Victimblaming: why people blame the victim, not the aggressor

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The crime must be blamed on the aggressors, not their victims, otherwise the bullying will harm not only the victims, but society as a whole.

In 2018, student Artyom Iskhakov raped and killed his girlfriend and neighbor Tatyana Strakhova, after which he committed suicide. It would seem that everything is unambiguous: there was violence, and only the criminal is to blame for it, who, moreover, confessed to what he had done. But the media and Internet users massively began to look for an excuse for the murderer: the victim “friendzonil” him, provoked, posted candid pictures on social networks.

Or here's another, recent case. An investigator from Orenburg told a 16-year-old girl that she herself was to blame for being raped. After such incidents, there is often talk of victim blaming, or bullying of the victim of a crime. We figure out what it is and why people behave this way.

What is victimblaming and how it manifests itself

The word itself is a copy of the English expression victim blaming, which means "blaming the victim." It describes a situation when people, instead of condemning the offender, try to find excuses for him and argue that the victim is to blame for what happened to her: she provoked, behaved wrong, ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The term victimblaming was first used in the 1970s by psychologist William Ryan when he wrote about racist crimes. Now the term is most often used when talking about women - victims of sexualized and domestic violence. It is in this context that he found the greatest distribution. But in a broad sense, anyone who has suffered a crime can be charged.

This is what victim blaming looks like:

• The police tell the victim that she herself is to blame for the violence, put pressure on her, laugh, refuse to accept the statement, claim that nothing terrible has happened and this is a “fake” crime.
• On the Internet, discussing cases of violence, people write that everything is not so simple, the victim probably provoked the offender because she was not dressed that way, drank too much, published candid photos on the social network, communicated with the wrong people, did not resist well enough, left at home in the evening, in principle, left the house.
• Media personalities speak out to a large audience in the spirit of "What did you do to prevent him from hitting you?" and support criminals, not victims.
• Under the news of the murders, commentators are trying to find out what the victim did wrong, where he "pierced" in order to deserve what happened to him: maybe he drank with dubious personalities, maybe he strolled around in hot places, or he did something to someone bad - and was "punished".
• When it comes to fraud, there are people who believe that the victims were too stupid and reckless and no one is to blame for the fact that they themselves transferred money to scammers or did not read reviews about poor quality services.
• If the victim of sexualized or domestic violence is a man, they can openly laugh at him: too weak, "not a man", "goof". If the criminal is a woman at the same time, and this is rare, but still happens, the victim will be assured in addition that he was lucky and everyone would like to be in his place.
• If the victim of a crime is a child, either the child himself is accused - "the children are now very impudent and licentious", or his parents, as a rule, the mother - overlooked, raised incorrectly, did not take him by the hand to school and back until the very age of majority.

Victimblaming has many faces and manifestations, but the essence is always the same: the focus of attention shifts from the perpetrator to the victim.

Where does victim blaming come from?

People believe in a just world

Psychologists agree that the main reason for victim blaming is, perhaps, belief in a just world - cognitive distortion and the mechanism of psychological defense.

Its essence is this: a person believes that nothing bad happens to good people, that everyone in the world gets what they deserve, and if you strictly follow the rules, you will be safe. Study for A's and you will have a good job. Help your friends - and they will never betray you. Don't wear a short skirt and you won't be raped. Do not cheat on your husband - and he will not beat you. Be vigilant - and scammers will not be able to take your money.

This belief grows from religious dogmas, parental attitudes, fairy tales that we hear in childhood. But its deepest reason is that it kind of makes the world not such a frightening and incomprehensible place. It can be difficult and scary to admit that anything can happen to any person at any moment and it defies any logic. And here it seems like there are simple and understandable rules, and if someone was hurt, it means that he did not follow them. That's it, the case is closed. You can not worry and continue to live in your fictitious safe world.

People sympathize with criminals

Scientists have found that the aggressor can evoke more empathy than the victim, no matter how strange it sounds. At least when it comes to sexualized violence, the perpetrator is a man and the victim is a woman.

People fall prey to survivor's mistake

It is a cognitive trap that allows us to extend our own positive experiences to everyone else. I have never worn a short skirt, and I have not been raped, which means that others should not be. I didn’t hang out in the dark alleys in the evenings, and I wasn’t robbed.

