Mike DomitrzPresident, Author, and Speaker on Respect, The Center for Respect, Inc. · Author & Speaker on Respect for Schools, Corporations, & the Military since 1990 (has reached

Stop Victim Blaming. #centerforrespect #mikedomitrz #victimblaming #survivors #beingsensitive

12 Oct 2024 · 0 min

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0:26

In this short segment from the YouTube video "Stop Victim Blaming," the speaker challenges the ubiquitous "just say no" prevention slogan, arguing that it unfairly places responsibility on potential victims—often women—rather than on perpetrators. The speaker contends that this messaging contributes to a culture of victim blaming, discourages survivors from reporting crimes, and undermines a supportive environment. Instead, the speaker advocates for a cultural shift that focuses on preventing perpetrators from making harmful requests and emphasizes education that does not burden victims with the duty to avoid crime.

Just say no. It's all over the world we hear that message, right? There's a problem with just say no, by the way. Puts all the onus on the person, usually the crimes trying to be committed on. If we were actually focused on a positive culture, we'd say don't make requests, don't do this to the person who's creating the crime, not say to the victim, hey, you make sure the crime doesn't happen to you, right? Which is what we tend to do in our world. And then people go, why don't survivors come forward? Because we victim blame them in the whole education process. So we want to be very careful of doing that when we're having these conversations.