Blaming the Victim

Blaming the victim is described as a practice used by people who view a social problem as emanating from within the individual who exhibits the problem. This is a very broad topic that can be applied to many different situations in today's society, but the one most notably seen today is pertaining to the sexual assault of civilians. Most people are familiar with the ever growing topic of rape today. In recent years the number of rape victims in America is estimated to be 293,066, and of those numbers 68% don't report to the police. This is a very large number considering that approximately every 107 seconds, another sexual assault is committed. However, one may question why these people do not report this abuse. The reason behind their silence leads back to the topic of 'blaming the victim', many people here the phrases and questions, "They were asking for it", "Where you wearing revealing clothing?", "Did you initial the exchange?", "You shouldn't have been there anyway. ". It is statements like these that lead the victim to believe that it was their fault that there were sexually assaulted.

Photo: http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2015/01/attribution-of-responsibility-blaming.html#sthash.nOVCP33G.dpbs

One real world example of this issue comes from a very famous pop culture icon, Ke$ha. She filed a claim against Dr. Luke and Sony Music claiming that she was drugged and raped multiple times during their acquaintanceship. She was then countersued with the claim that she was trying to get out of a contract signing. Although this fight is still ongoing we see that the accused is trying to turn the tables to make the women feel like she is in the wrong. Whether this is justified or not, stories like these are becoming much more common in today's issues. 

In my opinion this idea that the victim did something wrong instead of the person that actually completed the crime is extremely upsetting. The criticism that people receive after having been taken advantage of leads to so many psychological issues such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. No one should ever have to feel that the reason they were abused was because they were wrong. In a similar situation, children are never blamed for the abuse of their parents, even if they were possibly doing something wrong. There is a line that, if crossed, can be considered physical, mental, or emotional abuse. So if children are not blamed for their abuse, why should anyone else be made to feel shameful?

Another issue that 'blaming the victim' can apply to is described in Chapter 2 of the textbook. Chapter 2 is entitled "Wealth and Poverty: U.S. and Global Economic Inequality" and this chapter describes the social issues in the American economic system and the sociological perspectives of them. Here the concept of 'blaming the victim' is used as an explanation of poverty. In today's media one can often hear about the poor. We see it anywhere from the news to comedy shows and they are very poorly displayed in these places. The stereotypical American poor person is either a lazy bum that won't get a job or they are a drug addict/ alcoholic who lost their jobs due to poor behavior. Although this is a possibility, many Americans forget that some of these people are struggling single parents, war veterans, or even disabled/ill people that have all been left with little to nothing. An article written on readerssupportednews.com by Tom Adams reiderates this theory here.

Photo: http://www.meta-activism.org/2015/09/derailment-handbook/

As stated in this chapter, "Individual explanations for poverty view poverty as the result of either attitudinal and motivational problems that cause individuals to be poor." This topic has become such a huge part of today's society. We see reminence of this action in movies, written in books and websites. Everyone today has used the internet at some point and many people go to it as a place to display their feelings or learn about new topics. Websites are popping up everywhere from social media to learning tools, and they have a lot to say about 'blaming the victim'. Numerous websites can be found all over the internet, one I discovered is entitled Everyday Victim Blaming. This website acts as a bridge for those who have experienced blaming or want to take a stand against it. Even just searching 'blaming the victim' brings thousands of court cases, interviews and activist sites. 

Photo: http://thepowerofreality.blogspot.com/2014/05/victim-blaming.html

No matter where a person stands in this conflict, it is easy to see that this topic causes a big issue in the world and causing many debates across the country. I stand against 'Blaming the Victim' because it causes issues on both ends, the 'victims' feel demoralized and the people are misguiding their anger on the very group they should be helping. 

Citation: 

Ehrenreich, B. (2014, January 13). Time to Wake Up: Stop Blaming Poverty on the Poor. Retrieved September 28, 2015.

Weiss, Suzannah. "Why Do We Blame Rape Victims?" Bustle. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Women 'to blame' for being raped. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015.