What is Victim Blaming?
Why do we need to know about it?
How can we stop it?
Victim-blaming comes in many forms, and is oftentimes more subtle, and unconscious. It can apply to cases of rape and sexual assault, but also to more mundane crimes, like a person who gets pickpocketed and is then chided for his decision to carry his wallet in his back pocket. 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-blaming.
While victim-blaming isn’t entirely universal, in some ways, it is a natural psychological reaction to crime. Not everyone who engages in victim-blaming explicitly accuses someone of failing to prevent what happened to them. In fact, in its more understated forms, people may not always realize they’re doing it. Something as simple as hearing about a crime and thinking you would have been more careful had you been in the victim’s shoes is a mild form of victim-blaming. Hence, there is a need for people know about victim blaming and avoid doing it unconciously. Stop victim blaming to hurt the victim twice.
In order to stop victim blaming, it is helpful to understand why people do it in the first place. One reason people blame a victim/survivor is to distance themselves from an unpleasant occurrence and this gives a false sense that this could not happen to them. By labeling or accusing the victim/survivor, others can see the victim/survivor as different from themselves. People reassure themselves by thinking, “Because I am not like the victim/survivor, because I do not do that, this would never happen to me.” We need to help people understand that this is not a helpful reaction. The storyboard below will present you how an animated video describes the phenonmena in today’s society and the psychology of victim blaming.
Have you ever noticed that there is a problem with victim-blaming in today’s society?
When the security officials violently removed Dr. David Dao from the United Airlines flight,
why did a certain group of people accuse Dr. Dao of his uncooperative behaviour?
When a female celebrity’s private sex tapes were leaked,
why did a certain group of people blame the celebrity of being inaccurate and careless?
Why did they blame the celebrity instead of the one who reveal the tapes to the public?
They are victims but a certain group of people blame them so much like it was their fault making themselves a victim.
Why did some media relate his criminal past to his mistreatment?
Why do these people focus on blaming victims for not protecting themselves instead of perpetrators?
One of the main stream study topics is the female-victim rape.
If women get raped, some people won’t blame the perpetrators,but lay blame on women’s own behaviour and moral standards.
For example, when a woman is walking on the street with a short skirt, most of the people will appreciate it.
But, if a woman with a short skirt get raped, some of the people comment that wearing short skirts cause the rape and she deserve it. This is Victim-blaming.
In fact, humans’ brains in some situations don’t function rationally and fairly.
If people learn of negative facts of someone, they may tend to have biases against him or her.
The Just-World Fallacy also provides one of the explanations for such a phenomenon:
Some people believe in a just world where individuals deserve whatever consequences happen to them, meaning good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.
Thus, if the rape victim is actually a good person and bad things can randomly happen to a good person who does not deserve them, the principles of a just world will be violated.
When the principles are challenged and the incident reflect that anyone could become a victim at any time, people who believe in the just-world might fall into self-doubt and a sense of insecurity.
Under this situation, their brains may find a reason to manage the panic brought by cognitive dissonance.
Victim blaming may give them some semblance of control.
Another explanation is that these people might have unconscious biases and they distort the victims’ characters and behaviour to support their own values and beliefs.
However, it is often neglected the fact that many things are groundless and many accidents are neither predictable or avoidable.
No one could have foreseen himself or herself being dragged off a flight.
These questions have brought psychologists and sociologists to study this phenomenon.
And no one can identify whether an individual is a rapist or not at first sight.
Is it possible for them to help these victims with a positive attitude instead of falling into psychological biases?
Will these people still continue blaming the victims after they have learned of these psychological explanations?
Is it possible for them to help these victims with a positive attitude instead of falling into psychological biases?
The answer is YES.
If they have empathy, compassion and knowledge.
It is believed that the power of empathy, compassion and knowledge can resolve the problem of victim blaming.
And if they have a more in-depth thinking and focus less on victims and more on perpetrators,
it actually led to more empathy and compassion for victims.
Offering the victims non judgmental listening and support is the best way to show empathy.
It is hope that one day more and more people who used to blame the victims on the internet will stop victim-blaming.
If you want to stop the victim blaming, please share this video and inspire everyone to help change the world.
Perhaps, the wound our society suffering will heal as well if people try to understand and accept these victims in a positive way.