Victim Blaming

Obwinianie ofi ary-poznać zjawisko, zrozumieć mechanizm Wiktymologia jako nauka zajmująca się pokrzywdzonymi przestępstwem narodziła się w latach 40. XX w. Koncentracja zainteresowań naukowych na ofi erze oznaczała jednak na początku nie tyle pochylenie się nad jej sytuacją i potrzebami, co przede wszystkim odejście od schematu "pasywna ofi ara-aktywny sprawca" i dostrzeżenie, że pokrzywdzony w różny spo-sób może przyczyniać się do zaistnienia przestępstwa 1 : czy to zachowując się nieostrożnie, niefrasobliwie, czy też wręcz prowokując lub zachęcając sprawcę do ataku. Skoncentrowanie się na przyczynieniu się osoby pokrzywdzonej do zaist-nienia przestępstwa bardzo szybko wymknęło się spod kontroli i poszło w stronę obwiniania ofi ary. Autorem koncepcji blaming the victim jest ame-rykański socjolog William Ryan, który zresztą użył tego terminu, opisując nie sytuację ofi ar przestępstw, a dzieci ubogich, wykluczonych społecznie, na które przerzuca się odpowiedzialność za niepowodzenia szkolne (wyni-kające m.in. z ich ubóstwa i niemożności zakupu przyborów i materiałów szkolnych) 2. W wiktymologii określenia blaming the victim zaczęły używać amerykańskie feministki w latach 70. XX wieku, opisując nim przede wszyst-kim strategię sprawców polegającą na próbie uniknięcia odpowiedzialno-ści za przestępstwo przez przerzucenie jej na ofi arę. Obwinianie ofi ary jest strategią przyjmowaną także przez profesjonalnych obrońców. Szczególnie w czasie rozpraw dotyczących przestępstwa zgwałcenia adwokaci pokrzyw-dzonych starają się dowieść, że pokrzywdzona "luźno się prowadziła", nie była dziewicą, miała kilku partnerów seksualnych, a swoim zachowaniem 1 E. Bieńkowska, Wiktymologia, Wolters Kluwer, Warszawa 2018, s. 51. 2 E. Bieńkowska, Zgwałcenie-wiktymologia i antywiktymologia (z problematyki wspierania ofi ar), w: L. Mazowiecka (red.), Zgwałcenie. Defi nicja, reakcja, wsparcie dla ofi ar, Wolters Kluwer, Warszawa 2016, s. 118-119.

Victim blaming and self-blame are common experiences for women who have been subjected to sexual violence (Gravelin, Beirnat & Bucher, 2019). This thesis employs a comprehensive mixed-methods approach from a critical realist feminist epistemology. Chapter one introduces victim blaming and self-blame of women, including rationale for the language and terminology used in this thesis. Chapter two presents a review of the literature of victim blaming of women and chapter three sets out the methodology of the thesis. Chapter four presents the exploration and initial development of a new measure of victim Blaming of Women Subjected to Sexual Violence and Abuse (BOWSVA Scale). Chapter five and six present two qualitative studies exploring the language used to construct the victim blaming and self-blame of women, the first study from the perspective of women subjected to sexual violence and the second from the perspective of professionals who work in sexual violence support. The three studies result in a final discussion proposing a new integrated model of victim blaming of women and further findings about the victim blaming of women in society, self-blame of women after sexual violence and the way language constructs the blame of women.

The existence of a rape culture in the West has, in recent years, been widely contested. Unreliable data from surveys and difficulty in providing a staunch definition of rape culture have largely contributed to the backlash triggered so-called “backlash” feminists such as Camille Paglia and Katie Roiphe. Much of the contemporary research on rape culture details and challenges the rhetoric which these backlash texts produced in the 1990s and early 2000s; the aim of this research piece is to highlight the continued existence of – if not proliferation and bolstering of – a rape culture as a worldwide phenomenon most keenly experienced and evident through its propagation in digital media and social networking websites.
Through analytic examination of a selection of Tweets gathered from a preliminary search on Twitter, this paper will highlight how rape culture is reified on microblogging website Twitter. The tweets selected specifically reference the Steubenville rape case which became an international event in August 2012. The case itself is of particular interest owing to its complicated relationship with online networks: the rapes and assaults were captured consistently over the night via the rapists’ and other onlookers’ online profiles while online hacktivist group Anonymous subsequently became involved in the court case.
It is owing to such unusual elements that Steubenville has since become an internationally infamous event in which many cultural commentators have supplied their two cents. The tweets which emerged from a basic search of “Steubenville” on twitter reveal an image of rape culture as rife in online forums. Rape myths such as victim blaming are in substantial supply while stereotypes relating to “real rape” consistently question the language of consent. A vast amount of these tweets both trivialize and normalize rape and thus coincide with the most frequent definition of a rape culture proving it true.

