Good Thingss happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people ( Aronson, Wilson, & A ; Akert, 2006 ; Hunt,2000 ) Beware of the merely universe hypothesis in measuring adult females, particularly in instances where they are rape/abuse victims. Critically discuss the impression of faulting the victim because she deserved it, mentioning relevant illustrations from assorted civilizations.
On the forenoon of December 5, 2002, three high school football participants went on a field trip to a University in California in Los Angeles. They left the circuit and entered campus residence halls. They so went into a girl’s room. One thing led to another, and the three work forces raped her. In the colza test, the defense mechanism lawyer argued that they had consensual sex. The jurors’ voted in favor of acquittal for two of the three work forces and they were released the following month. The 3rd adult male was charged with colza and physical unwritten sexual intercourse. Some people find it surprising that the two work forces were let off the hook so easy even though they were charged with the same offenses. Several variables impact jurymans in these instances, including race, gender, beliefs, and cognitive manner ( Field & A ; Bienen, 1980 ) . It is likely that because the miss was the 1 who let them into her room, the jurymans thought she should hold foreseen this incident. In many instances of colza, the victim of the colza has been accused to hold ‘deserved’ his or her agony. To some people, this has got to be the most absurd thing anyone has of all time heard, but to others, it makes perfect sense. Why is this so? Why do people apparently claim that person would merit a awful experience like colza? The reply to those inquiries is the being of the theory known as “The Just World Theory” .
The Just World Hypothesis proposes that there is ever a ground or an account on why something good or bad has occurred. This hypothesis was introduced by Lerner ( 1965, 1980 ) . It states that people need to believe in a merely universe in which everyone gets what they deserve and deserves what they get. The people who have this belief menace their societal environment as stable and orderly, and therefore are really predictable. As a consequence, when their belief is disrupted by unfairness, whether it is experience by themselves or others, they tend to support it. Either justness is restored someway by others or that the state of affairs is re-evaluated in line with their belief with a just system. This cognitive procedure is called the assimilation of unfairness. For illustration, if person was robbed, people who believe in the merely universe theory might believe that if the victim was compensated someway, so justness is served. If non, they would get down to oppugn the victim and possibly claim that she should hold been more careful and that she deserved it. Therefore, the justness system has been applied.
In 1966, Lerner and Simmons conducted an experiment to turn out the merely universe moral force. The participants were shown an “innocent victim” , a immature adult female who was to reply inquiries and to be punished for each error by being given purportedly painful electric dazes. Even though the adult female wasn’t really being shocked, but was moving, the other participants showed scorn towards the immature adult female when they thought the experiment would go on in the same manner. However, when they were told that in the 2nd portion of the experiment, for every inquiry she got right, she would be given a amount of money as compensation for the penalty received earlier, they stopped demoing scorn. Alternatively, when they were given the pick of whether to go on the daze penalty or the money compensation, about all the participants voted for the compensation. Even so, they did non halt sabotaging the victim until they were to the full certain that she would be compensated.
This showed that to warrant the merely universe theory, the participants undermined the adult female because they thought she deserved it. This is their manner of doing certain that the equilibrium is upheld. They viewed the adult female as the “bad guy” for the simple ground that they believe bad people ever get punished in one manner or another. However, when the experiment was changed and the adult female was compensated alternatively of punished, the adult female was viewed as the “good guy” and therefore they stopped demoing scorn to her because she is rewarded for what she has achieved. This experiment is how Lerner proved the Just universe theory.
Harmonizing to a Newsday article, “The most sympathetic juryman a colza victim can trust for… is non a well-groomed, educated working adult female, but a compact, conservative, middle-aged Italian adult male. The Italian adult male, the research workers ground, respects adult females as fragile and in demand of defense mechanism and will normally side with the accuser” ( Tyre, 1991, p. 10 ) . The article besides quotes Barbara Eganhauser, a lead sex offenses prosecutor in Westchester County, who believes “women, even immature adult females with modern-day life styles and values, frequently reject another woman’s accusal or colza and sex abuse out of their ain fear” ( Tyre, 1991, p. 10 ) . Many of the female jurymans distrust the plaintiffs because they don’t want to accept that something atrocious could go on to guiltless people. They think that harmonizing to the “just universe theory” , that bad lucks aren’t truly bad lucks at all, but that everything happens for a ground. Harmonizing to this theory, misfortune merely occurs to the people who deserve it. Using this logic, the female jurymans do non desire to believe that colza could go on to them, and therefore the more they understand the plaintiff, the worse the offense, the more they will be given to reject the complainant’s claim. Wright notes that “Linda Fairstein, Chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit, has observed that ‘for many adult females, the demand to screen themselves from their ain exposure to sexual assault is paramount. If they can take a firm stand that the victim engaged in behavior that they would ne’er prosecute in, such as sing a saloon or traveling to a man’s flat, they can convert themselves they are non at risk’” ( Wright, 1995, p. 22 ) . Therefore it is indispensable for the juryman to reject the plaintiff because of the fright that it can besides happen to the juryman herself so that she would be able to experience safe
Zick Rubin and Letitia Anne Peplau have conducted studies to find the properties of people who believe in the Just universe hypothesis. They discovered that people who believe in this theory are more spiritual, more autocratic, more Orthodox, more likely to be inspired by political leaders and societal establishments, and more likely to hold negative attitudes toward destitute groups. Ironically, the belief in merely universe theory may replace the committedness to justness. For some, it is easier to believe that forces beyond our range or control are the 1s who administer justness. When this happens, duties may be disowned and people may go apathetic towards unfairness and agony. In terrible instances, indifference may even take to injustice. Even so, this theory can besides be positive. There are many people who volunteer and put their lives in danger merely to assist other people. This is a consequence of people seeking to reconstruct justness to do certain that it is upheld.
