Victim blaming

Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them.<ref>"Victim Blaming" (PDF). Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime. Retrieved 31 August 2018.</ref> There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as the greater tendency to blame victims of rape than victims of robbery if victims and perpetrators knew each other prior to the commission of the crime.<ref>Bieneck, Steffen; Krahé, Barbara (June 2011). "Blaming the Victim and Exonerating the Perpetrator in Cases of Rape and Robbery: Is There a Double Standard?" (PDF). Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 26 (9): 1785–1797. doi:10.1177/0886260510372945. PMID 20587449. S2CID 206561769.</ref>

Coining of the phrase

Psychologist William Ryan coined the phrase "blaming the victim" in his 1971 book of that title.<ref>Ryan, William (1971). Blaming the Victim. Pantheon Books. ISBN 9780394417264.</ref><ref name="FOOTNOTECole2007111, 149, 213">Cole 2007, pp. 111, 149, 213.</ref><ref name="FOOTNOTEDowns199824">Downs 1998, p. 24.</ref><ref name="FOOTNOTEKatsiaficasKirkpatrickEmery1987219">Katsiaficas, Kirkpatrick & Emery 1987, p. 219.</ref><ref name="FOOTNOTEKent2003">Kent 2003.</ref> In the book, Ryan described victim blaming as an ideology used to justify racism and social injustice against black people in the United States.<ref name="FOOTNOTEKatsiaficasKirkpatrickEmery1987219">Katsiaficas, Kirkpatrick & Emery 1987, p. 219.</ref> Ryan wrote the book to refute Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 work The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (usually simply referred to as the Moynihan Report).<ref>"(1965) The Moynihan Report: The Negro Family, the Case for National Action • BlackPast". 21 January 2007. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017.</ref>

Moynihan had concluded that three centuries of oppression of black people, and in particular with what he calls the uniquely cruel structure of American slavery as opposed to its Latin American counterparts, had created a long series of chaotic disruptions within the black family structure which, at the time of the report, manifested itself in high rates of unwed births, absent fathers, and single mother households in black families. Moynihan then correlated these familial outcomes, which he considered undesirable, to the relatively poorer rates of employment, educational achievement, and financial success found among the black population. The black family structure is also being affected by media through the children.<ref>Coyne, Sarah M.; Robinson, Simon L.; Nelson, David A. (19 May 2010). "Does Reality Backbite? Physical, Verbal, and Relational Aggression in Reality Television Programs". Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 54 (2): 282–298. doi:10.1080/08838151003737931. S2CID 144608099.</ref> The Black family is usually portrayed as gang affiliated, single-parent or very violent. Aggression and violent behavior in children has been linked to television programming.^{[citation needed]} Moynihan advocated the implementation of government programs designed to strengthen the black nuclear family.^{[citation needed]}

Ryan objected that Moynihan then located the proximate cause of the plight of black Americans in the prevalence of a family structure in which the father was often sporadically, if at all, present, and the mother was often dependent on government aid to feed, clothe, and provide medical care for her children. Ryan's critique cast the Moynihan theories as attempts to divert responsibility for poverty from social structural factors to the behaviors and cultural patterns of the poor.<ref>Illinois state U. archives Archived 4 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine.</ref><ref>Ryan, William (1976). Blaming the Victim. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-394-72226-9.</ref>^{[page needed]}

History

Although Ryan popularized the phrase, other scholars had identified the phenomenon of victim blaming.<ref name="FOOTNOTERobinson2002141">Robinson 2002, p. 141.</ref> In 1947 Theodor W. Adorno defined what would be later called "blaming the victim," as "one of the most sinister features of the Fascist character".<ref name=Adorno1947>Adorno, T. W. (1947). "Wagner, Nietzsche and Hitler". The Kenyon Review. 9 (1): 155–162. JSTOR 4332830.</ref><ref>Harding, James Martin (1997). Adorno and 'A Writing of the Ruins': Essays on Modern Aesthetics and Anglo-American Literature and Culture. SUNY Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-7914-3270-9.</ref>

