Shifting Responsibility.

We live in a society where you have much emphasis on safety, self-protection, and responsibility for yourself. However, it seems that we do not require that same self-responsibility when it comes to holding perpetrators of sexual violence responsible or accountable. Society tends to believe collectively, especially in the eyes of law enforcement, that the perps time imprisoned is how they're being held responsible. Which, in some sense, is true.. Yet, this is after the fact.

Combine victims of sexual assault with this skewed perception of self-responsibility or lack there of, and readily in every case of not evident restraint (and even in those cases) the victim is who draws the most focus for being responsible. We all know the typical accusations of blame that people place on the victim (she was wearing a short skirt, she shouldn't have drank that much, she led him on, etc, etc, etc.). The one that probably is most destructive in my opinion is when they claim the victim "had a choice". "They chose to go to his room," "They chose to get drunk," or the latest, in the case of the 11-year-old raped in Cleveland, Tx "she chose to go that house with them boys". These fault implications are said in a manner of completely disregarding the fact that the perpetrator has a choice too. A choice, in which if is made right we don't even have anything to discuss! I think it's important to point out too that if the victim of a sexual assault is a male, the same victim-blaming tactics aren't constructed. Is this another, unfortunate, yet still plausible display of male privilege?

Society needs to begin making a more conscious effort of placing self-responsibility for ones actions on the perpetrators of those actions. Holding people to a responsibility of proper choice can aid in prevention of sexual violence. Does it matter if she wore a short skirt? No. Does it matter the victim was kissing a person's neck, and hand their hands inside of the other person's pants? No. When we place all of the focus on the victims, it shadows the behaviors by the perpetrators that need to be projected into the focal point of our discourse. Extremely problematic is this cycled perception by society that perpetrators need to have consequences, but it's still the victim who caused it. When we imply that perpetrators have no control over themselves we are leaving no room for hope of solving the problem. Sadly, the popular belief is there isn't any hope. Those of us that work in the field however, are not that passive and are well aware that this issue is not inevitable.

It’s simple. Stop. Blaming. The. Victim!




To reinforce the message that dress doesn’t matter, and sexual violence isn’t the victims fault; there are a number of “Slut Walks” going on around the nation. It began with some amazing women in Toronto, and is now spreading through the states. I just recently had seen a post for one that will be in Dallas on April 23rd, from 1-3 pm. http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2011/apr/11/slut-walk-dallas-april-23/ Look for one near you, because it’s NEVER the victims fault!