bookworm624

TLDR: Would you say that any other violent crime is really the victim's fault?

I'm not going to dance around this question; we all know what it's really asking, so I'll go with it.

My philosophy professor made a great point about this topic today in class. He gave this example:

Let's say you belong to a very rich family, and every night you walk around outside (maybe to a party, maybe to home, wherever) with all your money in your pockets and all your expensive jewelry on. You do it because it helps you feel more confident, but your rich family always tells you it's irresponsible. One night, someone mugs you and takes all your money. Your family yells at you, telling you you should have been more responsible and stayed inside; that way, you wouldn't have been mugged. In their words, "it's your own fault you were attacked that night." The next day you report it, and the only thing the cops care about is whether you were wearing the jewelry that was stolen or showing off your money; if you were enticing anyone to attack you in any way. They then interrogate your family, and your spouse says they knew the whole time it was going to happen, and thus you're really the one at fault for "showing off."

You're lucky enough that they found the mugger easily, and he confesses to doing it. "But you see," he protests, "I wanted the money, and I could tell they wanted me to have it. Even though they kept saying 'no, get away from me' as I stole it from them, I could tell through their actions that they really wanted me to have it. They were basically asking for it!"

Is that event your fault?