Why Victims of Sex Crimes Are Often Blamed
The reasons that people blame victims for sexual assault may surprise you.
Posted January 14, 2026 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Researchers wrote in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence that sexual assault “survivors receive more silencing and stigmatizing” than victims of other crimes, such as theft, for example. Silencing and stigmatizing are signposts on the path of victim-blaming.
I have long contemplated victim-blaming following sexual assault. It’s a confounding, distressing phenomenon to witness. Why would the one who has suffered be the one who is blamed? Why would anyone say, “I’m glad you’re okay, but let’s be honest about the choices you made that led to this.” “By wearing that, you were asking for it." And anything in between.
Responses like these come from seeing tragic, complex events through the unfiltered, cloudy lens of the just-world fallacy—fallacy being the operative word. This phenomenon holds that people get what they deserve.
In a Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research journal paper, “Virtue Ethics in a Value-Driven World: The Just-World Fallacy,” Casey Jo Humbyrd, MD, explains that, “The just-world belief overvalues the role of individuals in controlling their fate and undervalues the importance of societal structures. It can also lead to the justification of another person’s suffering. No matter how great the person’s misery, it must in some way be deserved. Believing in a just world is comforting—it creates order and predictability, rather than acknowledging the capricious nature of things.”
In my clinical work, I see patterns when it comes to blame. One reason people blame victims (even family members) is to protect the perpetrator, or their image of the perpetrator. It is devastating when someone good to you is awful to someone else. Some people simply pick a side, the one that seems safest, aligning with the one who seems “strongest.”
We have evolved as a patriarchal society. This means that the father or the oldest male relative is considered the head of the household merely because of generations tracing back through the male line. Whoever is the oldest is put in charge. Female heads of households notwithstanding, the issue of a patriarchal society is crucial to consider when we know that 90 percent of offenders of sex crimes are male.
The shattered image of that male, as that sacred leader of that home—society, business, or enterprise—presents a problem. Those who are dependent must face truths about the perpetrator they had never been prepared or allowed to consider.
The victim is assigned blame and stigmatized instead. This happens across families and cultures. This is a form of silencing, of the narrative being shifted from one about self-protection to another about self-defense. Others step back and away from the person who most needs their care and kindness.
If someone tells you they were sexually assaulted, what you say truly matters. Be open. Be present. Be kind. I like the simplicity of what the Violence Prevention Initiative offers:
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted or is at risk, here are places to contact, in addition to your local police department or, in an emergency, call 9-1-1.
RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800.656.HOPE
Or text HOPE to 64673
For a list of resources by state, visit the National Sexual Assault Resource Center at https://www.nsvrc.org/find-help/
Reich CM, Pegel GA, Johnson AB. Are Survivors of Sexual Assault Blamed More Than Victims of Other Crimes? J Interpers Violence. 2022 Oct;37(19-20):NP18394-NP18416. Epub 2021 Aug 10. PMID: 34376082.
US Department of Justice. Quick Facts. Sexual Abuse Offenders.
Humbyrd C. J. (2021). V irtue Ethics in a Value-driven World : The Just-world Fallacy. Clinical orthopaedics and related research , 479 (9), 1904–1905.
Violence Prevention Initiative : Tips to Help a Friend
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Meredith Gordon, L.C.S.W. , is a licensed clinical social worker who writes about the intersection between mental health, relationships, and matters of the heart and soul.
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