Articles

Victim Blaming

The Psychological Impact of Victim-Blaming

“Victim-blaming ...,” says Dr. Anju Hurria, a psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at University of California–Irvine. “It’s really considered a secondary trauma or a secondary assault.” She says those who are blamed for abuse they experienced “report greater distress, increased amounts of depression; usually complicates their post-traumatic stress disorder, if they’re experiencing that, because they’re dealing with two different assaults. Often we’ll see an increase in suicidal ideation, and then it often decreases people’s chances of reporting future abuses, because there is a fear they won’t be believed, or that they’ll have to deal with the negative feedback of reporting it.”.... The Legacy of Blaming Victims

The Fallacy Of Victim Blaming

How It Contributes To Rape Culture

Victim-blaming attitudes marginalise the victim / survivor and makes it harder to come forward and report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames them for the abuse, they will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to you..... Victim-Blaming is a Repetitive Defense Deployed by Perpetrators Accused of Abuse

Victim-Shaming Myths Which Harm Trauma Survivors

The Powerful Detrimental Effects Of Victim Blaming

Research has shown the powerful detrimental effects of victim-blaming and victim-shaming statements. Studies have confirmed that when victims encounter negative reactions from professionals, family members and friends, this destructively affects the willingness of victims to come forward to disclose their pain and only leads to further self-blame and uncertainty about their experiences.”.... 5 Victim Shaming Fallacies

The Banality Of Evil

Silence Is Complicit

In 1961, Hannah Arendt coined a phrase that seems so very poignant to today’s headlines. While covering Adolph Eichman’s war crimes tribunal in Jerusalem for The New Yorker, she subtitled her subsequent book, The Banality of Evil. The work is a meditation on how ordinary people, doing very ordinary things, can participate in monstrously evil acts.

We find again and again, in institutions we rely upon to protect and nurture children, a banality of evil. An institution is in fact, a collection of individuals. And each of those individuals, whether at a Federal prosecutor’s office, or in a Catholic Bishop’s Diocese, or a home for children, has to make that same decision to ignore the harm being done to children -- keep their heads in the sand, and pretend like nothing is wrong. .... Exceptionalism Denial and Complicity

Toxic Stress

Harvard University - Center on the Developing Child

The future of any society depends on its ability to foster the healthy development of the next generation. Extensive research on the biology of stress now shows that healthy development can be derailed by excessive or prolonged activation of stress response systems in the body and brain. Such toxic stress can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan. ... Unending Toxic Fear

A Legal Industry Built on Private School Sex Abuse

A Lucrative New Practice

For the victims, the investigations can be healing, a signal of recognition in the face of long-expired statutes of limitation. But for the investigators, many of them at big law firms, they are good business, a lucrative new practice area taking its place among their professional offerings. Critics say that the firms, often described by administrators as “independent,” can be too close to the schools they are investigating. Ultimately, it is the schools that pay their bills, and decide what information will be released. ... The Profitable Industry of Child Abuse in America