Conference Presentation link: https://sway.com/eh9h0Ezt8MFIJ2gd

Based on an examination of news coverage from 2013 to mid-2018, this article analyzes rhetoric in favor of school dress code policies. I illustrate how women’s bodies are problematized in order to manifest
grounds for regulating female attire. By employing pragmatic lines of argument, pro-dress code rhetors foster what I term consequential transference. Because pragmatic arguments rely on identifying consequences, questions of agency are implicit, as presuppositions of who is responsible for the consequences are embedded into the fabric of the discourse. In this case, dress code defenders paint female immodesty as responsible for several harmful potentialities, including negative social judgments, sexual harassment, and the distraction of male students in the classroom. I assert that pragmatic argumentation is a serviceable tool for underwriting misogynistic culture because consequential transference warrants female regulation and punishment by diminishing the accountability of other actors.

The aim of this study was to investigate how individuals;who had been victims of school bullying;perceived their bullying experiences and how these had affected them;and to generate a grounded theory of being a victim of bullying at school. Twenty-one individuals;who all had prior experiences of being bullied in school for more than one year;were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by methods from grounded theory. The research identified a basic process of victimising in school bullying;which consisted of four phases: (a) initial attacks;(b) double victimising;(c) bullying exit and (d) after-effects of bullying. Double victimising refers to a process in which there was an interplay between external victimising and internal victimising. Acts of harassment were repeatedly directed at the victims from their social environment at school – a social process that constructed and repeatedly confirmed their victim role in the class or the group. This external victimising affected the victims and initiated an internal victimising;which meant that they internalised the socially constructed victim-image and acted upon this image;which in turn often supported the bullies’ agenda and confirmed the socially constructed victim-image. The findings also indicate the possible positive effect of changing the social environment.

The aim of the present study was to examine to what degree different mechanisms of moral disengagement were related to age, gender, bullying, and defending among school children. Three hundred and seventy-two Swedish children ranging in age from 10 to 14 years completed a questionnaire. Findings revealed that boys expressed significantly higher levels of moral justification, euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, distorting consequences, and victim attribution, as compared with girls. Whereas boys bullied others significantly more often than girls, age was unrelated to bullying. Moral justification and victim attribution were the only dimensions of moral disengagement that significantly related to bullying. Furthermore, younger children and girls were more likely to defend victims. Diffusion of responsibility and victim attribution were significantly and negatively related to defending, while the other dimensions of moral disengagement were unrelated to defending.

This article draws on British newspaper reports in order to demonstrate that trolling, and the media's subsequent framing of trolling, involves " silencing strategies ". It is important to examine how trolling is discussed within the media to understand how it might frame public opinion, debate and action, and implicitly victim blame. The article presents findings on: the forms of (online) abuse and behaviours related to trolling in media reports, including rape threats, death threats and body shaming. It also explores the media portrayal of victims of trolling, and the advice given concerning how to respond to trolls. To comply with the message to women, which is propagated in media and popular discourses: " do not feed the troll " , means that " symbolic violence " is exercised with the complicity of the victim(s) of trolling, which has broader implications.

This campaign report is the first collection of accounts of harm caused by using Child Sexual Exploitation films with children in schools and who have been sexually abused in the UK. Real accounts from young people, parents, psychologists, police and therapists provide the first accounts of harm caused by the films, in lieu of any empirical research, evaluations or efficacy of CSE films

A report exploring the way the UK media portrays sexual violence against women. The second part of the report analyses 6 UK sexual violence prevention campaigns and then suggested recommendations for improving the media reporting and campaigning around sexual violence to reduce victim blaming of women and children

The aim of the present study was to explore how teenagers explain why bullying takes place at school, and whether there were any differences in explaining bullying due to gender and prior bullying experiences. One hundred and seventy-six Swedish students in Grade 9 responded to a questionnaire. Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) were used to analyze data. The grounded theory analysis generated five main categories and 26 sub categories regarding accounts of bullying causes. Results indicated that youth tended to explain bullying in terms of individualistic reasons (bully attributing and victim attributing) than in terms of peer group, school setting, or human nature/society reasons. Girls were more likely to attribute bullying causes to the bully and much less to the victim, compared to boys. Moreover, youth classified as bullies were more likely to attribute the reason for bullying to the victim and much less to the bully, compared to victims, bystanders, and victims/bullies.

