When many people think of typical victims of human rights abuse, they often conjure up stereotypical images of passive and powerless people. We imagine them as incapable of self-expression and spotless in terms of their moral posture -- supremely innocent, utterly degraded, waiting to be saved. The biases underlying these notions can lead some human rights advocates to favor "perfect victims" in advocacy and publicity campaigns, and consequently to disregard injustices faced by other marginalized individuals who may inspire more ambivalent and complicated responses from the public.
The privileging of "perfect victimhood" is misguided because all people have human rights regardless of subjective determinations of "worthiness." This is, in fact, the very core of the idea of human rights. The danger of the "perfect victim" construct is illustrated by two examples: Anti-prostitution advocates who privilege abuses experienced by victims of trafficking over violence faced by those voluntarily involved in adult sex work; and society's failure to view economically disenfranchised black men as victims of the devastating 'war on drugs' because they, too, stand in opposition to notions of "perfect victimhood."
A well-intentioned student at the law school where I teach human rights advocacy once told me "victims of sex trafficking are perfect victims." In her estimation, women and girls who are trafficked into prostitution -- those forced, deceived, or coerced -- are archetypal victims and, therefore, more deserving of human rights protection. We must address the roots and realities of abuses like human trafficking, but the hierarchies of victimhood implicit in such ideas about "deserving victims" often lead to harmful human rights policies and practices.
Victims of trafficking into prostitution fit into anti-prostitution advocates' moral prototype of "perfect victimhood." These advocates privilege the violence "perfect victims" experience over the violence faced by legally and socially stigmatized individuals involved in consensual adult sexual transactions and thus viewed as less deserving of our attention and advocacy. Anti-prostitution crusaders often pursue misguided policies that lead to violence and stigma against sex workers; yet, they are silent on how these policies and practices cause harm.
Allied with right-wing politicians, they pushed for the adoption of the "anti-prostitution pledge," which requires organizations receiving U.S. foreign HIV/AIDS prevention funding to adopt a policy opposing prostitution. But anti-prostitution advocates don't acknowledge how this policy effectively stymies HIV prevention efforts among sex workers, a group at high risk of HIV infection. Public health advocates have long argued that the anti-prostitution pledge makes it impossible for organizations to implement HIV prevention programs with sex worker communities in a non-judgmental spirit of solidarity -- how do you take an oath against a community's activities and then work in partnership with them? The Nicholas Kristofs of the world live tweet their brothel raids but don't report on the "rescued" sex workers who are forced into "shelters" only to face sexual and physical abuse. Before large sporting events like the Olympics, anti-prostitution advocates drum up moral panics about imminent rises in trafficking cases -- alarm bells that routinely prove to be unfounded -- and then are silent when there are police crackdowns of sex workers under the guise of rooting out trafficking.
Another example of how the "perfect victim" paradigm blinds us to the injustices faced by those who don't fit its construct is our willful ignorance of the most severe human rights violation in the United States today -- the mass incarceration of poor black and Latino men and youth due to the 'war on drugs,' a failed policy that has not led a decrease in drug use or availability. Although black people do not use or sell drugs at higher rates than white people they are incarcerated for drug infractions in shockingly larger percentages. The 'war on drugs' has always been a war on poor people of color with devastating effects: Those convicted of drug crimes may lose the right to vote and face discrimination in access to public benefits, employment, public housing, or education following their release.
In light of these disparities, why do we not view black men trapped in the vortex of the criminal justice system for drug crimes as victims of state-sponsored human rights abuse? In part, it's because our society portrays them as dangerous, as aggressors -- the opposite of "perfect" or "deserving" victims. The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and we continue to feed a drug war that has shattered countless lives. And, yet, because these men fit the vicious stereotype of aggressive, criminal men of color, we don't see them as possible victims, only as potential threats, and thus we don't view the injustice they face as a massive human rights abuse.
When I was a law student, my criminal law professor once said that as an indigent criminal defender working with poor communities of color, people often asked her why she was dedicating her career to working with "such people." They didn't believe that her clients were "perfect victims." She said her response was always simple and always the same: "Here, too, there are rights."
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When will we wake up and stop draining resources to fight crimes where the only victims are those persecuted by our own laws?
There is a huge difference being made everyday. I see it up close and personal as a rape crisis advocate. I"ve witnessed the victim being treated like they were not a victim, because maybe they were drinking, in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even dressed in a certain manner. In one case the reporting officer was getting off duty and decided not to file the report. Also told the victim not to do a rape kit...it would take too long. My first concern was to report this, which I did.
I don't care what or who anyone is......you deserve my respect until you show me that I need to protect myself from you. It's that simple. Our world has went to s*it in a hat basket and I'm really not dreading the trip to the other side. When he's ready, I am. This world is so cruel and bias. Victims continue to get revictimized again and again in todays society.
I think this is a human bias more than anything else. Human rights, although a brilliant concept, are not well supported by species behavior beyond abstract and self-serving notions of agreement. In actual practice, with limited energy to apply people usually try to apply effort to what they perceive as the "highest value" targets and then work down. That concentration on worthiness over humanity or life is much more consistent with our standard behavior, and it all but ensures that - no matter what the paradigm is - any "flawed" aspect of a society will receive less consideration. Less consideration then culturally reinforces itself until it feels more or less validated.
The sad probability is that there is no one coming to save these subjectively "low value" victims. And chances are there won't be, or that any attempt to do so is likely to fail for lack of empowerment. It is one of the few aspects in life where only changing the larger cultural paradigm is really likely to do anything, and even then the best outcome one can hope for is changing up who in society becomes lowest players in the valuation game.
* Our heavily militarized Police force is effectively laying siege to black neighborhoods. This is not happening with the same force and zeal in predominantly white neighborhoods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=HmgeCeGk--I
* (2009) Afro-Americans do not use drugs at a perceivable higher rate (9.6%) than white Americans (8.8%) Source: http://recovery2day.org/Alcoholism-and-Drug-Addiction/drug-use-by-race-education-and-employment.html
* Afro-Americans are being stopped and searched at a far higher frequency than white Americans.
* Afro-Americans represent just 12.2 % of the population but are 37% of those arrested for drug offenses.
* Afro-Americans comprise 53% of drug convictions but are just 12.2% of the population.
* Afro-Americans comprise 67 percent of all people imprisoned for drug offenses but are just 12.2% of the population.
* One out of three young African American (ages 18 to 35) men are in prison or on some form of supervised release.
* There are more African American men in prison than in college. That's a four times higher percentage of Black men in prison than South Africa at the height of apartheid.Â
http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/incarceration-rates-us-by-race.jpg
In July 2011 The NAACP passed an "historic" resolution, calling for an end to drug prohibition and demanding that this horrific assault on the African-American community be halted immediately. What about YOU?