Victim Blaming

12/24/14

So, victim blaming is a term I read a lot. I've been internalising the term for a while, and perhaps using it to describe too many things.

Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them.

Victim blaming basically seems to grow out of an attidude that if something bad happened to someone, then they must have deserved it in some way. I wonder how much of that comes from a personal experience of deserving bad things that happen, or a personal experience of nothing bad happening coupled with a personal feeling of doing no wrong.

Either way, there are a lot of nonsense ways to make it so something that happens is the victim's fault:

Drew too much attention
Didn't draw enough attention
Provoked a fight
Fought back
Didn't fight back
Committed an unrelated crime
Attacked someone
Ran away from someone
Is a convicted criminal
Is a prisoner
Is not a perfect human being in some way

I think trying to discern intent or cause and effect from results is a useful and necessary human ability. But, at some point, we need to just define unacceptable behavior. No and's, if's, or but's. Tit-for-tat isn't often a good justification.