Just World Fallacy

(You are not so Smart by David McRaney)

Yesterday my friend and fellow steemit blogger @lauralemons was harassed by @earnest (and other bloggers) about her posts discussing her experiences being raped. Through out the entire time he was commenting he leaned towards blaming her and even said she put herself into the situation. He was doing what many people do when faced with the reality of what rape victims experience, he was victim blaming.

What is victim blaming and why do people do it? Victim blaming is when people expect the victim to be held responsible for a crime against them. While victim blaming can happen with any crime, more commonly, its attached with rape related crimes. Examples of victim blaming are how much sex do they have? Were they drunk? Did they date? Are you sure you are remembering it correctly? It's a way to try and prove that the victim must have done something to deserve the crime.

People who victim blame usually believe the world is very predictable and a just place, where people get what they deserve. Or as psychologist call it, Just World Fallacy. When presented with an article about rape people go through two common responses either they empathize with the victim and offer help or they try to convince others that no injustice occurred. It plays into our culture of fairy tales, of good and evil. Two common examples of this include, homeless people are lazy or porn stars are mentally damaged. People who believe in a just world are usually conservative, religious, and are more insensitive to marginalized groups. Which makes sense when you apply religion and the sense of karma, what goes around comes around. The just world mentality creates a false sense of security in world where morality is actually choice. Victims threaten the idea that the world is a moral and safe place, and it makes some people uncomfortable, uncomfortable enough to try to find a way to make the situation deserved. When something bad happens to a good person it shows that the world isn't safe, no matter how good you are.

The truth is rape is never the victims fault, crimes are not the victims fault. They didn't want to be raped, robbed, or murdered, the unfortunately where in a situation where someone took advantage of them. The world isn't a just place and shitty things happen to good people, even multiple times. So while they think they are creating justice by blaming the victim all the are doing is hurting victims and furthering stigmatization. There is no positive outcome to victim blaming. People can take classes on self defense, they can never drink, they can be a virgin, they can walk away from an abusive relationship but that doesn't mean they won't get raped and it won't stop rape from happening. So instead of trying to find a reason why someone might have been raped offer empathy and understanding. For all victims.