Not guilty — but defend yourself

Public conversation about safety slides easily either into blaming the victim or into denying any personal precaution. These questions need to be kept apart: responsibility lies with the criminal, and protective measures can still lower the risk.

Clothing, the neighbourhood, the time of day, an open expression and the price of a phone give nobody the right to attack, steal or stalk.

At the same time, precautions can be taken:

• lock doors;
• choose a lit route;
• do not display large sums;
• keep your belongings under control;
• do not argue with an aggressive or heavily drunk person;
• cross the road only after judging the traffic, even when you have right of way;
• tell someone about a risky trip.

These measures reduce the probability of harm. They do not redistribute moral guilt.

The phrase “he asked for it” mixes two questions:

Could the risk have been reduced?

Who decided to cause harm?

The answer to the first is sometimes yes. The answer to the second is the attacker, regardless.

Safety turns toxic when a person is asked to give up all of normal life to protect himself from someone else’s possible crimes.

There is no guarantee that the right clothing, the right district or the right expression will prevent an attack. All you can do is lower particular risks and keep a way out.

The same logical muddle in traffic bothers nobody. A fastened seatbelt does not mean the passenger is answerable for somebody else pulling into oncoming traffic. A cyclist’s helmet does not license a driver to look away. Nobody tells a person hit on a crossing that it is his own fault for walking. In a conversation about assaults the same construction somehow sounds like an argument — probably because discussing the victim’s behaviour is easier than admitting that there is no defence against another person’s decision.

The practical distinction is simple and runs along time. Precautions are chosen by a person for himself and in advance. The moment they are produced after the fact and addressed to someone else, this is no longer safety but a way of closing the subject.