Victim blaming and self-blame are common experiences for women who have been subjected to sexual violence and abuse. This thesis employs a comprehensive mixed-methods approach from a critical relativist feminist epistemology which includes a review of the literature of victim blaming of women, the development and initial validation of a new psychometric measure of victim blaming of women (BOWSVA Scale), two qualitative studies exploring understanding of victim blaming and self-blame with women who have experienced sexual violence and professionals who work in sexual violence support; resulting in a final discussion proposing a new integrated model of victim blaming of women. Research aims and methodology

Study 1: Interviews with women who have been subjected to sexual violence and abuse This study utilised a semi-structured interview framework to explore the way women construct their understanding and experiences of victim blaming and self-blame through talk. Through interviews with nine women aged 19 to 76 years old, participants were asked to consider why they thought women were blamed for sexual violence, why women might blame themselves for sexual violence along with their own experiences of being blamed by others and blaming the self. The study sought to provide a more nuanced view of the experience of victim blaming and self-blame from women who had experienced diverse forms of sexual violence throughout the lifespan. The interview data was analysed using critical discursive analysis from a feminist perspective to search for patterns and themes in the way women talked about victim blaming and self-blame of themselves and other women.

Study 2: Interviews with professionals who support women after sexual violence and abuse This study utilised a semi-structured interview framework identical to the first study to explore the way the professionals working with the women construct their understanding and experiences of working with women who have experienced victim blaming and self-blame after sexual violence. Through interviews with eleven professionals working in rape centres and sexual violence support services, participants were asked to consider why they thought women were blamed for sexual violence, why women might blame themselves for sexual violence along with their own professional techniques used to try to deconstruct victim blaming and self-blame narratives of women they support. The study sought to provide a comparison between women who have experienced sexual violence and the professionals who support them. The main comparison being; do women seeking support and the professionals supporting them have a similar understanding of victim blaming and self-blame – and how do the professionals try to help women to understand that it was not their fault?


Study 3: Development and validation of a psychometric measure of victim blaming of women subjected to sexual violence and abuse Evaluation of the existing measures used in the victim blaming literature (Updated IRMAS, Mcmahon & Farmer, 2010; AMMSA, Gerger et al., 2007; RMAS, Burt, 1980; PVBS, Cramer et al. 2013) found that none of the existing psychometric measures were specifically built to measure the amount of blame being apportioned to the female victim and to the male perpetrator in common scenarios of sexual violence towards women. Instead, the psychometric measures were found to be testing for constructs such as sexism, rape myths, victim characteristics, perpetrator myths and general attitudes towards sexual violence. This finding led to the development and validation study of the Blame of Women subjected to Sexual Violence and Abuse Scale (BOWSVA Scale). In this study, previous measures were evaluated using concept mapping and content analysis to discover the gaps and problems with previous measurement approaches to victim blaming. The BOWSVA items containing manipulated sexual violence scenarios in which women were assaulted by men, were then developed after a team of peer experts were consulted for face validity. The resulting BOWSVA items were tested on over 450 adults in the general population to generate enough data to conduct factor analysis to develop and test the items as a psychometric construct to measure the apportioning of blame to women who have experienced sexual violence or abuse. A 7-factor solution was derived and accepted in principle, with much more research required to continue to validate the measure and items.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is considered as the most common type of gender-based violence committed against women. Though police officers have a paramount role in intervening towards IPV against women, it is complained that IPV is ignored and is not given the proper attention by police officers. Moreover, researches carried out to examine the attitudes of police officers towards IPV seem scant. Thus, this study was conducted with the objective of exploring the attitudes of police officers towards IPV in light of domestic violence myths and victim blaming in order to break the chain of long tradition of prejudice regarding IPV.
The study was conducted in randomly selected police departments of Addis Ababa Police Commission i.e. Yeka, Bole and Arada Sub cities and Homicide Investigation Division. The research used mixed method type as a design. As a result, a structured questionnaire from Domestic Violence Blame Scale (DVBS) and Domestic Violence Myths Acceptance Scale (DVMAS) was employed to generate comprehensive quantitative data. Additionally, open-ended questions of the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Accordingly, 113 randomly selected investigating police officers filled out questionnaires and 11 key informants that were selected by using purposive sampling were interviewed. Results of the study revealed that the majority of police officers have negative attitudes about IPV, minimize the seriousness of IPV, blame victims and agree with myths and misconceptions about IPV. Major interventions such as systematic and mandatory trainings, incorporating courses regarding IPV in Police College Programs and self-reflection of police officers on their attitudes towards IPV are vital to transform their attitudes. Further, an in depth study on the attitude and intervention of other law enforcement entities towards IPV is suggested.

