Why Do People Victim Blame?

Victim blaming is a common reaction to crime that tries to shift the blame for an event onto the victim. This can be a subconscious or visceral response, and is often based on faulty attributions, which are the ways we interpret events that happen to others. It’s important to understand why people victim-blame and what we can do about it.

Victim-blaming is more than just a negative feeling; it can have serious consequences for victims and their families. It makes them feel less safe, can cause post-traumatic stress and reduce their ability to seek help and support after a traumatic event. It also deprives victims of the empathy and compassion they deserve.

This isn’t just about sexual assault or domestic violence; victim blaming can be found in cases of murders, burglaries and abductions as well. It can also be directed at people who were harmed in war, natural disasters and other tragedies. The reason that it happens is that people want to believe that the world is a fair place and that bad things only happen to “bad” or “unlucky” people, which creates cognitive dissonance when they see evidence of an unjust world.

A desire to maintain a sense of personal control is another factor that leads to victim blaming. It’s a defense mechanism that helps us cope with uncomfortable feelings like fear, shame or anger. When someone feels they could have prevented a crime from happening to them, they may try to rationalize that their actions played a role in the victimization by making up a story about what happened and blaming the victim.

The type of situation and the perpetrator’s gender or cultural background can affect a person’s propensity to victim-blame as well. For example, a study showed that when participants read about a hypothetical incident involving a victim of the same gender as the perpetrator, they were more likely to blame the victim than when the perpetrator was of a different gender. In addition, the perpetrator’s culture was also related to a person’s tendency to blame victims; researchers speculate that this is because people are more likely to see their own group in a positive light and have a stronger need to maintain social cohesion in their groups.

Victim blaming is not just a human response to tragedy; it’s a problem because it can deprive victims of the support and empathy they need and prevent them from reporting incidents of crime to police, which is essential for keeping our communities safe. Educating yourself about the causes of victim-blaming and what you can do to change these negative tendencies can make a difference. Remembering that victims are not at fault can be a powerful message to survivors of a traumatic experience who are trying to heal after their trauma and get the support they need.