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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5981105" data-attributes="member: 19675">I agree.When I was in college, a particularly vile sexual assault happened at a biker bar in my school's city.  They caught and convicted most of the bad guys, but not all.  The ethical commonality to your example?  The bar was a bar frequented by a particular motorcycle gang- common knowledge all over the city- and the victim was drunk and dancing naked on one of the pool tables.  Her attackers committed a crime, no question, but it was precipitated by some truly idiotic behavior.  The lamb was taunting metaphorical wolves, and the end of the story was easily foreseeable.(And in fact, to hear it from both criminals and cops, simple inattention to your surroundings and "looking like a victim" is one of the ways targets of violent crime get chosen.)A buddy of mine is a mental health care professional, and we were discussing that case, and he surprised the hell out of me.  He said that in cases of sexual assault, one of the most improtant factors in determining whether one recovers a normal life- and how much- is whether or not they accept their share of the blame for the attack.  Which is to say, if the victims believe their actions were not a factor, they continue to feel victimized because there is nothing they could do to change the result, and future victimization threatens beyond every turn in the road.  They are helpless before the winds of fate.In contrast, victims who accept blame for their own actions in the moments leading up to the assault are more likely to make a recovery because they then see they can take steps to prevent a future attack.  IOW, accepting their contribution to their victimization empowers them to stave off future attacks.  They can be proactive.</blockquote>

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