For over a decade, most support groups have pacified crime victims, convincing most of them that they are not responsible for their plight. Quite a number of support groups believe that if victims blame themselves for the incident that they may not emotionally recover from the ordeal. (So they pacify their behavior by shifting the blame to someone else, perhaps the perpetrator, so the victim feels better about moving on and healing)

However, most of us believe that some victims should blame themselves for behaving irresponsibly. These same people know that plenty of victims have the tendency to at times make dumb decisions and that the one positive way to bounce back from a bad incident is to learn how to become cautious and responsible for their actions.

I'd agree that we should not confine ourselves. We should feel free to go and do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it. We are all entitled to that freedom in this country. However, while enjoying the freedom, I'd say, have fun, pay heed and use common sense whenever you make the decision to do as you wish. Your decision will determine what happens next.

If I decided to go with my free-spirited mood and jog the city streets at night, with fifty dollars in the back pocket of my jeans and end colliding with a bandit who immediately points a gun at me and searches my pockets for cash, should I feel violated and appalled, or should I feel embarrassed by my innate lack of common sense? Would this mean I am a New York City prisoner, prohibited to jog whenever and wherever I wish? Would this mean that the bandit ought to be applauded since I presented him/her with a chance only a fool would brush aside?
Most people around this town would say yes, because I influenced an episode that I could have prevented.

(Today, we are witnessing an increase in daylight victims because the streets are no longer only dangerous during the dark hours.)

On the flip side, there is an allowance for victims who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This may be bad luck, or at minimum, bad timing. However, those victims recover from the psychological trauma of the incident faster because they give real thought to the possibility that they could have done something to prevent the incident, or if perhaps they may have contributed to the incident through their behavior. These small group of people refuse to be labeled a victim, and therefore work to get past the bad experience as quickly as humanly possible and move forward with their lives.

Unlike victims who do not blame their own behavior for what happened to them and escape from responsibility, they generally become victims, again.

To prevent victimization, we need to limit our sense of vulnerability and change our behavior patterns. Of course, to feel you have the right to do whatever you wish is not the issue. Perhaps common sense is really a basic instinct, a small "voice" inside each of us that attempts to guide us, and if we choose to ignore, consequences will result, not all of them good. As well, and at times, common sense persuades us not to want to do whatever we desire all the time.

As adults, we must take responsibility for the consequences of our actions.