NCJ Number
194792
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2001 Pages: 327-342
Date Published
2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This exploratory study attempted to find an interaction effect between obeservers’ belief in a just world (BJW) and victims’ innocence on secondary victimization and on the judgments of justice and deservingness.
Abstract
The BJW (belief in a just world) theory tries to explain observers’ reactions to innocent victims or victims of undeserved suffering. The theory states that sometimes decent people increase the victim’s suffering because they need to believe they live in a just world, a world where people get what they deserve, so there is no undeserved suffering or no innocent victims. The exploratory study began with an evaluation of the impact of observers’ BJW (belief in a just world) and victim’s innocence on secondary victimization and the judgments of justice and victim’s deservingness, continued with a look at the interrelations between forms of secondary victimization, and lastly, attempted to understand the relation between the observer’s judgments of justice and those of deservingness in relation to the victim’s situation. It was hypothesized that an interaction effect between observers’ BJW and victims’ innocence on secondary victimization and on the judgments of justice and deservingness would be found. In addition, because this was an exploratory study, no predictions were made as to the interrelations between the forms of secondary victimization and the relation between the judgments of justice and deservingness. The overall conclusion of this study was that to understand secondary victimization and the judgments of justice and deservingness, it was important to take into account both the observers’ BJW and the innocence of the victim. Study results propose that the BJW theory could contribute to understanding why minority groups are still secondarily victimized. Tables, references