Demonization

Several studies have been conducted in regards to blaming the victims for the unfortunate events that have befallen them. One theory mentioned in many of the studies is Shaver’s (1970) Defensive Attribution Theory (DAT), in which he hypothesized that individuals blame victims when they feel the victim is more interchangeable with themselves. This theory is an important aspect to consider when studying the effects of in-group/out-group on victim blaming. An in-group member would be a person who the participants identify with based on similar characteristics whereas an out-group member would be less similar to participants (Lodewijkx et al., 2005). With DAT in mind, the question is how does the identification with an individual in terms of sex, race, and even occupation impact the amount of blame attributed to varying types of victims? Also, when is more blame attributed to a victim of an in-group and when is more attributed to a member of an out-group? With a better understanding of when people have a tendency to lay blame on the victim, society is better equipped to combat this unfortunate phenomena of victim blaming. Personal identification with a victim may lead to psychological distancing and increased victim blaming (Cao & Decker, 2015). This study about narrative perspectives and victim blaming had the purpose of studying if first-person or third-person narratives led to more victim blaming/sympathy. It was found that the use of first-person narratives actually…

The use of sexual description of female victims also acts as a method of victim blaming (Malamuth & Check, 1981). The way in which a victim is described and the details surrounding her persona play an influential role in the way she is represented. The inclusion of details of her past relationships, her appearance, whether she had been drunk or on drugs, where she had been and what her activities are often aimed to blame the victim for her attack (Meyers, 1997). In the same report on the rape…

Literature Review Theoretical Orientation Living in a society where victim blaming in rape cases has become a social norm when exploring rape culture as a whole. Focusing primarily on victim blaming, research can provide evidence of inequalities in the criminal justice system that impacts the sentencing of perpetrators. Common aspects seem from victim blaming is creditable of the victim, perpetrator’s race, and/or class, and patriarchy has all influence sentencing in regards to the guilty…

Victims of rape are sometimes led to believe it was their fault that the horrific crime occurred. This is utterly disgusting to even try to pin the blame on the victim. Victims of rape are not at fault. A person's attire, looks, alcohol consumption, sexuality, gender, and/or race does not give anyone permission to take advantage of them. There is no excuse for anyone to commit such a despicable crime. Victims are sometimes ridiculed and looked down upon and this must stop. A change of culture…

Can you imagine walking down the street and passing a sex offender? Odds are you have passed something like three in the last month. Now imagine passing a victim. It is likely that you have seen more than can even be calculated, primarily due to the fact that most victims do not report their attack. While these numbers are not prudent to my argument, I would like the idea of perpetrators and victims to ruminate in your head for a bit. Do you remember the rapist Brock Turner? It is unlikely that…

institution of corrections, techniques of demonization and exceptionalism are utilized to create an atmosphere of crisis which confer a morally privileged status whereby this institution can better advance its interest. While these techniques are effective in propagating their agenda, at times the techniques applied appear troublesome whether purposely or inadvertently. Moreover, an occupational culture exists within the correctional field which sometimes has different norms of behavior than…

Blaming the Victim means that the problem is triggered by the people who are affected by it when they usually are not the true perpetrators. Often, there is a main issue that is causing a specific event or events to continually occur and we should first work at an attempt to solve it. Unfortunately, this is not generally what happens. Generally, people will believe that the victim must have done something wrong or behaved inappropriately, therefore bringing the issue upon themselves. As a…

Two young men from the inner city part of Baltimore, Maryland located right on the boarder that separated Maryland from Washington, DC found each other as one of the young men developed a weird connection with another young man that he had never met before. Sharing the same exact name as him with the feeling that this connection was destiny being from the same exact area, only visiting the prison a couple times Wes Moore (Wes 1) was able to see that they lived somewhat of a similar but different…

This is also the same reason why demonization of femininity also has a relation with homophobia. “There’s this conflation of being a gay man with being feminine, which is in fact not true. Just as there are feminine gay men or masculine lesbians, there are also plenty of masculine gay men and feminine lesbians,” MacGillivray says. Even though there are men who ideally want to be as masculine as possible, in reality, they actually need to have femininity in their life as well in order to find a…

She was demonized because she was born into a patriarchal society that was heavily influenced by Confucius ideology which criticized her inability to fit into a role assigned to her sex. The demonization of Wu Zetian is important to recognize and prevent because it is an example of how societal expectations had allowed history to be written and a historical figure to represented in a certain light instead of being represented fairly. By not representing a figure or event equally and allowing…