Shortly thereafter Adorno and three other professors at the University of California, Berkeley formulated their influential and highly debated F-scale (F for fascist), published in The Authoritarian Personality (1950), which included among the fascist traits of the scale the "contempt for everything discriminated against or weak."<ref>Hammer, Espen (2006). Adorno and the Political. Routledge. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-415-28913-9.</ref> A typical expression of victim blaming is the "asking for it" idiom, e.g. "she was asking for it" said of a victim of violence or sexual assault.<ref name=encyclopedia>Jackson, Nicky Ali (2007). Encyclopedia of Domestic Violence. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-94221-5.^{[page needed]}</ref>

The just-world hypothesis is proposed as one explanation for why people blame victims: rejecting the uncomfortable idea that bad things happen to people randomly and undeservedly implies that victims must have done something to deserve what happened to them. This also implies that people can avoid being victims by behaving correctly. Though an ancient idea, it became the subject of modern social psychology in the 1960s beginning with Melvin J. Lerner.<ref name="An Overview">Lerner, Melvin J.; Montada, Leo (1998). "An Overview: Advances in Belief in a Just World Theory and Methods". In Montada, L.; Lerner, M. J. (eds.). Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World. Critical Issues in Social Justice. New York: Plenum. pp. 1–7. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5_1. ISBN 978-1-4419-3306-5.</ref>

Secondary victimization of sexual and other assault victims

Secondary victimization is the re-traumatization of a victim through the responses of individuals and institutions. Types of secondary victimization include victim blaming, disbelieving the victim's story, minimizing the severity of the attack, and inappropriate post-assault treatment by medical personnel or other organizations.<ref>Campbell, R.; Raja, S. (1999). "Secondary victimization of rape victims: insights from mental health professionals who treat survivors of violence". Violence and Victims. 14 (3): 261–275. doi:10.1891/0886-6708.14.3.261. PMID 10606433. S2CID 32496184.</ref> Secondary victimization is especially common in cases of drug-facilitated, acquaintance, military sexual trauma and statutory rape.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual assault victims may experience stigmatization based on rape myths. A female rape victim is especially stigmatized in patrilineal cultures with strong customs and taboos regarding sex and sexuality. For example, a society may view a female rape victim (especially one who was previously a virgin) as "damaged". Victims in these cultures may suffer isolation, physical and psychological abuse, slut-shaming, public humiliation rituals, be disowned by friends and family, be prohibited from marrying, be divorced if already married, or even be killed.<ref>National Center for Victims of Crime (2001). "Factsheets: Trauma of Victimization § Secondary injuries". The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. Archived from the original on 28 November 2010.</ref> Even in many developed countries, including some sectors of United States society, misogyny remains culturally ingrained.<ref>Ashley, Jo Ann (1980). "Power in structured misogyny: Implications for the politics of care". Advances in Nursing Science. 2 (3): 3–22. doi:10.1097/00012272-198002030-00003. PMID 6767437.</ref><ref>Ullah, Hazir; Ali, Johar (2012). "Male Hegemony through Education: Construction of Gendered Identities". Géneros. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies. 1 (3): 215–242. doi:10.4471/generos.2012.11. S2CID 145137650.</ref><ref>Jeffreys, Sheila (3 December 2014). Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West. Routledge. ISBN 9781317675440.</ref> A 2009 study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence of male victims of sexual assault concludes that male rape victim blaming is usually done so because of social constructs of masculinity.<ref>Sleath, Emma; Bull, Ray (June 2010). "Male Rape Victim and Perpetrator Blaming". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 25 (6): 969–988. doi:10.1177/0886260509340534. PMID 19738198. S2CID 206561276.</ref><ref>Rine, Abigail (8 July 2013). "No Rape Victim, Male or Female, Deserves to Be Blamed". The Atlantic. Retrieved 25 November 2019. A man who fails to physically overcome his attacker is likewise seen as contributing to his own victimization; he must have secretly wanted it.</ref> Some effects of these kind of rape cases include a loss of masculinity, confusion about their sexual orientation, and a sense of failure in behaving as men should.<ref name=DaviesAusten2011>Davies, Michelle; Austen, Kerry; Rogers, Paul (September 2011). "Sexual Preference, Gender, and Blame Attributions in Adolescent Sexual Assault". The Journal of Social Psychology. 151 (5): 592–607. doi:10.1080/00224545.2010.522617. PMID 22017075. S2CID 22077514.</ref> Victims of an unwanted sexual encounter usually develop psychological problems such as depression or sexual violence specific PTSD known as rape trauma syndrome.<ref name=DaviesAusten2011/><ref>Cling, B. J. (2004). Sexualized Violence Against Women and Children: A Psychology and Law Perspective. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-59385-061-6.^{[page needed]}</ref>