With reference to social-ecological, self-determination, attributional, and social cognitive theories, the current study examined whether gender, age, altruistic motivation to defend victims, and tendency to blame the victims, at the individual level, and the prevalence of reinforcing and defending, at the classroom level, were associated with bullying. A sample of 901 Swedish students (9–13 years old, M = 11.00, SD = .83) from 43 classrooms filled out a questionnaire. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that the perpetration of bullying was positively associated with the prevalence of reinforcing at the classroom level and blaming the victims at the individual level, whereas it was negatively associated with altruistic motivation to defend victims of bullying at the individual level. Furthermore, students with high altruistic motivation to defend victims of bullying were less inclined to bully, independent of the classroom level of reinforcing. The current study suggests that bullying prevention and intervention programs should: explicitly target bystander behaviors, in particular to reduce the prevalence of reinforcing bullying; include efforts to strengthen altruistic self-concept and motivation to defend victims; and prevent, challenge, and counteract tendencies among students to blame the victim.

The aim of the present study was to investigate how basic moral sensitivity in bullying, moral disengagement in bullying and defender self-efficacy were related to different bystander behaviors in bullying. Therefore, we examined pathways that linked students' basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy to different bystander behaviors in bullying situations. Three hundred and forty-seven teenagers completed a bullying survey. Findings indicated that compared with boys, girls expressed higher basic moral sensitivity in bullying, lower defender self-efficacy and moral disengagement in bullying. Results from the SEM showed that basic moral sensitivity in bullying was negatively related to pro-bully behavior and positively related to outsider and defender behavior, mediated by moral disengagement in bullying, which in turn was positively related to pro-bully behavior and negatively related to outsider and defender behavior. What differed in the relations between outsider and defender behaviors was the degree of defender self-efficacy.

Primarily using Uma Narayan's concept of "Death by Culture," I explore how we use exoticism within our own country to blame victims of sexual violence and how our exoticism of 'other' cultures is a way to also blame victims of sexual violence via blaming their culture.

This thesis explores the challenges of navigating young women’s sexual agency and consent in the digital age. To do so I address the subject of sexting, the policing of young women’s sexuality through cyberbullying, and audience responses to a case of sextortion in an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. In each case, I argue that young women are continuously policed and shamed by others for visible displays of their sexuality.

Sexual violence is a continuing problem in the world. While victimization from sexual assault, such as rape, hurt victims, there is a secondary victimization that comes after which also has many consequences. People continuously blame the victims of rape for the crime that another person has committed. The current review starts by explaining the core concepts of the topic. The aim of the paper is to examine the moderators of rape victim blaming. Theories of the phenomenon and twenty empirical articles are investigated to understand what moderates victim blaming. Victim characteristics such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity and observer characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, rape myth acceptance and more are examined as moderators. Critical analyses of methodologies of the analyzed empirical studies follow.

This resource contains critical discussions of current approaches to child sexual exploitation prevention, intervention and practice in the UK. Three core assumptions about CSE practice are critically examined:
The assumption that only vulnerable children are sexually exploited
The assumption that children 'take risks' that lead to CSE
The assumption that educating children about CSE protects them from CSE

It has been written in an accessible tone but also contains academic in-text references for those who would like to explore existing literature or research discussed in this report. The citation for this report is ‘Eaton, J. (2019) ‘Critical Perspectives: Child Sexual Exploitation Approaches and Practice’, VictimFocus Publications, UK’.

