Quote:
Originally Posted by sigmadiva
But hey, I'm out of Cap'n Crunch cereal, and by gosh, by golly, I want my cereal NOW!!! So I go out in my car, trying to drive on flooded streets, and my car gets stuck, it floods with water.
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Or you are driving for less stupid reasons (i.e. work and family) and can't get out of your driving obligation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sigmadiva
So, using Drole's logic, I should blame the weather man for ruining my car.
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You are using a victimless and noncriminal act of nature as an analogy. I generally don't describe people caught by inclement weather as "victims" because nature cannot victimize. Pick an analogy dealing with people on both the victim and the perpetrator side of the equation.
As I stated in my first post about victim precipitation, analyzing victim precipitation is not the same thing as victim blame. What you're doing is more along the lines of victim blame because you keep saying "I guess it's all someone else's fault." You want the victims to share some of the blame. The notion that some rape victims should've been smarter is why victims of rape and sexual assault who feel that they were being stupid do not come forward. We already know that there are ways to reduce the probability of any type of victimization; and there are campus efforts to teach students about being smarter and more aware of their surroundings. Teaching people to protect themselves is not the same thing as telling them they were essentially idiots because they were careless.
Everyone has been careless at some point, ranging from leaving products unattended or not fully paying attention to our surroundings as we walk to the car. And we should all thank God that a motivated offender either wasn't around or didn't take us up on that opportunity. Had a motivated offender seized that opportunity, we would see how we could've done some things differently to reduce the risk but the blame remains 100% with the offender. I cringe when some defense attorneys ask the victim "what were you doing in the first place? Didn't you know....."
ETA: The only time when the blame doesn't lie 100% with the offender, and this is also an example of victim precipitation, is when the victim and the offender had an equal risk of victimization. For instance, if someone brings a gun into an otherwise nonlethal argument and the person with the gun ends up getting shot, which happens quite often. The person who brought in the gun could've easily been the offender but ended up as the victim.
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