One example of an allegation against female victims of sexual assault is that they were wearing provocative clothing and thus actively trying to seduce a sexual partner. Such accusations against victims stem from the assumption that sexually revealing clothing conveys consent for sexual actions, irrespective of willful verbal consent. Research has yet to prove that attire is a significant causal factor in determining who is assaulted.<ref>Moor, Avigail (2010). "She Dresses to Attract, He Perceives Seduction: A Gender Gap in Attribution of Intent to Women's Revealing Style of Dress and its Relation to Blaming the Victims of Sexual Violence". Journal of International Women's Studies. 11 (4): 115–127.</ref><ref name="Beiner 2007 125–152">Beiner, Theresa (2007). "Sexy Dressing Revisited: Does Target Dress Play a Part in Sexual Harassment Cases?". Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy. 14: 125–152. hdl:20.500.12424/531674.</ref>

Victim blaming is also exemplified when a victim of sexual assault is found at fault for performing actions which reduce their ability to resist or refuse consent, such as consuming alcohol.<ref name="Don't blame women's drinking for rape">Whitaker, Matthew (6 November 2013). "Don't blame women's drinking for rape". CNN Opinion. Retrieved 11 September 2015.</ref> Victim advocacy groups and medical professionals are educating young adults on the definition of consent, and the importance of refraining from victim blaming. Most institutions have adopted the concept of affirmative consent and that refraining from sexual activity while under the influence is the safest choice.<ref>"Myths and Facts About Sexual Assault and Consent". Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.</ref>

In efforts to discredit alleged sexual assault victims in court, a defense attorney may delve into an accuser's personal history, a common practice that also has the purposeful effect of making the victim so uncomfortable they choose not to proceed. This attack on character, especially one pointing out promiscuity, makes the argument that women who lead "high risk" lifestyles (promiscuity, drug use) are not real victims of rape.<ref name="Randall 2010 397–434"/> Research on the acceptance of rape myths has shown that sexism is a significant factor in the blaming of female rape victims.<ref>Suarez, Eliana; Gadalla, Tahany M. (November 2010). "Stop Blaming the Victim: A Meta-Analysis on Rape Myths". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 25 (11): 2010–2035. doi:10.1177/0886260509354503. PMID 20065313. S2CID 30657255.</ref>

Ideal victim

An ideal victim is one who is afforded the status of victimhood due to unavoidable circumstances that put the individual at a disadvantage. One can apply this theory to any crime including and especially sexual assault. Nils Christie, a Norwegian criminology professor, has been theorizing about the concept of the ideal victim since the 1980s. In his research he gives two examples, one of an old woman who is attacked on her way home from visiting her family and the other of a man who is attacked at a bar by someone he knew. He describes the old woman as an ideal victim because she could not avoid being in the location that she was, she did not know her attacker, and she could not fight off her attacker. The man, however, could have avoided being at a bar, knew his attacker, and should have been able to fight off his attacker, being younger and a man.<ref name="Christie 1986 17–30">Christie, Nils (1986). The Ideal Victim. London: Macmillan Press. pp. 17–30.</ref>

When applying the ideal victim theory to sexual assault victims, often judicial proceedings define an ideal victim as one who resists their attacker and exercises caution in risky situations, despite law reforms to extinguish these fallacious requirements.<ref>Gotell, Lise (29 June 2015). "Rethinking Affirmative Consent in Canadian Sexual Assault Law: Neoliberal Sexual Subjects and Risky Women". Akron Law Review. 41 (4).</ref> When victims are not ideal they are at risk for being blamed for their attack because they are not considered real victims of rape.