The intended audience for this resource includes:
• Professionals, practitioners and volunteers working in child sexual abuse or exploitation
• Academics and students exploring topics of child sexual abuse and exploitation
• Leadership of child sexual exploitation services and teams
• Policymakers, lawmakers and those working in the rights of the child 
• Anyone with an interest in the critical approaches to this topic including members of the public, survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation

Tulisan ini mengeksplorasi bagaimana nilai-nilai rape culture direpresentasikan dalam meme dan disebarluaskan lewat sosial media Instagram. Meme yang dikaji adalah meme yang mengandung cangkul yang menyebar bersamaan dengan maraknya pemberitaan pemerkosaan dan pembunuhan seorang karyawati bernama Eno. Cangkul, yang merupakan senjata dalam pembunuhan itu diadopsi ke dalam meme dengan berbagai nuansa pesan. Pengadopsian simbol cangkul ke dalam meme mengubah makna cangkul sekaligus merepresentasikan nilai rape culture. Dari analisis menggunakan pendekatan teks, ditemukan bahwa meme bersimbol cangkul ini terbagi menjadi dua kategori, yaitu meme yang bernada humor dan meme yang bernada religius. Meme yang bernada humor menampilkan pesan yang cenderung mengobjektifikasi perempuan dan menyepelekan (trivialization) peristiwa pemerkosaan. Selain tidak pantas, menertawakan peristiwa pemerkosaan juga berkontribusi dalam membungkam perempuan untuk melaporkan pengalaman seksualnya. Sementara itu, meme yang bernada religius cenderung menampilkan pesan menyalahkan korban (victim-blaming) dengan memanipulasi perintah dalam ayat suci sebagai justifikasi. Victim-blaming ini juga menandakan masih maraknya budaya patriarki di Indonesia. Temuan ini menunjukkan bahwa rape culture disebarluaskan dalam cara yang sangat halus, yakni lewat lelucon dan konten berkedok " dakwah ". Nilai rape culture di Indonesia semakin mudah untuk tersebar luas dalam bentuk meme yang mudah dimodifikasi oleh masyarakat serta didukung oleh kepopuleran sosial media Instagram di Indonesia.

Jelen írásomban arra keresem a választ, hogy az áldozathibáztatás jelenségét értelmezhetjük-e a gyűlölet motiválta bűncselekmények esetében is. A szakirodalom kevés figyelmet irányít erre a kérdésre, a két témakör összekapcsolására. A kérdés feldolgozásakor elsőként azt elemzem, miként értelmezhető az áldozathibáztatás a gyűlölet-bűncselekmények esetében, majd ezt követően azt, hogy egy társadalmi
csoport hogyan válhat az áldozathibáztatás célpontjává. Az igazságos világba vetett hit és az azt kiegészítő rendszerigazolás elmélete, illetve az áldozathibáztatás eredeti elméleti keretében értelmezve a kérdést, bemutatom, hogyan lehet összekapcsolni a két témakört és választ adni a fenti kérdésre.

This study investigates the relations between “Belief in a Just World” (BJW), religiosity and victim-blaming attitudes. In particular, the influence of BJW and religiosity on social attitudes is probed. Recent theoretical and psychometric developments in the BJW construct are considered. Thus, 176 Turkish subjects completed measures for BJW-Self (BJW-S)/BJW-Other (BJW-O), “Belief in Immanent/Ultimate Justice,” attitudes towards the poor, and religiosity. Results show that Belief in Ultimate Justice and BJW-S are uniquely related to religiosity. As hypothesized, BJW-O and Belief in Immanent Justice are strongly related to harsh attitudes towards the poor. However, contrary to our expectation, results do not indicate a positive link between religiosity and negative attitudes towards the poor. Study findings also provide strong cross-cultural support for the conceptual and psychometric revisions of the Just-World construct (BJW-S/BJW-O and Immanent/Ultimate Justice).

After its successful transition to democracy, Mexico has experienced an epidemic of organized societal violence, known as the drug war, that to date has cost well over 100,000 casualties, most of them consigned to oblivion, without proper investigation or prosecution. Victims have been organizing and protesting, yet ordinary citizens have remained quiet, except for two short-lived waves of nationwide protest. As I hypothesize, a primary reason for their acquiescence is cognitive. The framing of organized violence as a self-contained war among criminals ("bounded violence") erodes the attitudinal foundations of citizen solidarity: sympathy with the victims of injustice. I explore the cognitive foundations of citizen attitudes towards victims on the basis of original data from the Mexican 2013 National Survey on Organized Violence. Logistic regression analysis confirms the expected framing effect. Even when controlling for alternative explanations, such as personal proximity to violence and social proximity to its victims, the notion of bounded violence among the criminal community induces citizens to view its victims with indifference.

