday morning in South Africa.

It's such good exercise and such a feeling of freedom. It's just me and the open road!

Stay In Touch With Me

I really hope you will take a moment to explore this website and come back often to learn more about this fascinating subject. I am sure you will find it worth your time!

If you would like to contact me with any comments, questions or suggestions, you have several options:

• Visit and "like" the Escape Crime Facebook page
• See my Pinterest board for great pins related to the topics I talk about on this website.
• Follow Escape Crime on Twitter.
• Fill in the form on my Contact page to email me.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified of all new or updated pages on this website as soon as they appear (Don't know what an RSS feed is?).
• Join my "Critical Crime Updates" email list below and get your FREE 13 page "Quick Guide: Mental Skills of Self Defense" (PDF) and a 23 minute audio version (MP3).