A victim who is not considered an ideal, or real victim, is one who leads a "high risk" lifestyle, partaking in drugs or alcohol, or is perceived as promiscuous. A victim who intimately knows their attacker is also not considered an ideal victim. An example of a sexual assault victim who is not ideal is a prostitute because they lead a high risk lifestyle. The perception is that these behaviors discount the credibility of a sexual assault victim's claim or that the behaviors and associations create the mistaken assumption of consent. Some of or all of the blame of the assault is then placed on these victims, and so they are not worthy of having their case presented in court. These perceptions persist in court rulings despite a shift in laws favoring affirmative consent – meaning that the participants in a sexual activity give a verbal affirmation rather than one participant who neither answers negatively nor positively. In other words, affirmative consent is yes means yes, no means no and no verbal answer also means no.<ref name="Randall 2010 397–434">Randall, Melanie (October 2010). "Sexual Assault Law, Credibility, and 'Ideal Victims': Consent, Resistance, and Victim Blaming". Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. 22 (2): 397–433. doi:10.3138/cjwl.22.2.397. S2CID 143470738. SSRN 1742077.</ref>

In addition to an ideal victim, there must be an ideal perpetrator for a crime to be considered ideal. The ideal attacker does not know their victim and is a completely non-sympathetic figure- one who is considered sub-human, an individual lacking morals. An attacker that knows their victim is not considered an ideal attacker, nor is someone who seems morally ordinary.<ref name="Christie 1986 17–30"/> Cases of intimate partner violence are not considered ideal because the victim knows their attacker. Husbands and wives are not ideal victims or perpetrators because they are intimately familiar with each other.<ref name="Randall 2010 397–434"/>

Global situation

Many different cultures across the globe have formulated different degrees of victim blaming for different scenarios such as rape, hate crimes, and domestic abuse. Victim blaming is common around the world, especially in cultures where it is socially acceptable and advised to treat certain groups of people as lesser. For example, in Somalia victims of sexual abuse consistently endure social ostracization and harassment.^{[citation needed]} One specific example is the kidnapping and rape of 14-year old Fatima: when the police arrived, both Fatima and her rapist were arrested. While they did not detain the offender for long, the officers held Fatima captive for a month and a prison guard continually raped her during that time.<ref>"Rape victims are still being blamed for sexual violence in Somalia". The Independent. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2015.</ref>

In February 2016, the organisations International Alert and UNICEF published a study revealing that girls and women released from captivity by Nigeria's insurgency group Boko Haram often face rejection by their communities and families. Their children born of sexual violence faced even more discrimination.<ref>Ford, Liz (16 February 2016). "Women freed from Boko Haram rejected for bringing 'bad blood' back home". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2016.</ref>

Acid attacks on South Asian women, when people throw acid on women in an attempt to punish them for their perceived wrongdoings, are another example of victim-blaming. For instance, in New Delhi in 2005, a group of men threw acid on a 16-year-old girl because they believed she provoked the advances of a man.<ref>Laxmi. "Laxmi's Story". Acid Survivors Foundation India. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2016.</ref> In Chinese culture, victim blaming is often associated with the crime of rape, as women are expected to resist rape using physical force. Thus, if rape occurs, it is considered to be at least partly the woman's fault and her virtue is inevitably called into question.<ref>Xue, Jia; Fang, Gang; Huang, Hui; Cui, Naixue; Rhodes, Karin V.; Gelles, Richard (April 2019). "Rape Myths and the Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale in China". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 34 (7): 1428–1460. doi:10.1177/0886260516651315. PMID 27271981. S2CID 28391226.</ref>

In Western culture victim blaming has been largely recognized as a problematic way to view a situation, however this does not exempt Westerners from being guilty of the action. A recent example of Western victim blaming would be a civil trial held in 2013 where the Los Angeles School District blamed a 14-year-old girl for the sexual abuse she endured from her middle school teacher. The District's lawyer argued that the minor was responsible for the prevention of the abuse, putting the entire fault on the victim and exempting the perpetrator of any responsibility. Despite his efforts to convince the court that the victim must be blamed, the ruling stated that no minor student that has been sexually assaulted by his or her teacher is responsible for the prevention of that sexual assault.<ref>"JUDGE: School district 'wrong' to blame student for having sex with teacher EAGnews.org". eagnews.org. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2016.</ref>

Opposing views

Roy Baumeister, a social and personality psychologist, argued that blaming the victim is not necessarily always fallacious. He argued that showing the victim's possible role in an altercation may be contrary to typical explanations of violence and cruelty, which incorporate the trope of the innocent victim. According to Baumeister, in the classic telling of "the myth of pure evil," the innocent, well-meaning victims are going about their business when they are suddenly assaulted by wicked, malicious evildoers. Baumeister describes the situation as a possible distortion by both the perpetrator and the victim; the perpetrator may minimize the offense while the victim maximizes it, and so accounts of the incident should not be immediately taken as objective truths.