The aim of the present study was to examine factors that affect educational instructors’ attitudes toward juvenile inmates in corrective educational facilities. Educational instructors play an important role in the rehabilitation of juvenile inmates, and their attitudes may affect the adolescents’ chances of rehabilitation. We adopted an ecological perspective and explored the relationship between instructors’ belief in a just world (BJW) and the role of inmates in a criminal event (offender/victim). The study included 196 educational instructors. They answered a questionnaire on their background, BJW levels, and attitudes toward juvenile inmates. Results show that educational instructors perceived “victim” inmates as significantly more delinquent and less treatable than “offender” inmates, and that a BJW affected attitudes toward juvenile inmates. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed in this article.

This study examined Pre-Service Teachers’ (PSTs; N ¼ 92; 75% women, 25% men) tendency to blame students or to feel responsibility when confronted with different vignettes of the sharing of youth produced sexual images. Self-report measures of empathy and rape myth acceptance were collected. Findings showed that PSTs felt more responsible for girl targets depending on the vignette type. Moreover, they blamed the target more in the attention seeking vignette compared to other vignette types. Finally, PSTs who tended to blame the target showed lower levels of empathic concern and higher levels of rape myth acceptance. Implications for teaching education are discussed.

The paper provides a detailed theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between contingency and necessity, and applies it to major schools of thought in the social sciences.

Key words: social theory; cultural theory; political theory; legal theory; political economy;  historiography; social sciences; historical institutionalism; epistemology; gender studies;

How to cite:
Simandan, D. (2010) Beware of contingency. Environment and planning D: Society and Space, 28(3), pp. 388 - 396.

The question is why and for what reason does the interest or conversation about 'whore' become important now? Just think about when and how you are allowed to address a woman as a 'whore' in your thinking. Is this 'whore' just an indicator of sex workers? Or a weapon to attack the so-called imaginary ideal woman or someone who cannot be moulded by society? So what is the real form of the mentality behind the post that has spread on social media about ‘whores’? What is the position of this society against the sexual abuse of so-called sex workers? Or a political attempt to label all those who do not fall into the character of the ideal representation of women termed as 'whores'?



প্রসঙ্গ হলো, কেন এবং কী কারণে ঠিক এই মুহূর্তে ‘বেশ্যা’ সম্পর্কিত আগ্রহ বা আলাপ জরুরি হয়ে ওঠে? আপনার চিন্তায় কখন এবং কীভাবে কোন নারীকে ‘বেশ্যা’ বলে সম্বোধন করার বৈধতা অর্জন করা হয় সেটি একটু ভেবে দেখুন। এই ‘বেশ্যা’ কি কেবলই যৌন মজুরদের নির্দেশক? নাকি তথাকথিত কল্পিত আদর্শ নারীর ছাঁচে যে বা যাকে যখনই ফেলা সম্ভব হয় না তাকে আক্রমণের হাতিয়ার? তাই ‘বেশ্যা’ নিয়ে সামাজিক যোগাযোগ মাধ্যমে যে পোস্টারটি ঘুরে বেড়াচ্ছে তার পেছনে লুকোনো মননশীলতার অসল রুপটি কী? এটি কি সমাজের তথাকথিত যৌন মজুরদের যৌন নির্যাতনের বিরুদ্ধে অবস্থান? নাকি প্রচলিত আদর্শ নারী চরিত্রে যে বা যারা পড়ে না তাদের সকলকেই ‘বেশ্যা’ তকমা লাগানোর রাজনৈতিক প্রয়াস?

Paper presented at the international conference "War and Sexual Violence", CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, 28./29. April 2016
https://www.academia.edu/24405398/War_and_Sexual_Violence_International_Conference

After decades of public suppression and scholarly neglect, recent years have seen a number of substantial contributions to the question of sexual violence against civilian women in the aftermath of the allied occupation of Germany in 1945. However, surprisingly little historical work has been done on the perception of these crimes in the contemporary German public; a research gap which this project attempts to fill.
Based on my analysis of several hundred reports by Catholic priests from Southwest Germany, who had a determining influence on public opinion in their communities, I will show that the perception of rape cases oscillated between tacit acceptance as expectable collateral damage and impotent fury against what was perceived as the collective humiliation of an entire nation. Two phenomena in particular will be examined: Firstly, although the Catholic clergy otherwise acted as advocates and defenders of the German population, in the case of sexual violence they made frequent use of the discursive strategies of trivialisation and victim blaming – especially when the women in question could be construed as non-Catholic, non-local and, by implication, as morally depraved. However, prolonged contact with the allied intruders was felt to endanger also the local women’s integrity. The threat of “moral decay” thus always came from the outside. Secondly, however, exclusion mechanisms worked in the opposite direction as well: in both the American and the French zone of occupation, rapes were almost exclusively attributed to soldiers of colour, who were described as particularly brutal. This distorted image did not only reach back to deep-rooted colonialist and racist stereotypes and fears and effective Nazi propaganda – it was also responsible for the perpetuation of long-lasting myths and the creation of lopsided historical narratives.
In conclusion, this project sheds new light on local strategies in dealing with sexual violence after WWII, highlighting the mechanisms of othering that were used in different dimensions to maintain the image of the innocent German parish community holding out against violent and immoral intrusion from the (non-Catholic, non-German, non-white) outside.