Below is an extract of an interview of Serena Williams when she was asked about the Steubenville colza dirt, where football participants in a local high school raped a 16-year-old miss and took images, which went viral in the cyberspace.
“We watch the intelligence for a piece, and the ill-famed Steubenville colza instance flashes on the TV—two high school football participants raped a 16-year-old, while other pupils watched and texted inside informations of the offense. Serena merely shakes her caput. “Do you think it was just, what they got? They did something stupe, but I don’t know. I’m non faulting the miss, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re rummy like that, your parents should learn you—don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16, why was she that rummy where she doesn’t retrieve? It could hold been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously I don’t know, possibly she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that place, unless they slipped her something, so that’s different.”
It is unusual that although the victim has already been through so much, Serena continues that “It could hold been much worse. She’s lucky” . What’s worse than acquiring raped? It’s bad plenty that the victim has been traumatized by this tragic incident, now Williams says that she’s lucky and dainties it so lightly. It’s about as it she’s stating that the miss asked for it, stating that “She’s 16, why was she that rummy where she doesn’t retrieve? ” This proves that even celebrated jocks are besides prone to this false belief, believing it whether or non they realize it.
There are assorted colza myths that come from the merely universe theory. For illustration,a adult female who gets rummy is ask foring colza, or possibly it’s non ravish if a adult female wears uncovering vesture, because so she wants sex. This is pathetic because first of all, there is no jurisprudence saying that it is a offense to imbibe, but of gratuitous to state, it is a offense to ravish. A individual who is rummy is may be incapable of accepting to sex, and sex without consent is considered colza. Besides, merely because a adult female is have oning a short skirt or a telling top doesn’t mean that she is available for sex. She is still able to make up one’s mind whether or non to give or deny her consent to sex. Another myth is that rapers are ever aliens whom we have ne’er seen earlier. This may or may non be the instance because rapers are more likely to ravish person they know than person they don’t. The merely universe theory creates a prejudice that people who do bad things must be bad people who perchance have no stable occupation or income, but in existent world, this is non ever the instance. In many instances of colza, the raper most likely can non be differentiated from normal people. They are largely work forces who act responsibly at work and at place with their households. Merely a little figure of rapers are mentally sick and sex starved.
The inclination of people who tend to believe this false belief is improbably amazing. Whether or non they realize it, it’s as if they are tipping the balance of the universe to accommodate their sentiments and positions. It is one thing to esteem another person’s point of position, but it is another to believe that bad lucks befall others merely “because they deserve it” . Such believing roots from indifference towards the victim may really good take to injustice as opposed to justness. We must ever rethink our sentiments and positions, so as to retrieve that the point isn’t about being just to the universe. It’s about assisting those who are in demand, particularly those who have been violated in such a manner that their ego assurance is absolutely tattered and those who live in fright. Rape isn’t something that anyone would merit, no affair what the fortunes may be.
Mentions:
Dalbert, C. ( 2009, January 1 ) . Belief in a Just World. Retrieved March 16, 2015, from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.erzwiss.uni-halle.de/gliederung/paed/ppsych/chap_Guilford_final_final_accepted.pdf
National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology – Continuing Education Website. ( n.d. ) . Retrieved March 16, 2015, from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.e-psychologist.org/index.iml? mdl=exam/show_article.mdl & A ; Material_ID=72
The Just World Theory. ( n.d. ) . Retrieved March 15, 2015, from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v3n2/justworld.html
Serena Williams Basically Says Steubenville Rape Victim DeservedIt. ( 2013, June 18 ) . Retrieved March 16, 2015, from hypertext transfer protocol: //heavy.com/news/2013/06/serena-williams-steubenville-rape-rolling-stone/
Myths & A ; Truths about Rape. ( n.d. ) . Retrieved March 16, 2015, from hypertext transfer protocol: //rapecrisis.org.za/rape-in-south-africa/myths-stereotypes-about-rape