In context, Baumeister refers to the common behavior of the aggressor seeing themselves as more of the "victim" than the abused, justifying a horrific act by way of their "moral complexity". This usually stems from an "excessive sensitivity" to insults, which he finds as a consistent pattern in abusive husbands. Essentially, the abuse the perpetrator administers is generally excessive, in comparison to the act/acts that they claim as to have provoked them.<ref>Baumeister, Roy (1999). Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty. Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-7165-8.^{[page needed]}</ref>

Scientific studies on victim blaming

A 2017 review by Lennon et al. found that women who wear immodest or sexual clothing self-objectify themselves, which causes anxiety, unhappiness, body-dissatisfaction, and body shame.<ref name="Lennon2017">Lennon, Sharron J.; Adomaitis, Alyssa Dana; Koo, Jayoung; Johnson, Kim K. P. (28 July 2017). "Dress and sex: a review of empirical research involving human participants and published in refereed journals". Fashion and Textiles. 4 (1): 14. doi:10.1186/s40691-017-0101-5. ISSN 2198-0802. S2CID 41901055.</ref> They found that "[o]bservers link wearing sexy dress to violence including sexual coercion, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and unwelcome groping, touching, and grabbing."<ref name="Lennon2017" /> However, only two studies under their review directly investigated dress and real experience of sexual assault; neither study found a connection. Lennon et al. noted that few researchers had studied the influence of actual sexual behavior on potential relationships between sexual violence and dress. One exception was a 2007 study of flashing at college homecoming events, in which Annette Lynch found that "a dress style which might be considered not provocative becomes provocative when the behavior of the woman wearing it becomes suggestive (i.e., when she flashes)" and women who attended homecoming matches were often groped and coerced into exposing themselves.<ref name="Lennon2017" /><ref>Lynch, Annette (1 April 2007). "Expanding the Definition of Provocative Dress: An Examination of Female Flashing Behavior on a College Campus". Clothing and Textiles Research Journal. 25 (2): 184–201. doi:10.1177/0887302X06298699. ISSN 0887-302X. S2CID 145703585.</ref>

Horseshoe theory and nonpolarized views

Some scholars make the argument that some of the attitudes that are described as victim blaming and the victimologies that are said to counteract them are both extreme and similar to each other, an example of the horseshoe theory. For instance, they argue that the claim that "women wearing provocative clothing cause rape" is as demeaning to men as it is to women as depicting men as incapable of controlling their sexual desire is misandrist and denies men full agency, while also arguing that the generalization that women do not lie about rape (or any generalization about women not doing some things because of their gender) is misogynist by its implicit assumption that women act by simple default action modes which is incompatible with full agency. These scholars argue that it is important to impartially assess the evidence in each criminal trial individually and that any generalization based on statistics would change the situation from one where the control of evidence makes false reporting difficult to one where lack of individual control of the alleged crime makes it easier to file false reports and that statistics collected in the former situation would not be possible to apply to the latter situation. While the scholars make a distinction between actual victim blaming and rule by law that they consider to be falsely lumped with victim blaming in radical feminist rhetorics, they also advocate more protection from ad hominem questions to alleged victims about past life history and that the questions should focus on what is relevant for the specific alleged crime. They also cite examples that they consider to be cases of the horseshoe theory applied to the question of victim blaming. This includes cases in which psychologists who have testified on behalf of the prosecution in trials in which breast size have been used as a measure of female age when classifying pornographic cartoons as child pornography and been praised by feminists for it, and later the same psychologists have used the same psychological arguments when testifying on behalf of the defense in statutory rape cases and getting the defendant acquitted by claiming that the victim's breasts looked like those of an adult woman (considered by these scholars to be victim blaming based on appearance) and been praised by men's rights groups for it. It also includes the possibility that biopsychiatric models that consider sexual criminality hereditary and that are advocated by some feminists may blame victims of incest abuse for being genetically related to their abusers and thereby dissuading them from reporting abuse.<ref>Helfgott, Jacqueline B. (2008). Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies and Criminal Justice. ISBN 9781412904872.^{[page needed]}</ref><ref>Gavrielides, Theo (2017). Restorative Justice: Ideals and Realities. doi:10.4324/9781315264868. ISBN 9781315264868.^{[page needed]}</ref>