[Popular Publication] Salah satu bentuk rape culture yang dominan di Indonesia ialah victim blaming. Dalam tulisan ini, penulis ini akan mencoba melihat bagaimana pandangan Yesus terhadap budaya victim blaming tersebut. Di antara berbagai teks, penulis akan berfokus pada Antitesis Kedua (Mat. 5:27-30).
- Tulisan ini adalah modifikasi artikel saya yang pernah diterbitkan di Asia Journal of Theology 33.1

This study investigates the relations between " Belief in a Just World " (BJW), religiosity and victim blaming attitudes. In particular, the influence of BJW and religiosity on social attitudes is probed. Recent theoretical and psychometric developments in the BJW construct are considered. Thus, 176 Turkish subjects completed measures for BJW-Self (BJW-S)/BJW-Other (BJW-O), " Belief in Immanent/Ultimate Justice, " attitudes towards the poor, and religiosity. Results show that Belief in Ultimate Justice and BJW-S are uniquely related to religiosity. As hypothesized, BJW-O and Belief in Immanent Justice are strongly related to harsh attitudes towards the poor. However, contrary to our expectation, results do not indicate a positive link between religiosity and negative attitudes towards the poor. Study findings also provide strong cross-cultural support for the conceptual and psychometric revisions of the Just-World construct (BJW-S/BJW-O and Immanent/Ultimate Justice).

In this essay, I explore how gun-rights discourse draws on what Richard B. Gregg called the “ego-function” of protest rhetoric. I examine this stance through the lens of the “open carry” movement. I argue that open carry advocates have painted themselves into a rhetorical corner by portraying their cause as that of the oppressed patriot standing up to a tyrannical government, which limits the potential strategies
available to them and guides them toward the rhetoric of attack. I also explore the racial dimensions of the open carry movement, which are often overlooked in Second Amendment discourse.

Blaming events in therapy were used as a focus for discussions with family therapists in order to examine their construal of the therapeutic process when working with families who blame. Interview transcripts were used as data which were analysed using a qualitative methodology, with a view to building a theoretical model. We present an exploratory model that allows therapists to position their therapy within a broader framework of psychological approaches. When prompted by a video-clip of blaming from the therapy setting, therapists tended to categorize current difficulties in terms of fear and control issues from past relationships and consequent underlying beliefs, and they also described the resultant negative outlook as a direct challenge to therapist idealism. Interestingly, the two themes that emerged from the interview data with the most categories and quotes were ‘unhealthy allocation of responsibility for problems’, which is arguably the main source of overt blaming, and ‘family identity and cohesion’, so often a point of contention during therapy.

Interest in evidence-based policy making in the UK and elsewhere has been documented over many years. There has also been much attention given to the issue of sexual violence from policy makers – virtually all of this attention has been gendered in the sense that it has focused on female victims and male perpetrators. Given the gendered nature of rape this is hardly surprising. However, to say that sexual violence and victimisation is a gendered phenomenon is not to suggest that males are invulnerable to sexual violation. Indeed, the empirical data makes clear that ‘each and every body is permeable and appropriable’. While the inclusion of males within the legal definition of rape under English law occurred more than twenty years ago, policy development has not been similarly re-framed. It is the contention of this chapter that policy makers have failed to appropriately consider the experience of adult male victim-survivors as part of the UK government’s Violence Against Women and G...

CHAPTER EIGHT BLAMING VICTIMS AND BYSTANDERS IN THE CONTEXT OF RAPE INNA LEVY & SARAH BEN-DAVID Abstract This chapter reviews theoretical and empirical literature on victim-blaming and raises the issue of ... Scheffler (2004) agrees with Jaspers (2001). ...

