Month: February 2018

When we study crime we oftentimes look at the victim, this study is termed Victimology, a branch of Criminology. Victimology scientifically studies the relationship between an injured party and an offender by examining the causes and the nature of the consequent suffering. Specifically, victimology focuses on whether the perpetrators were complete strangers, mere acquaintances, friends, family members, or even inmates and why a particular person or place was targeted. Criminal victimization oftentimes inflicts economic costs, physical injuries, and psychological harm.

According to Brittanica, Victimology first emerged in the 1940s and ’50s, when several criminologists (notably Hans von Hentig, Benjamin Mendelsohn, and Henri Ellenberger) examined victim-offender interactions and stressed reciprocal influences and role reversals. These pioneers raised the possibility that certain individuals who suffered wounds and losses might share some degree of responsibility with the lawbreakers for their own misfortunes. By systematically investigating the actions of victims, costly mistakes could be identified and risk-reduction strategies could be discerned.

Although the field originally focused on the varying degrees of victim blameworthiness, by the 1970s this preoccupation became overshadowed by studies intended to prevent victimization, to improve the way complainants are handled by the police and courts, and to speed recovery. As a result of these studies, researchers and concerned citizens alike turn to educating particular populations of people who are more likely to have a crime committed against them, women in particular. This is where a major issue lies. Yes, we as a society need to be knowledgeable about what perpetrators are looking for when they are seeking to commit a crime but this does not mean we should turn to solely educating women on how to avoid being victimized and then blame said woman for the acts committed against her.

Many researchers and citizens have good intentions when saying for example, “Wear something less revealing so you don’t attract too much attention” or “Watch the amount of alcohol you consume, someone may take advantage of you”. But what happens when that woman does get raped after a night out with her friends drinking, or a lady dressed in a short skirt and high heels gets sexually assaulted while walking home late at night? Is it their fault that these crimes happened to them? Didn’t we warn them?

Now, I am in no way bashing the profession of Victimologists. It is important to understand the victims suffering and to coach them through the process of healing from the harm the crime committed against them caused but, there does need to be a more productive and/or psychologically sound way of preventing crime without bashing women for what they wear or do. This is where we turn back to the basics, Criminology, where Victimization stemmed from many years ago.

Criminology is so important because it tries to understand the root of the crime, the perpetrator. These scientists study perpetrator’s motives; what they were looking for whether it be for personal pleasure, to inflict fear or pain, or even for the pure thrill of committing a crime and the adrenaline rush it may give them. The study of Criminology focuses on the motives of the criminal and the social impact of the crimes they commit. According to The Balance, they “look at every conceivable aspect of deviant behavior. This includes the impacts of crime on individual victims and their families, society at large, and even criminals themselves,” according to The Balance. Criminologists study elements like the frequency, location, causes and types of crime, then work to develop “effective and humane means of preventing it,” The Balance continues. This I believe is where Victimology stemmed from. The, “effective and humane means of preventing it”.

To be able to understand crime, criminals, and victims in their entirety we need both Criminology, Victimology, and a ton of other social sciences. The human mind,  people’s actions, feelings, thoughts, and motives are beyond even the smartest scientists’ understanding. We need many researchers and unfortunately, we need crime and victims too, to be able to understand why crime happens in the first place to be able to prevent it.

We must also understand that having a crime committed against you is not your fault regardless of what you wear, how intoxicated you may be, or even simply not being aware of your surroundings. Nobody deserves to be harmed and we as a society need to find other ways of understanding and preventing crime rather than just blaming the victim to make crime less of the reality that it is in our everyday life.

 

 

“When people want to believe that the world is just, and that bad things won’t happen to them, empathy can suffer.” -The Atlantic

This is what we refer to as victim blaming. Any time someone defaults to questioning what a victim could have done differently to prevent a crime, he or she is participating, to some degree, in the culture of victim shaming. And quite frankly, whether you consider yourself an empathetic person or not, you have probably victim blamed someone in the past; intentionally or subconsciously. Victim-blaming attitudes marginalize the victim/survivor and make it harder to come forward and report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames her for the abuse, s/he will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to you. Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along; that it is the victim’s fault this is happening. It is NOT the victim’s fault or responsibility to fix the situation; it is the abuser’s choice. By engaging in victim-blaming attitudes, society allows the abuser to perpetrate relationship abuse or sexual assault while avoiding accountability for his/her actions.

So, why do we do this to others?

“I think the biggest factor that promotes victim-blaming is something called the just world hypothesis,” says Sherry Hamby, a professor of psychology at the University of the South. In summary, the just world hypothesis is the idea that people deserve what happens to them. This desire to see the world as just and fair is believed to be stronger amongst Americans who are raised in a culture that promotes the American Dream and the idea that we all control our destinies. If we all control our destinies, then a victim should have been able to prevent their “victimization.” Maybe the rape victim could have been wearing a less revealing outfit, the guy who was pick-pocketed on the streets of New York City should not have had his wallet in his back pocket, and the mother whose child was just kidnapped should have been watching her child more closely on the playground that day.

According to Live Science, a recent study suggests that your values indicate whether you blame the victim or the perpetrator. In experiments, researchers found that people whose values focus on reducing harm and caring for everyone are likely to blame the perpetrator. In contrast, people who adhere more closely to values like loyalty, purity and obedience to authority are more likely to blame the victims. This difference holds after accounting for politics and demographic factors, said study researcher Laura Niemi, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. It’s also equally true both for sex crimes, in which problems in securing convictions are often traced to victim blaming, and for crimes of a nonsexual nature. “We’re finding it across victimization in general,” Niemi told Live Science. “So there’s something about just being in that victim role that’s what’s important.”

It is a natural psychological reaction to hear about a victim of crime and believe that you would have been more careful or you would have been able to avoid that situation all together had you been in the victims shoes. But this natural instinct does not make it any less of an attempt to shame the victim for their experience, so how do we change our culture and our natural response to crimes and victimization? We have to begin by instilling a new idea in people’s minds, the idea that nobody has a responsibility to avoid being victimized.

The best example of the type of behavior and thought process we need to change is rape culture. According to Southern Connecticut State University, Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. Some verbal examples of rape culture from Southern Connecticut State are as follows:

• Blaming the victim (“She asked for it!”)
• Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys!”)
• Sexually explicit jokes
• Tolerance of sexual harassment
• Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history
• Defining “manhood” as dominant and sexually aggressive
• Defining “womanhood” as submissive and sexually passive
• Assuming only promiscuous women get raped
• Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped
• Refusing to take rape accusations seriously
• Teaching women to avoid getting raped

How can you fight back against rape culture and victim blaming?

• Take victims seriously when they confide in you about a situation
• Avoid using language that degrades women AND men
• Let victims know that it is NOT their fault
• Hold perpetrators accountable for their actions/crimes
• Be an active bystander
• Do NOT assume the victim is to blame

We are all guilty of shaming the victim. We all think that we can handle situations that other victims couldn’t or somehow we could have avoided them. But the truth is, you don’t know what you could or couldn’t have done because you weren’t in that persons shoes at that exact place and time. Be a good friend and family member and listen when a victim comes to you, try to empathize, because you never know if you’ll be in their shoes one day, begging for someone to believe you.