Other analysts of victim blaming discourse who neither support most of the phenomena that are described as victim blaming nor most of the measures that are marketed as countermeasures against such point at the existence of other ways of discovering and punishing crimes with victims besides the victim reporting the crime. Not only are there police patrols and possible eyewitnesses, but these analysts also argue that neighbors can overhear and report crimes that take place within the house such as domestic violence. For that reason along with the possibility of many witnesses turning up over time if the crime is ongoing long term as domestic abuse is generally said to be which would make some of the witnesses likely to be considered believable, analysts of this camp of thought argue that the main problem that prevent crimes from being successfully prosecuted is offender profiling that disbelieve the capacity and/or probability of many criminals to commit the crime, rather than disbelief or blaming of victim reports. These analysts cite international comparisons that show that the percentage of male on female cases in the statistics of successfully prosecuted domestic violence is not higher in countries that apply gender feminist theories about patriarchal structures than in countries that apply supposedly antifeminist evolutionary psychology profiling of sex differences in aggressiveness, impulse control and empathy, arguing that the criminal justice system prioritizing cases in which they believe the suspect most likely to be guilty makes evolutionary psychology at least as responsible as gender feminism for leaving domestic violence cases with female offenders undiscovered no matter if the victim is male or female. The analysts argue that many problems that are often attributed to victim blaming are instead due to offender profiling, and suggest randomized investigations instead of psychological profiling of suspected offenders.<ref>Brantingham, Patricia L.; Brantingham, Paul J. (2017) [1981;1993]. "Notes on the Geometry of Crime". In Canter, David (ed.). Principles of Geographical Offender Profiling. doi:10.4324/9781315246086. ISBN 9781315246086.</ref><ref>Ward, Dakota James (7 May 2015). A Hopeful Rubicon: The Logic within Criminal Profiling (Thesis). hdl:10829/6873.</ref>

Examples

A myth holds that Jews went passively "like sheep to the slaughter" during The Holocaust, which is considered by many writers, including Emil Fackenheim, to be a form of victim blaming.<ref>Middleton-Kaplan, Richard (2014). "The Myth of Jewish Passivity". In Henry, Patrick (ed.). Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. pp. 8, 21. ISBN 9780813225890.</ref> Secondary antisemitism is a type of antisemitism caused by non-Jewish Europeans' attempts to shift blame for the Holocaust onto the Jews, often summed up by the claim that "The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."<ref>Weinthal, Benjamin (31 August 2014). "Non-Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe". Jewish Policy Center. Retrieved 5 December 2018.</ref>

In recent years,^[when?] the issue of victim blaming has gained notoriety and become widely recognized in the media, particularly in the context of feminism, as women have often been blamed for behaving in ways that are claimed to encourage harassment.^{[citation needed]}

Australia

Leigh Leigh, born Leigh Rennea Mears, was a 14-year-old girl from Fern Bay, New South Wales, Australia, who was murdered on 3 November 1989. While attending a 16-year-old boy's birthday party at Stockton Beach, Leigh was assaulted by a group of boys after she returned distressed from a sexual encounter on the beach that a reviewing judge later called non-consensual. After being kicked and spat on by the group, Leigh left the party. Her naked body was found in the sand dunes nearby the following morning, with severe genital damage and a crushed skull. Leigh's murder received considerable attention in the media. Initially focusing on her sexual assault and murder, media attention later concentrated more on the lack of parental supervision and the drugs and alcohol at the party, and on Leigh's sexuality. The media coverage of the murder has been cited as an example of victim blaming.<ref name="carrington">Carrington, Kerry (24 July 1998). Who Killed Leigh Leigh? A story of shame and mateship in an Australian town. Sydney, New South Wales: Random House Australia. ISBN 978-0-09-183708-2.</ref>^: 131

