It feels like the show is exploiting the drama of the survivors' escapes, rather than providing viewers with concrete information on how to stay alive in a similar situation. There are occasional references to spirituality and Christianity -- usually in relation to finding the strength and/or wisdom necessary to survive. Survivors are both male and female and from various class, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
Survivors calmly describe the violent acts committed against them in almost excessive detail. These attacks include shootings, stabbings, and beatings and usually include accounts of blood dripping or spurting out of wounds. Hostages describe being held at gunpoint. Pictures are occasionally shown of some of the survivors' gruesome injuries. Sexual crimes like rape are also referenced, although the specific assaults aren't described in detail.
Survivors sometimes describe their attackers as acting drunk or high -- and some of the written descriptions accompanying the survivors' verbal accounts confirm that some of the perpetrators were indeed high on illegal substances, including crack cocaine, when committing the crimes.