Blaming the Victim - 1214 Words

Blaming the Victim Sarah Schwartz Baker College Comp 101 Blaming the Victim 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime (safehorizon.org). Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence. I am that 1 of 4 woman who have experienced an abusive relationship. I was always asked why I didn’t leave or why I didn’t say something, instead of my abuser being asked why. Women are always asked why didn’t you leave, why did this happen, or why didn’t you say something. This can also be called victim blaming. Most of society thinks focusing on the victims of an abusive†¦show more content†¦Woman stay in in abusive relationships for a variety of reason, some are strictly economic and some woman feel they can’t survive in the world on their own (Ford, 2001, pg. 39). We as women fear the shame from society, the courts, and even our own families. In 2008, my abusive r elationship came to a destructive end. My father, my daughter and I were attacked by my ex-husband. We went through the process of making victim impact statements, testifying in court, and he still managed to walk away with fines and a restraining order. Within 24 hours of the restraining order being issued, he violated it. He came into my trailer park and attacked the neighbors that helped me call the police. I remember feeling terrified when I found this out because I thought I would be safe. Incidents like this are why many women refuse/debate testifying against their abusers. While some battered women will want prosecution to the fullest extent of the law, many do not. Because of the existing or past relationship, the victim knows that the batterer will see the prosecution as a hostile attack by the victim; he will retaliate against her in some fashion. And despite the best intentions of police and prosecutors; in the battered woman’s eyes, the system will not be able to protect her from this retaliation. (McGuire, 1999) In conclusion, we as a society need not focus on the victim of an abusive relationship but on her abuser. The abuser chose to make her the victim,Show MoreRelatedThe Issues Posed by Blaming Victims of Rape Essay1292 Words   |  6 Pagesthe tendency to blame the victim to an extent in such cases – especially in incidents where the perpetrator is male and the victim female. Blaming the victim of rape is a well-documented phenomenon which may be subtle in its presence, such as when one makes unrealistic statements about what the victim could have done to protect themselves; alternatively, it may take the form of outright displacement of the blame for the entire crime, an example being one saying the victim was asking for it. As aRead MoreCausal Attribution Theories Of Victim Blaming1204 Words   |  5 PagesCausal Attribution Theories of Victim Blaming in Cases of Sexual Assault For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may alreadyRead MorePsychological And Emotional Effects Of Psychological Abuse928 Words   |  4 Pagesalso goes on to say that emotional abuse: includes blaming, accusing and restricting your freedom - like preventing you from using the phone or talking to family members, or recording the mileage on your car to see if you ve driven somewhere not allowed. Attempting to confuse you mentally (Types of Abuse section). What makes psychological abuse such a large issue is that it is not recognized by most as a true form of abuse. Therefore, the victims of psychological abuse cannot get the help thatRead MoreAmerican Underclass And The Underclass Essay837 Words   |  4 Pagesis used to describe the people at the very bottom of society, they are seen as very poor but harmless. They are also described as the deserving poor. 4. blaming the victim occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them. This seeks to mitigate the perception of victims as responsible.Read MoreAre You Blame For Domestic Violence?1079 Words   |  5 Pagesthe corner stone of conversations. However, in spite of moral obligations, media outlets are often misguided by personal bias and aggrandizement. Journalists, and even more uncannily – health care ‘professionals’ are launching vicious attacks on victims of domestic violence and the government to shift the blame away from malignant perpetrators of abuse. Consequentially, leaving the public stuck in an unrelenting cycle of finger pointing. The abysmal ignorance of some Australian journalists – andRead MoreA Research Study On Family Violence1338 Words   |  6 Pagesrelationship. Which is why my curiosity directed my research to: ‘identifying the signs of emotional and psychological abuse’, leading to my finding: ‘what can be done to stop the emotional and psychological abuse’, and concluding with overcoming victim-identity or the long-term effects these women are prone too ‘if they stay or if they leave’ their relationship the relationship. The method approach for this study was to find peer reviewed research pertaining to ‘Family Violence- Emotional and PsychologicalRead MoreThe Reality Of Television Shows1370 Words   |  6 Pageswomen’s deaths are typically linked to some sort of sexual image. Whether or not it is actually related to their death, the sex life of the women victims is always called into question. The detectives examine the women’s pe rsonal life to see if their sexual promiscuity was a reason the crime occurred. More sexualized images in these shows are the corpses of victims (Lavigne 389). More often than not the corpuses of women are found half-clothed and dressed in lingerie. This tasteless showing of women’s deadRead More Book Review of Escape from Despair: A Croatian Familys Survival1135 Words   |  5 Pagesemotionally cut off. Tepesh and her sisters find themselves in parallel situations with men, although it appears that Tepesh has now escaped by Page 2 setting up an independent existence and by working on behalf of worthy causes, like the rape victims of the recent Yugoslav wars. How we carry our family and cultural legacy around in the land of the free, where the rule of law and protection of rights (ideally) hold sway, is the question that remains to be investigated. This is also where I haveRead MoreAlbert Bandura s Theory Of Self Regulation Through Moral Agency1137 Words   |  5 Pagesthey are activated and after a person justifies the morality of their actions they can then disengage themselves from their behavior. They include redefining the behavior, disregarding/distorting the consequences of behavior, dehumanizing or blaming the victim, and displacing or diffusing responsibility. The first technique, redefining the behavior, is done by morally justifying the behavior or by making palliative comparisons or even using euphemistic labels. About a year ago I witnessed my auntRead MoreFactors Affecting Juror Behavior Towards Perpetrators and Vicitms1823 Words   |  7 Pagesperpetrators and victims in a criminal trial setting. Taken into account, are two factors hypothesized to influence the judicial outcome of criminal trials in Canada and the United States. Primarily, that a jurors level of belief in a just world (BJW) influences his or her decisions towards both the perpetrator and victim, with those jurors measuring higher in BJW being more apt to blame the victim for his or her own misfortune. Second, that the relationship between BJW and the victim blaming behaviour