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With reference to social-cognitive theory, the aim of the present study was to examine whether school students' tendency to display different moral disengagement mechanisms varies according to different social cues in hypothetical events in which they are engaged in bullying behavior. A repeated within-subjects experimental design was adopted. A total of 706 Swedish students (aged 10-20) from 75 classrooms responded to four verbal bullying vignettes by filling out a self-report survey. The results showed changes in moral disengagement mechanisms across the bullying situations. For instance, moral justification, victim blaming, and dehumanization scored higher in the mean victim condition and lower in the likable victim condition than in the other two conditions. Diffusion of responsibility was higher in the group conformity condition than in the other conditions. The findings also revealed differences in the levels of moral disengagement mechanisms within the bullying conditions. For example, euphemistic labeling and displacement of responsibility scored higher than the other mechanisms in the laughing audience condition. Victim blaming scored higher than the other mechanisms in the mean victim condition. Dehumanization, victim blaming, and moral justification scored lowest while euphemistic labeling was higher than most of the other mechanisms in the likable victim condition.

Verdi's opera «Stiffelio» premiered in 1850. Due to the censorship pressure, Verdi rewrote his work and created «Aroldo». The plot of both operas is built on a conflict between the protestant pastor Stiffelio (then Aroldo) and his wife Lina (then Mina). The discovery of the affair between Lina and Raffaele (then Godvino), which is antecedent to the narration, marks the beginning of the conflict in the couple. Lina's adultery with Raffaele leads the narration to a strong dualism, opposing the male characters - who blame the sinner - to Lina, the only female figure, who constantly tries to explain her position trying to get her husband's forgiveness. The aim of this paper is to look into gender-based violence in the libretto, in order to understand Piave's position towards a plot that concerns gender oppression. Moreover, this paper might also suggest a different interpretation of the forgiveness motif, which marks both operas' finales, by a different understanding of Lina's adultery.

A basic argument for preferring misleading (deceiving someone by telling the truth) to successful lying (deceiving by believed false assertion) is that misled people are relatively free to select the true content of what is said. So if they do not, they are at least partially responsible for deceit. The article focuses on possible unfair implications of the idea, and presents the principles that may guide a correct assessment of victims' responsibility in deceptions by language.

Conducted in Indonesia, this study analyzes how a religious group accused of being heretical ended up receiving threats and a number of violent reactions, a situation in which the victims were considered to have caused the violence. The study presented here focused on this case of the Ahmadiyya, a minority Muslim group in Indonesia that are the most frequently reported as being victims of violence. Three hundred and nine Sunni Muslims participated in filling out open ended questions and ten Sunni Muslims (all male) participated in interviews discussing the Ahmadiyya and interreligious groups. We found that a substantial number of majority Sunni Muslims think that the values of the Ahmadiyya group are incompatible with common, mainstream Muslim values. As a consequence, their existence is considered a threat and a disruption to the Muslim community.  Therefore, violence is justified if the group insists upon continuing their religious activities. In the eyes of these Sunni Muslims, Ahmadiyya members undermine the coherence within the Muslim community, and occurrence of violence against Ahmadiyya members is thus thought to be the victim’s own fault.

35 male and 35 female undergraduates were exposed to slides that portrayed aggression, close personal interactions between men and women, and women as sex objects before reading the testimonies of rape victims and making judgments concerning both the victim and the alleged rapist. Results show that exposure to negative consequences of aggression apparently threatened Ss' beliefs in a just world, leading them to interpret rape incidents in ways that reaffirmed this belief (i.e., it strengthened Ss' beliefs that the defendant should be punished, but it also caused them to attribute more responsibility for the incident to the victim). Portrayals of close personal relationships between men and women increased male Ss' beliefs that rape victims were responsible for the incident, but had the opposite effect on female Ss' beliefs. Portrayals of women as sex objects decreased males' beliefs in the victim's credibility and increased their beliefs that she was responsible for the incident; however, it had the opposite effects on females' judgments. Despite their effect on judgments of the rape victim, priming manipulations did not affect beliefs that the defendant should be convicted. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the effects of the public media on attitudes and beliefs about rape.

A basic argument for preferring misleading (deceiving someone by telling the truth) to successful lying (deceiving by believed false assertion) is that misled people are relatively free to select the true content of what is said. So if they do not, they are at least partially responsible for deceit. The article focuses on possible unfair implications of the idea, and presents the principles that may guide a correct assessment of victims’ responsibility in deceptions by language.