(Last Updated On: March 25, 2022)

SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS.™ Insight: Can You Correctly Identify A Victim?

What Is A Victim?

vic·tim
/ˈviktəm/

The word is a noun, meaning:
a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action.
or a person who is tricked or duped.

Who Is A Victim Of Crime – The Legal Definition From The U.S. Department of Justice

Definition of a victim:

A victim is defined as a person who has suffered physical or emotional harm, property damage, or economic loss as a result of a crime. 

The Simplicity Of The Term

This is a surprisingly simple term and definition, yet it has historically been incredibly hard to agree upon who are victims. To this day, people want to claim victimhood status when they victimized themselves or believe that something that happened to ancestors caused their victimizationVictimization Victimization (or victimization) is the process of being victimized or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimization is called victimology.. And the public, corporations, and the government many times wants to deny victim status to real victims. Social media is full of instances of victim deniers who are trolls and haters.

A victim is someone who has been affected personally in the present time directly to them.

Even someone that attempts suicide is a victim!

Why Does This Matter?

This matters because far to often Victims are blamed for their own Victimization.

Look back at the historical context and you will see countless modern examples of inappropriate denialDenial Denial is a refusal or unwillingness to accept something or to accept reality. Refusal to admit the truth or reality of something, refusal to acknowledge something unpleasant; And as a term of Psychology: denial is a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality. of victim status:

• Victims of rape were frequently blamed for being participants and not victims
• Victims of domestic abuse are often said to want the relationship with their abuser
• Romance scamScam A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime -  is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. victims are said to have voluntarily sent the money
• Scam victims in a corporate context are said to be negligent & responsible
• Assault victims are told they were at fault for being in the wrong place at the wrong time
• Even Pedophiles try to blameBlame Blame or Blaming is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong, their action is blameworthy. By contrast, when someone is morally responsible for doing something right, we may say that his or her action is praiseworthy. Blame imparts responsibility for an action or act, as in that they made a choice to perform that act or action. the children for encouraging them, and many times a parent agrees

Yet we know – finally – that these (and many others) are not true. This is ignorance, angerAnger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, trigger, hurt or threat. About one-third of scam victims become trapped in anger for extended periods of time following a scam. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Some view anger as an emotion that triggers a part of the fight or flight response. Anger becomes the predominant feeling behaviorally, cognitively, and physiologically. Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. While most of those who experience anger explain its arousal as a result of "what has happened to them", psychologists point out that an angry person can very well be mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and objective observability., and fear speaking. We know this don’t we?

Simply Put

A person is a victim if harm was done to them or through them to another without their consent or their knowledge.

There May Be Things We Can Be Critical About In Victims

We may be able to be critical of victims’ behaviorBehavior   Behavior / Behavioral Actions Otherwise known as habits, behavior or behavioral actions are strategies to help prevent online exploitation that target behavior, such as social engineering of victims. Changing your behavior is the ONLY effective means to reduce or prevent scams. before or after the victimization. After all, victims are human and make mistakes, or act on their emotions. Some of this is understandable, some less so. But it does not – in any way – change the fact that they are a victim and deserving of our compassion and understanding.

Some victims can be extraordinarily hard to help due to traumaTrauma Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety or other emotional shocks, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized. Trauma requires treatment, either through counseling or therapy or through trauma-oriented support programs, such as those offered by SCARS. or other personality disorders. In those cases, they should be referred to the appropriate professionals.

There are even cases where a victim may support or aid the criminalCriminal A criminal is any person who through a decision or act engages in a crime. This can be complicated, as many people break laws unknowingly, however, in our context, it is a person who makes a decision to engage in unlawful acts or to place themselves with others who do this. A criminal always has the ability to decide not to break the law, or if they initially engage in crime to stop doing it, but instead continues. that made them a victim. There are countless examples of this. They can still be under the influence of manipulation, suffering a mental disorder induced by trauma, or similar causes. But again, this does not change the fact that they are still victims. We may not be able to excuse all victims’ behavior, but we need to recognize it for what it is.

Victim Dignity

Every victim is deserving of their dignity.

One of the reasons for this alone is that almost everyone will, at some point in their lives, become a victim of something.

It is the position of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship ScamsSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. Inc. that all victims have The Right to be Treated with Fairness, Dignity, and Respect. 

To learn more about our position on Victims’ Dignity click here: https://againstscams.org/scars-declaration-for-victims-dignity/

Now That You Have Larned …

Can you identify the victims in this infographicInfographic Infographics (a shortened word of "information" and "graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve your understanding of a topic by utilizing graphics. Infographics have evolved in recent years to be more useful for mass communications and thus are designed with fewer assumptions about the readers' knowledge base than other types of visualizations.?

 

One Last Topic

It can be incredibly hard to help other people, including victims.

We experience this all the time. We do our best to help people at the worst times of their lives (in many cases). We try to help people trapped in their rageRage Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, trigger, hurt or threat. About one-third of scam victims become trapped in anger for extended periods of time following a scam. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Some view anger as an emotion that triggers a part of the fight or flight response. Anger becomes the predominant feeling behaviorally, cognitively, and physiologically. Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. While most of those who experience anger explain its arousal as a result of "what has happened to them", psychologists point out that an angry person can very well be mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and objective observability. or anger. We try to help people in total denial and there is no way to get through to them.

People who understand and try to help victims are human too, and we experience their pain vicariously. It impacts us, causes us frustration, and it is hard not to throw it back. But that is why we are professionals. For the rest of society, it is important to understand that a victim’s pain and trauma will affect you. You have to understand and deal with this within yourself.

Many times victimization can affect individuals and organizations at the same time. For example: when a family member is victimized it affects the entire family; or when a crime occurs in a company, it affects the victims but the entire company also is a victim and it is essential for the company not to take it out on the individual employee.

Supporting victims of crime has been a long time coming, and still to this day is poorly practiced professionally. There are countless traumatized victims, charlatans and fakes and amateurs, and even criminals masquerading as victims’ support entities. It is important to understand this when referring victims to appropriate support.

SCARS is a professional victims’ assistance organization, but like all nonprofits, we do what we can. If you would like to help us do more, please donate at www.AgainstScams.org

Remember to be kind to all victims!

 

TAGS: SCARS, Important Article, Information About Scams, Anti-Scam, Scams, Scammers, Fraudsters, Cybercrime, Crybercriminals, Romance Scams, Scam Victims, Victims’ Dignity, Victims’ Rights, Definition of Victim. What is a Victim

 

 

 

 

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