8th May 2004, 5:22 PM
Right. 'Blame the victim' is old thinking and has been quite well disproved. 'They were asking for it' is saying 'the perpetrator isn't REALLY guilty, they couldn't help it after how the other person acted...' and is a truly awful line of thought. Those people are guilty. Period.
(As for Weltall's continuation onto guilt and blame... yes, someone's upbringing can have an effect here. If you were abused as a child you're more likely to be violent, etc. Should that let you off? If there is true mental illness involved then obviously that is the way to go, but if it's not that... I don't know. They are probably less guilty but they still did the act and must be punished for it... you need to balance it somehow, so they definitely get punished but also have access to the help they obviously need.)
(As for Weltall's continuation onto guilt and blame... yes, someone's upbringing can have an effect here. If you were abused as a child you're more likely to be violent, etc. Should that let you off? If there is true mental illness involved then obviously that is the way to go, but if it's not that... I don't know. They are probably less guilty but they still did the act and must be punished for it... you need to balance it somehow, so they definitely get punished but also have access to the help they obviously need.)