Former Australian Senator Fraser Anning was sharply criticised for his comments about the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which 51 Muslim worshippers were killed. He claimed that immigration of "Muslim fanatics" led to the attacks, and that "while Muslims may have been victims today, usually they are the perpetrators".<ref>Young, Matt; Molloy, Shannon; Smith, Rohan (15 March 2019). "Egg Boy speaks out on Fraser Anning: 'Tackled by bogans'". News.com.au.</ref> Anning also stated that the massacre "highlights...the growing fear within our community...of the increasing Muslim presence". The comments received international attention and were overwhelmingly criticised as being insensitive and racist, and sympathetic to the views of the perpetrator.<ref>"Fury as Australian senator blames Christchurch attack on Muslim immigration". The Guardian. 16 March 2019.</ref><ref>"Australian senator Fraser Anning punches teen after being egged". The Guardian. 16 March 2019.</ref>

In some Common Law jurisdictions such as the UK, Canada, and several Australian states, the defense of provocation is only available against a charge of murder and only acts to reduce the conviction to manslaughter. Until recently criminal courts have regarded sexual infidelity such as adultery and fornication as sufficiently grave provocation as to provide a warrant, indeed a 'moral warrant', for reducing murder to manslaughter. While the warrant has spilled over into diminished responsibility defences, wounding, grievous bodily harm and attempted murder cases, it is provocation cases that have provided the precedents enshrining a defendant's impassioned homicidal sexual infidelity tale as excusatory. Periodically, judges and law reformers attempt to rein in provocation defences, most recently in England and Wales where provocation has been replaced by a loss of control defence that, most controversially, specifically excludes sexual infidelity as a trigger for loss of control.<ref>Howe, Adrian (2013). "'Red mist' homicide: sexual infidelity and the English law of murder (glossing Titus Andronicus)". Legal Studies. 33 (3): 407–430. doi:10.1111/j.1748-121X.2012.00254.x. hdl:10072/50057. S2CID 142871847.</ref>

Germany

In 2016, in the wake of New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany, the mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker came under heavy criticism, as her response appeared to blame the victims. She called for women to follow a "code of conduct," including staying at an "arm's length" from strangers.<ref name="Independent">"Mayor of Cologne says women should have code of conduct to prevent future assault". Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2016.</ref> By the evening of 5 January, #einearmlänge ("an arm's length") became one of Germany's top-trending hashtags on Twitter.<ref name="DW2">"Twitter storm as Cologne mayor suggests women stay at 'arm's length' from strangers". Retrieved 5 January 2016.</ref> Reker called a crisis meeting with the police in response to the incidents.<ref name="BBC">"Stoning victim 'begged for mercy'". BBC News. 4 November 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2013.</ref><ref name="DW">"A 'new dimension' of sexual assault in Cologne". Retrieved 5 January 2016.</ref> Reker called it "completely improper" to link the perpetrators to refugees.<ref name="BBC3">"Cologne sex attacks: Merkel disgust at New Year gang assaults". BBC News. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016.</ref>

Italy

Coverage of the 2016 Murder of Ashley Ann Olsen, an American murdered in Italy during a sexual encounter with a Senegalese immigrant, focused on the victim blaming in cross-cultural encounters.<ref name="GrisafiGoodVictim">Grisafi, Patricia (25 March 2016). "The myth of the good victim: As an American facing street harassment abroad, I wondered what it meant to be a "good victim"". Salon.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.</ref><ref name="NadeauvictimBlamed">Nadeau, Barbie Latza (15 January 2016). "Ashley Olsen Didn't Deserve to Die, No Matter How Hard She Partied". Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 January 2017.</ref>

India

In a case that attracted worldwide coverage, when a woman was raped and killed in Delhi in December 2012, some Indian government officials and political leaders blamed the victim for various things, mostly based on conjecture. Many of the people involved later apologized.<ref>"Amid rape fiasco, India's leaders keep up insensitive remarks". The Washington Post. 4 January 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2013.</ref>

