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5-22-2012

Victim-Blaming: A New Term for an Old Trend Victim-Blaming: A New Term for an Old Trend

Julia Churchill Schoellkopf

University of Rhode Island

, [email protected]

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Victim-blaming is a phenomenon that has been happening since at least the beginning of

recorded history but has only recently been identified as a dynamic used to empower the criminal

and maintain the status quo. Victim-blaming is perpetuated by sexism, the Just World Theory,

cognitive biases, and the theories of self-blame. Victim-blaming occurs when the victim of a

crime or abuse is held partly or entirely responsible for the actions committed against them. In

other words, the victims are held accountable for the maltreatment they have been subjected to.

Perpetrators of crimes for which they blame the victim commonly enjoy a privileged social status

opposite the victim, and their blame typically involves use of stereotypical negative words. The

William Ryan coined the phrase “blaming the victim” in his book Blaming the Victim in

1971, as a response to years of oppression and the civil rights movement. He describes victim-

blaming as a way to preserve the interest of the privileged group in power (Zur). Since then,

advocates for crime victims, particularly those of rape, have adopted the phrase. Although Ryan

coined the phrase, the phenomenon is well developed in psychology and history. As previously

stated, victim-blaming has been happening at least since the beginning of recorded history. There

are many examples of victim-blaming in the Old Testament regarding tragedies justified by

blaming the victims as sinners (Robinson 141). Unfortunately, victim-blaming is still rampant

today and has only recently been identified as problematic.

Perpetrators blame their victims to justify their actions in order to avoid punishment and

maintain freedom to abuse in the future. A perpetrator’s justification for their actions and

continued abuse appears to stem from a sense of entitlement and their desire to have power over

others. One example of this behavior occurs when people try to justify racism against black

people in the United States. Ryan wrote of this phenomenon in his book Blaming the Victim also

as a response to Daniel Moynihan’s The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (1965),

which rationalizes the underprivileged status of black people as their fault (Kirkpatrick 219).

While this false belief was already well known in society, it has been heavily perpetuated and

neighborhood, they could be told they were behaving in a suspicious or threatening manner.

Instead of acknowledging the assault as wrong, perpetrators excuse their violence by claiming it

was self-defense.

However, according to this phenomenon, if the aftermath of the black person’s same

behavior did not result negatively, the situation would not even be of consideration. This is

events (Janoff-Bulman, “Cognitive Biases in Blaming the Victim”). Cognitive bias is

problematic because it causes people to make false assumptions of people’s behavior solely

based on the outcome. In other words, if the same series of events were presented in two

scenarios with one positive outcome and one negative outcome, someone with cognitive bias

would judge the behavior in the former scenario as acceptable but unacceptable in the latter.

In validating victim blaming by using racist stereotypes, perpetrators assert and confirm

their power, privilege and control over black people. It is important to understand however, that

these excuses are completely fictional and made up by the perpetrators to avoid punishment.

Over time the excuses made by the privileged perpetrators against black people have been

accepted by society. The prevalent use of victim-blaming by perpetrators quickly influences

society and legislation which makes victim-blaming a norm. This causes victim-blaming to

One reason women are told this is because cultural sexist expectations and criticisms of women

that are used to victim-blame. Many rape survivors have been blamed by their rapists who claim

the woman was “asking for it” because of her clothing or behavior (Anderson, K. J., &

Accomando 24-28). By blaming the woman, the rapist can avoid being punished and continue to

feel power over women. They may also feel free to rape again if they believe they are not at

fault. The following image is a response to victim-blaming in the case of rape:

Rapists also victim blame because they feel superior to women and in turn have a right to have

control over them. This perceived power is because of sexism, which in turn leads to victim-

blaming. More often than not, victims who are blamed for their abuse are often considered

unequal to the perpetrator in some way. In this circumstance, male gender privilege allows the

perpetrators to blame the victim without consequences (Anderson, K. J., & Accomando 24-28).

The excuses made by rapists are fabricated to obscure the reasons they actually attack women.

individuals allow crimes and further victim-blaming to occur. This occurrence is perpetuated as

the number of bystanders increases (Meyers). While someone may not himself or herself abuse

someone, participating in the victim blaming not only reinforces the social expectations and

fallacies perpetrated, but also prevents the victims’ recourse for the crimes committed against

them as well as their ability to recover. Bystanders and society at large victim-blames in order to

protect themselves from the perpetrators. In other words, bystanders tell themselves that as long

as they don’t do what a victim did to “deserve” the abuse they will be safe. This phenomenon is

called the Just World Theory; the idea is that only bad things happen to people if they did

something wrong to deserve it. The theory suggests that individuals convince themselves that the

world is a safe and just place and people get what they deserve (Andre, Velasquez). In the

following video, the origins of victim blaming and the just world theory are explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZp1YC7dMaU. If an event establishes the world as unjust,

people put the victim at fault or try to convince themselves and others that no injustice has

occurred. For example, an individual could assert that because the world is a just place, the

victim must have deserved their abuse for some reason or another (Andre, Velasquez). Declaring

the victim as deserving of their abuse to ensure a just world is a typical form of victim-blaming.

Society also tends to have an optimism bias, the belief that bad things happen to other people and

Above is a comic found on Blogspot http://seesuzysketch.blogspot.com/2011/01/victim-

blaming-cartoon-for-safer.html

have done something wrong. This phenomenon, called the invulnerability theory, is related to the

just world theory and optimism bias. People rely on a sense of a security to maintain mental well