1. Do you see some rape victims as being more responsible for their circumstances than others?

2. With regard to the following comment:

"However, it would be foolish to let these facts about courtroom dramas adulterate one's integrity or personal sense of truth after the trial is over."

Are you suggesting that some rape victims, upon honest reflection, would have to admit that their behaviour or style of dress made the attack on them more likely?


I see any individual--and in this scenario, the victim AND the perpetrator--as being responsible for every decision they have made.

I suggest that any rape victim will be further along the road to recovery from the trauma when she identifies for herself those parts of the scene that she can take responsibility for. The reason is this is how she can get back into a view of causing her life in the future.   If that includes a computation about what made the attack more or less likely, so be it--it is an individual exercise.

It is completely understandable that they might not identify any way in which they made it more likely.   But the infinite set of choices they did make has to be returned to their own causative perspective if they are not going to go through the rest of their lives being afraid and unsure of themselves because of what some bastard did.

A