Do I have everyone's attention? Good. This is an issue that irks me to no end, and I want everyone to listen and consider.

Let me start by saying that it is not my intent to shift the blame from the victimizer to the victim. I fully hold that the violation of another person's property, body or life is morally wrong, and that nothing that the victim of a robbery, rape or murder did absolves the perpetrator in any way.

Furthermore, I acknowledge that under certain abstract and unlikely circumstances, the argument that I am going to present does not apply. I understand that there are circumstances where the victim is truly blameless.

They are few and far between.

I'm going to start by explaining why I feel that that the idea of the innocent victim is false, and then I'm going to go on to explain why I feel so strongly about this issue, and why it is dangerous to continue to subscribe to this myth.

I teach a martial arts class that is geared toward self-defense. There is a statement that I have made to my students that I stand behind 100%, and that statement is this:

If you ever find yourself in a position where you have to physically defend yourself, chances are very good that at some point during the day, you made a mistake.

I stand behind that. Crime and violence can be prevented and avoided if people exercise caution and pay attention to their surroundings.

The problem is, people continue to confuse their rights with the reality of modern life. You have the right to walk down any street in town at any time of the day or night without needing to worry about possibly being assaulted. You have the right to expect that your date will back off without question if you say "no." You have the right to leave your house or your car unlocked without fearing that you will be burglarized.

These are your rights, and I don't begrudge you that. Anyone who violates these rights is 100% in the wrong. No question.

That doesn't change the fact that you would be a fool to expect that other people will respect these rights. They won't. And that means that you have a responsibility to take care of yourself.

If I hear that someone was walking around downtown drunk at night and got mugged, my first two thoughts are "That's terrible," and "What a stupid thing to be doing."

You can't act carelessly and expect that there will be no repercussions. There will be. You may not deserve those repercussions, but that doesn't change the fact that it is your responsibility to take steps to avoid those repercussions.

The fact that the man who clubbed you over the head and took your wallet was morally wrong doesn't alter the fact that it was reprehensibly careless of you to be walking around at night not paying attention to your surroundings.

It was stupid and careless, and you should have known better.

The fact that the guy who refused to stop when you said no is a sick, evil fuck doesn't change the fact that it was a poor idea for you to get drunk and go home with him in the first place.

It was stupid and careless, and you should have known better.

The fact that the burglar who crept in through your open front door, cleaned out your house and killed your cat is doubtless going to hell doesn't change the fact that you knowingly and foolishly took a risk in leaving your door unlocked.

It was stupid and careless, and you should have known better.

You are responsible for your actions. Just because someone else wronged you does not absolve you of that responsibility.

I have been assaulted or threatened on several occasions. Usually it was when I was out in the middle of the night, walking alone through some god-forsaken area, dressed in leather and spikes and sporting a multi-colored mohawk. In every case, the incident could have been avoided if I had made different decisions. I was responsible.

That doesn't mean that I deserved to be harassed, threatened or jumped. No one deserves that sort of treatment. But you know that certain activities and behaviors are likely to provoke certain responses. If you know that, and you engage in those behaviors anyway, you are at least partially responsible.

You cannot expect to be safe, and you cannot expect to be treated with the respect that is your due as a human being. You have to watch out for yourself.

And that brings me to why this is such an important issue to me: promoting the idea that the victim is blameless absolves people of their responsibility and encourages them to engage in unsafe behaviors. So long as we teach people that they are not responsible if they are victimized, there is no incentive for them to take the appropriate steps to avoid being victimized.

Violent crime is, in my opinion, one of the very worst ills afflicting society. I want to see it stopped. I don't ever want someone I know and care about to be hurt or raped or mugged or killed.

But the simple fact of the matter is that the best way to prevent crime is to change the behavior of the potential victims. There will always be people who will prey on the careless and on the defenseless. You can't change that.

What you can do is make certain that you aren't one of the careless or defenseless who is victimized.