Us simple country folk say even a dog knows when it is deliberately kicked.

As to credibility, in law what constitutes a "reasonable person" in a stalking or harassment case, a common prosecution approach is to tie together the issues of credibility and "reasonable person." Specifically, the prosecution's approach and argument might be that if the fact finder/jury determines the victim to be credible in his or her testimony about the stalking or harassment and the impact it had, that determination should also translate into the fact finder concluding that the victim acted as a "reasonable person" would. Conversely, the defense could potentially equate lack of victim credibility with lack of reasonableness.

Common sense usually makes clear who is the victim and who is the attacker.