Victimization Therories

There are many different theories on victimology and how people become victims. Today we are going to look at two of those.

Benjamin Mendelsohn's theory of victimology was broken down into 6 categories:

1. Innocent victims such as babies and elderly

2. Victims that assume minor guilt; for example, a person that made a poor decision and wound up dead because of that choice.

3. Victims that assume the same guilt; A person dies while committing a crime.

4.Victims more guilt than the offender; A person that talks another person into committing a crime

5. Victims that are guiltier; Someone harming another person and gets killed by the other person’s self-defense

6. Imaginary Victim; Believing due to mental health issues one is a victim.

Mendelsohn breaks his categories down into a way that I agree with. Some people like children do not play any part in becoming a victim, others play a key role in becoming a victim; such as a rapist who gets killed by their victim in self-defense. Had the perpetrator not attacked another person he himself would have never become a victim. That example leads me to my next theory which is victim blaming.

How many times have you turned on the news and heard someone being blamed for a crime committed against them. A big story that has been in the news recently was the story of the show Bachelor in Paradise. A woman made allegations that another contestant on the show took advantage of her. Now this has since been cleared up and no wrong doing was found, but before any investigation had even began the media was all over this woman on how she knew what she was getting in to and that drinking a sex are just a part of the show. What if wrong doing really had happened and this woman was really raped. Does it make it okay because she was on a tv show known for those types of acts? People are blamed all the time for being raped because of the type of clothing they wear. When did wearing a skirt or shorts become consent? Unfortunately, we live in a time where we cannot trust even the closest of “friends” to have our backs. This scenario isn’t only for woman. Men get blamed for being a victim as well. A man gets brutally attacked and instead of comfort they are told they should have been manly and stuck up for themselves.

There are not really any similarities to the two, but there are many differences. Our society needs to do a better job of finding out all the facts when it comes to blaming a victim because many times the victim become a victim all over again when they try to seek help.