Theories Of Victim Blaming

Understanding human behavior is an incredibly complex task. A reasonable person should be able to understand that there are a vast array of reasons a person would act they way they do. However, people are incredibly quick to judge on limited information. These judgements stick and are hard to dismantle, even when contrary evidence is made clear. Attribution theory was developed to understand the cognitive processes involved in making these judgements about how other people behave. Attributions happen in mundane, everyday situations, but an extremely prevalent and harmful way these judgements occur happens through blaming sexual assault victims for their circumstances. The reasons surrounding victim blaming might seem obvious, but attribution
Though victims of illness, poverty, natural disaster, and a myriad of other events are blamed for their circumstances, one of the most notable and widely discussed instances is the blaming of female sexual assault victims. Though blaming victims of sexual assault is often seen as coming from a place of misogynistic prejudice towards women, there is a wide belief that victim blaming works as a means of distancing oneself from the possibility of experiencing something similar (Harber 603) and aims to reconfigure threatening emotions as they come up (604). Studies surrounding victim blaming find that perception of the victim’s personal characteristics play just as significant a role in the blaming process as the perceiver’s own personal characteristics (Ferrão 48). The harms of victim blaming are significant. It not only takes blame away from people who are sexual assault perpetrators, but has several negative effects on victims such as self-silencing, distrust, and an increase in anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (Harber 603). Victim blaming is an incredibly common problem, and it has been found that, depending on the demographic, about 25% people hold that drunk victims are partially to blame, while about 40% believe that a flirtatious victim is somewhat, if not mostly, at fault (Barrett). Because of this, there is no doubt that victim blaming
In attempting to understand how people come to conclusions about why people behave a certain way, more seems to be discovered about the person perceiving than the person acting. When it comes to victim blaming, it is easy to assume that the blamers are unsympathetic and misogynistic, but attribution theory states that ascribing internal, personal blame for every action is too limited in its analysis of human behavior. There are always a myriad of internal and external forces that influence a person’s behavior. Although they do not necessarily validate those behaviors, understanding driving forces behind undesirable attitudes is the first step in dismantling them. Attribution theory shows that people are stubborn, often fearful, and do not like feeling out of control of their circumstances. In understanding this, the conversation surrounding the causes and potential solutions to victim blaming can be much more candid and beneficial for all those