I'm telling you statistical correlations backed by research I've looked into. Embracing rape myths like the idea that what you wear can cause you to be raped, is strongly correlated with being assaulted, and the outcome is strongly correlated with the effects I described. I don't know what you, personally, would do, but neither do you. Statistical correlation and the anecdotal evidence of others is all we have to go by unless we have been in such a situation ourselves.
Rapists are solely repsonsible for RAPE. I thought I was clear on this point, but, I'll put this out there again - I do not condone victim shaming/blaming. I do not deem rape victims responsible for their rapes.
I do however, agree with the points raised in original post. Understanding the casual variables surrounding a crime can assist in establishing patterns and risk.
I haven't embraced rape myths. It would be dishonest to project that I have.
What I've provided are examples as to how considering risk may be of benefit to an indvidual. I provided an example of walking alone at night in a part of my city that is known for crime. If I chose to take such a walk, without protection and without letting anyone know where I'm going - my own behavior at mininum:
a. increases the risk of harassment, rape, robbery or assault
b. decreases my ability to protect myself against an assailant
c. decreases the likelihood that authorities would be contacted timely as they would be if someone had come along with me and/or knew my whereabouts
I'm not responsible for what an assailant might do to me. I do, however, within the context of this particular situation, have the ability to make safer choices.
Yes, I have studied martial arts, and I'm the last person on earth anyone who knows me would accuse of lacking a fighting spirit. I don't know what that has to do with the subject though.
It's directly relative within the context of the conversation that we were having.
You said this:
True, but if you ever ARE assaulted, torturing yourself over what you could have done differently to stop the attack from happening will make your recovery much more painful and difficult than it needs to be.
It may cause you to delay reporting the crime to police, or even not report it at all.
I asked you if personality does not come into play at all? Does our self esteem, emotional health prior to trauma and perhaps even education not influence how we react to trauma?
Do you think it unlikely that other people wouldn't react with the ferocity that you and I might?
Thank God, this is anecdotal and assumptive on our parts to a great degree. You're right. You can't know how you might react to a situation that hasn't occurred to you. But, I can reasonably assume, given my strong feeling on seeing justice served, that I would likely have to be rendered incapable of reporting a crime to not do so.
By avoiding people who broadcast aggression, we both lower our risk of getting into any kind of unanticipated trouble. That's also a statistical correlation though, not a guarantee. Any additional precautions you might like to take is up to you, and I fully acknowledge that people are different. But some of those precautions are not statistically correlated with an increased risk of assault, like telling people where you're going all the time or wearing sexy clothes. So to pick a factor like that to attribute partial responsibility for an attack to the victim is pointless and destructive.
How are you going to avoid someone who drives up in a car with several others and grabs you by gunpoint? How are you going to avoid someone who catches you off guard?
Again, I'm not accusing victims of being responsible in any way for an attack.
I'm talking about risk. In certain parts of my own community, it's unwise to walk alone after hours as per my explanation above. Statistical data supports such.
But really, who lives their life constantly assessing the risk of being assaulted in any given situation? Just steer clear of sketchy characters and you've pretty much done what you can.
Situational awareness and acknowledging risk is important to me. I have a responsibility to do so because I'm not only responsible for myself but for my daughters as well.
This certainly doesn't mean that I live my life paranoid, but, I do exercise what I feel to be better judgement whenever I can.
I can't always steer clear of sketchy characters, unfortunately, because those that are dangerous are often unseen or don't appear to be dangerous. I can't control the actions of others and I can't always know when something negate is going to happen.
But, I can take what I know from crime statistics and apply that to my decision making.
Doing so in my opinion doesn't differ much from acknowledging that risks were pre-existing within the context of a crime. And this does not have to translate to victim shaming/blaming, as seems to be the projection.
The thread itself is asking why we don't blame the victims, I was stating that even while taking precautions a victim should still not be blamed because the perpetrator is the one who is irresponsible, and now we go to a straw man? I find nothing straw-man like about placing all blame on a pick-pocket who couldn't keep his hands to himself, a thug who attacks people, or a rapist that can't keep his own penis in his own pants (even if the girl was wearing wearing hardly any clothes at all or something that was just right up the rapists fantasy isle).