Society approves of this behavior

In recent years, victimblaming is often talked about and written about, so that many understand that it is absurd to blame the victim instead of the perpetrator. However, if you open the comments in the average newsgroup without heavy moderation, you can see how many participants in the discussion are still looking for dark spots in the victim's morale and behavior.

This approach inevitably begins to be perceived as normal and socially acceptable - and others begin to reproduce it. Moreover, the criminals are acquitted, and the victims are accused even at the state level. The victims are portrayed as the culprits of the incident and celebrities and the media. And in Russia, victim blaming is "approved" even in school textbooks:

What are the consequences of victimblaming

He injures the victims

When the victim realizes that the environment - close or distant - blames her and not the perpetrator for what happened, she experiences heavy emotions: shame, horror, resentment, bitterness. In fact, she has to relive the same feelings that she experienced after the incident. Psychologists call this phenomenon retraumatization and re-victimization of the victim.

It normalizes violence

Victimblaming is based on an absolutely cannibalistic idea: the victims deserve what happened to them. If you develop this idea, it turns out that some - "wrong" - people can be beaten, raped, robbed, killed. Because they brought it on, provoked, failed to defend themselves, looked the wrong way, went in the wrong direction. And in general, there is nothing to ruin the life of a criminal and put him in prison. Sounds absurd, creepy and totally unhealthy.

It restricts victims, not criminals

Victimblaming imposes on victims and those who may become them, a set of measures that must be followed so that nothing bad happens. Some of them are quite sensible and logical: walking alone at night through a forest belt, hitching a ride, going home to strangers is really not very safe.

But there are also recommendations that do not correlate with the real state of affairs and make the victims responsible for what happened. For example, advice to wear only loose clothing or not leave the house in the evening. The authors of such rules seem to forget that robbery and murders happen, including in broad daylight, and girls in children's dresses and women in stretched sweatshirts or even a veil become victims of harassment and rape.

At the same time, no one draws up detailed instructions for potential criminals: how to behave in order to refrain from violence, why an excuse for it can only be a threat to life, what to do and where to go if you are tempted to beat, rob and harass.

That is, it turns out that some people have to hide, flinch at every rustle, limit their lives and social activity, while others can behave as they please, saying what to take from them, these are criminals.

He unties the hands of the criminal

In 2019, taxi driver Dmitry Lebedev, nicknamed Abakan Maniac, was convicted of rape and murder in Abakan. He attacked women for years, and some of his victims were lucky enough to escape. Some of them even went to the police to report rape, harassment, and attempted murder. But the applications were rejected over and over again: the victims were pressed, they were laughed at, their words were questioned. If not for this, the killer could have been detained and convicted at the very beginning of his "career" - and there would have been much fewer victims.

According to the observations of experts working with women victims of sexualized and domestic violence, only a tiny percentage of such cases reach the court. In some cases, investigators and police officers obstruct the proceedings, in others, the victims themselves are silent, because they are afraid that they will not be believed, that society and law enforcement officials will condemn them and shame them. With male victims of violence, the situation is probably no better. Therefore, the real scale of such crimes is difficult to assess. And of course, the aggressors feel impunity and are more active.

Sometimes we feel as though we are doing the right thing by telling the victim or anyone who reads and listens to behave differently. We explain to the unreasonable how it should be, return responsibility, let everyone understand: you just had to follow the rules, and everything would be fine.

But by discussing, blaming, and shifting the focus away from the perpetrator, we are not doing anything good. We assert ourselves at the expense of those who are less fortunate, we defend ourselves from unattractive reality and, most importantly, we reinforce in other people a dangerous idea: the victim herself is to blame for what happened. And these are peaceful, law-abiding people who must walk along the line, look around, carefully choose what to wear, how to talk and where to look. And criminals - well, what can you take from them.

So, alas, victim blaming does not bring any benefit, on the contrary, it harms all adequate people. Because anyone can be a victim.

And every time you want to gloat and say the edifying “I had to sit at home at twelve o'clock in the morning”, it is better to take a break, take a few deep breaths and think about what these words will lead to and whether it is worth keeping them with you.