The nanny state is alive and prospering.

Don't be alone, because you're not allowed to defend yourself. If you do, you'll be subject to every criminal sanction.

You can't have anything that you can use to gain he upper hand over an assailant, only the police can be trusted to use them correctly.

The trouble with all this is, when seconds count, the police are minutes away......

Why is the catch phrase always violence against women
It's 2015 Let's try violence against ... ANYONE
Would hate to see anyone making sexist comments
But it's not going to stop while we chase the American Dream or our corrupt pollies do, Look at the Social problem that place has got.
Only way to fix these problems is to take a step backwards Lets use modern ways to get back to Family basic's, Only then can we start to see some improvement in our ever growing Social issues, Not just slap another band-aid on and hope for the best

This author has an interest in crime fiction and horror. Could it be that she has a distorted reaction to real life crime and horror? It is often said that boys who play violent video games turn into violent men. Could it be that people who are interested in horror begin to see horror everywhere and lose perspective? Why are people interested in horror? Is it because they have some control over it when it is fictionalised – they can turn off the tv or close the book. In real life you cannot have control like that. Perhaps she is looking for a control that can never be and she needs to come to terms with that rather than resorting to a fictional world.

It is very sad, but we now live in an increasingly violent world, and we have all adjusted our behaviour accordingly.
As parents we will be protecting our children, young and old, by imploring them to be off the streets by dark, unless they are in a group for safety.
We will pick them up from late night parties etc, rather than have them walk home.

There is no way I would be telling my children (or anyone else!) to 'reclaim the night' and go off walking alone. Those days are gone.

Phanto,
It's often said that violent media causes people to be violent but every study ever done on the subject shows it to be an untrue statement.
The author takes a balanced and sensible approach, what we can learn from the tragedy is that our young people's safety in public has to be a mix of law enforcement and education on personal safety.
What's obvious is that the men who commit these crimes are actually monsters, they're not everyday men so society wide education campaigns targeting all men are a waste of time, 96% of us are never violent and the minority who are criminals won't listen anyway.
The alleged offender in this case appears to have been a very disturbed individual who had been confined to a psychiatric hospital in his late teens, he's the typical random attacker, the lone nut, the mad dog and no amount of education will change that type of person.
The manufactured outrage of the the detective's sensible advice came from the usual suspects, Feminists immediately began pushing their own agenda ignoring the fact that a dangerous offender was on the run who was likely to and ultimately did strike again.
When you have a mad dog on the loose it's a good idea to be more careful until he's caught, then you can go back to your routine.

Suse,
I don't know that it's getting worse, the streets are much safer now than they were in decades past, everyone has a mobile phone, CCTV is ubiquitous and Police now have access to their databases at all times including in their patrol cars. Masa's killer was apprehended quickly due to his image being captured on CCTV but not before he'd committed several other violent crimes, in years past he might have continued his spree for many more days or weeks and who knows what depraved acts he may have indulged in?
My daughters are 16 and 12 and I'm constantly on their case about personal security and being aware of their surroundings, the headphone thing has been a feature of those discussion on many occasions.
We're raising girls to be adults, adults take responsibility for their own safety, of course we can't say don't go here, don't go there but we can teach our kids to think tactically and conduct risk assessments before taking a particular course of action.
We need to empower them to ask "Is this shortcut worth the risk?" "If I enter this space do I have an escape route if something goes wrong?" "I'm going to go here, should I let someone know my plans?".
It's simple stuff, when I go onto a building site I have to conduct a risk assessment for OHS and over the years it's just something you get into the habit of doing.