In August 2017, the hashtag #AintNoCinderella trended on social media India, in response to a high-profile instance of victim-blaming. After Varnika Kundu was stalked and harassed by two men on her way home late at night, Bharatiya Janata Party Vice President Ramveer Bhatti addressed the incident with a claim that Kundu was somehow at fault for being out late by herself. Social media users took to Twitter and Instagram to challenge the claim that women should not be out late at night, and if they are, they are somehow "asking for it". Hundreds of women shared photos of themselves staying out past midnight, dressing boldly, and behaving in (harmless) ways that tend to be condemned in old-fashioned, anti-feminist ideology.<ref>Pandey, Geeta (9 August 2017). "#AintNoCinderella: Why Indian women are posting midnight photos". BBC News.</ref>

United States

In 1938 the Madera Tribune ran the front-page headline "Mother Blames her Daughter Equally with Man for Murder" in describing the stabbing death of 19-year-old Leona Vlught in Oakland.<ref name="MotherBlamesDaughterEqually1938"> Written at Oakland, California. "Mother Blames Her Daughter Equally With Man For Murder". Madera Tribune. Vol. LXXIII, no. 32. Madera, California. 9 December 1938. p. 1. Retrieved 13 September 2022. What a mother did not know about her own daughter softened today Mrs. Leonard Vlught's resentment against the boy who killed her. She wondered if she had given the girl too much freedom. She learned, too late, that her own child drank, went on a petting party when she was supposed to be spending the night with girl friends, and kept company with a youth whose crime career began when he was 12. Burdened with grief as she prepared to bury her daughter, the mother judged her for what had happened, and held her equally to blame.</ref> The victim's mother's "resentment against the boy who killed her" was said to be softened upon learning that her daughter drank alcohol and "went on a petting party when she was supposed to be spending the night with girl friends".<ref name="MotherBlamesDaughterEqually1938" /> The perpetrator Rodney Greig was later convicted of the crime and executed in the San Quentin gas chamber.

In a 2010 case, an 11-year-old female rape victim who suffered repeated gang rapes in Cleveland, Texas, was accused by a defense attorney of being a seductress who lured men to their doom.<ref name="slate1">Adams, Sam (29 November 2012). "Cleveland, Texas rape case: Defense attorney calls pre-teen victim a spider, but that's his job". Slate. Retrieved 28 April 2013.</ref> "Like the spider and the fly. Wasn't she saying, 'Come into my parlor', said the spider to the fly?", he asked a witness.<ref name="slate1" /> The New York Times ran an article uncritically reporting on the way many in the community blamed the victim, for which the newspaper later apologized.<ref name="slate1" /><ref>"NY Times Defends Victim Blaming Coverage of Child Rape Case". Mediabistro.com. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 13 September 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2013.</ref>

Urban planning and road safety

Cars not only are responsible for the majority of accidents but also cause more severe ones. However, urban design often continues to favor car circulation, impeding pedestrian and cyclist mobility and placing blame on the victims for those accidents.<ref name="ciudadesquecaminan">RCqC (24 May 2022). "Si se quiere, la propia calle puede educar y proteger a la ciudadanía". Ciudades que Caminan (in español).</ref><ref name="biciclub">Triana, Daniela (30 March 2020). "Ciclismo urbano: "La culpa la tiene la víctima"". biciclub.com (in español).</ref>

As the majority of traffic accident victims are pedestrians and cyclists, measures to calm traffic and protect and facilitate the mobility of the most vulnerable should be implemented to avoid shifting responsibility.<ref name="ciudadesquecaminan"/><ref name="biciclub"/>

Notes

References

Cole, Alyson Manda (2007). The Cult of True Victimhood: From the War on Welfare to the War on Terror. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804754613.
Downs, Donald Alexander (1998). More Than Victims: Battered Women, the Syndrome Society, and the Law. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226161600.
Kent, George (2003). "Blaming the Victim, Globally". UN Chronicle Online. United Nations Department of Public Information. XL (3). Archived from the original on 24 December 2003.
Katsiaficas, George N.; Kirkpatrick, Robert George; Emery, Mary Lou (1987). Introduction to Critical Sociology. Ardent Media. ISBN 9780829015959.
Robinson, Daniel N. (2002). Praise and Blame: Moral Realism and Its Applications. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400825318. JSTOR j.ctt7s3sm.

External links

Information on victim blaming at the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE)
Information on victim blaming at the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime
Victim Blame and Sexual Assault
"Dr Jessica Taylor (PhD, FRSA) explains the reason why women are blamed for everything".

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