Victim Blaming Research Paper

This essay will discuss the ways in which gender influences patterns and processes of victimisation, identifying key victimological perspectives and typologies. It will consider key authors in the discipline and offer definitions of terms used. The essay will identify three issues which may impact on gendered victimisation before acknowledging the argument that radical victimology offers a more balanced approach to gendered victimisation than positivist or critical viewpoints.

For the purpose of this essay I will be considering Nils Christie’s (1986) concept of the ‘ideal victim’. In considering this concept, I will discuss what is meant by an ‘ideal victim’ and will also be focusing on the high profile Australian criminal case of Anita Cobby in Blacktown on 2nd of February 1986. Anita Cobby was only 26 years old when she was abducted, brutally raped and murdered by four ‘ideal offenders’. This essay will also consider, the ways in which the media and criminal justice system have constructed Anita Cobby as an ‘ideal victim’.

For Fresno State we recently obtained a victim advocate. Her name is Lisa Kisch and she also went to Fresno State. Her role as an advocate is to help the students who became victims. She independent meaning she does not have to report to the school, like professors have to. When they suspect or are told about a crime like sexual assault. It is up to the victim if they want to seek help. She provides support, resources and referrals. For victims on campus, they can go to her, but they are other places where the victim can go. She said the victims that she sees the most are those who were at parties. Then they do not remember what happened that particular night, but they know something is wrong. As if they have been violated sexually. She doesn’t

Feiring, Simon, and Cleland (2009) concluded that stigmatization rather than abuse severity is a predictive of sexual dysfunction for this population. Stigmatization refers to “shame and a self-blaming attributional style” (p.128). Shame involves a wish to hide the damaged self certain others. Being exposed for survivors would be experienced as a social taboo. Self-blame refers to a perception that some parts of self were responsible for the abuse. Perpetuating of self-blame occurs through the secret survivors keep in a response to threats from their abuser and/or social and legal expectations. These challenging emotional experiences occur following the violation and last for years. Severity of abuse is associated with an increased stigmatization. Abuse specific stigmatization influences survivors’ perception and experience of non-abusive relationships and consensual sex. Stigmatization disrupts development of a healthy self-concept as a sexual being as well as intimate relationship with others (Feiring, Simon, & Cleland, 2009).

Rape is a crime in which one person forces another person with threats, physical force or deception to have sex or sexual contact. In many cases rape is often through penetration, but victims are submitted to rape under different circumstances, such as oral sex, therefore rape has many muddled definitions. The various definitions of rape is a consequence of different cultural backgrounds and stereotypes. Sexual assaults have an effect on everyone either directly or indirectly, especially when victim blaming. Rape is not biased, for it can occur to any person despite their age, gender, religion, education level, sexual orientation or ethnicity. “According to the Department of Justice the average number of rape cases reported annually is approximately 89,000, but many victims are fearful to report their case to the police, for they do not want to be blamed for their assault.” (The Offender 's) Victim blaming in rape cases is a direct correlation to stereotypes. Some stereotypes that affect victim blaming is sexual orientation, promiscuity, gender roles, and race. “These contributing factors are stemmed from the much larger problem of society 's idea of gender and race stereotypes.” (Gill)

hurting her son and wished he had died in infancy. She felt this because he had

As I describe the condition I found myself in, you must realize that on the outside I actually appeared to be doing very well. I wasn’t black and blue like the battered women off of the public awareness commercials. I was physically healthy and so was my young son. I had a full-time job and appeared to be handling the single mom life fairly well. So when I walked into the counselor’s office that first day I appeared to be a fairly healthy individual. Without any emotion that day, I told the counselor that there had been some abuse in my past marriage. I had no idea then that my life had took a turn.

d. SVC’s will empower victims by helping the victims understand the military justice process and aiding these victims with all legal assistance required for this particular case. This will be accomplished by providing effective and timely advice, being available to assist throughout the entire military justice process from the initial investigation to the final convening authority action not to mention providing the advocacy needed to assure all rights are afforded and fully realized by the victim.

The subject of victimization and childhood trauma and neglect, especially sexual victimization is in desperate need of additional awareness despite the increase in the research literature over the past three decades. Youth who experience any form of victimization, whether it be sexual, emotional, and/or physical throughout their childhood are known to have difficulties in their childhood and adolescent development (McCuish, Cale & Corrado, 2015). The abuse they experience can be from their caregivers, sexual victimization by acquaintances and strangers, assaults by peers and can be exposed to violence in their neighborhoods (Finkelhor, Ormrod, Turner and Holt, 2009).

According to the National Center for Victims of a Crime (2012), “a victim’s advocate is a trained professional who facilitates assistance needed to victims during a crisis” (para. 1). The victims advocate will provide crisis intervention, referrals, and ongoing non-clinical support to the victim (National Center for Victims of a Crime, 2012). The victim is the one who will choose whether to accept the offer of victim advocacy services. The advocate is a powerful tool used by law enforcement by supporting, assisting, and guiding the victim through the process.

There are some moments in my life where I have had some misunderstandings in my life and ended up being the perpetrator. Though I try to fix my errors to the best of the ability. Maybe I've even be the victim at times, I have failed to catch on to some of it until later though. Most of the time, I witness these perceptions rather then cause them since I always try to avoid jumping to conclusions or treating others poorly, since I may never know why they do what they do.

I completely agree with you about questioning the victim and making it feel like it was their fault. This can make them feel like they had it coming and it was their fault. Throughout all the training that criminal justice professionals have to go through, I believe that dealing with victims emotions is extremely important. If you have not been a victim of a crime, you will not know how the victim feels. This crime has completely ruined their lives and to have someone that does not handle these cases very well can make them have an unpleasant experience. In the future, this could prevent them from reporting crimes. Criminal justice officials need to be trained better in assisting victims, especially rape victims. Offenders can get a lesser

The difference between sexual predators of adults and children are the ones that victimize children groom their victims rather than use force. They often use manipulation, persuasion, and friendship to sexually assault children. The age of who is considered a child varies from state to state, due to age of consent laws. Sexual predators that victimize adults tend to focus on adults only.

In order to answer this question of “why” we blame victims of sexual assault for their own suffering researchers use the attribution theory. This theory is used to explain how we make sense of our own and other people’s behavior. Internal attributions refer to the perception that someone is behaving in a certain way because of the “type” of person that individual is. We attribute the cause of behavior to a person’s personality or character rather than to the situation. In contrast, an external

“People dominate animals, men dominate women.” Each is a relation of hierarchy, an inequality, with particularities and variations within and between them. (Cite Orange book pg. 92.) For centuries, women have been viewed and used as a man’s “property”, whether it is being used for sexual satisfaction or for the sake of bearing children and taking care of the home. Men are typically perceived as head of the household and whatever they say goes; anything to satisfy their hunger for power and control. Have women ever had a say about what they want to use their bodies for? Laws against rape may have changed over time, but men’s consistent aggressive behavior unfortunately, has not.