This chapter revisits Nils Christie’s ideas on the social construction of the “Ideal Victim” and its intersection with Miranda Fricker’s contributions on “Epistemic Injustice” as a form of Symbolic Violence from a Critical Victimology perspective. This chapter provides an analysis and descriptive reflection on how the Identity Stereotype of the “Ideal Victim” constitutes a form of (Testimonial) Epistemic Injustice that not only denies the recognition of the status of victim or survivor but also denies or deprives her as a subject capable of providing knowledge, in this case, the narrative of those experiences of violence lived. Therefore, these stereotypes that determine who is “more victim” and who is not are framed within forms of symbolic violence since double victimization is produced (the event per se and the social reaction characterized by the non-recognition and denial of suffering, which consequently shapes the inability to understand the victimizing experience(s)). Attention is focused on the role of Narrative Victimology for the “de-idealization” of the identity stereotype of the Ideal Victim and the decolonization of suffering from an ethical and political sense that allows the voices of victims and survivors to be accountable.

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De-idealizing the Ideal Victim: Epistemic Injustice, Symbolic Violence, and Narrative Victimology

  • Oscar Ivan Cortes-Perez

摘要

This chapter revisits Nils Christie’s ideas on the social construction of the “Ideal Victim” and its intersection with Miranda Fricker’s contributions on “Epistemic Injustice” as a form of Symbolic Violence from a Critical Victimology perspective. This chapter provides an analysis and descriptive reflection on how the Identity Stereotype of the “Ideal Victim” constitutes a form of (Testimonial) Epistemic Injustice that not only denies the recognition of the status of victim or survivor but also denies or deprives her as a subject capable of providing knowledge, in this case, the narrative of those experiences of violence lived. Therefore, these stereotypes that determine who is “more victim” and who is not are framed within forms of symbolic violence since double victimization is produced (the event per se and the social reaction characterized by the non-recognition and denial of suffering, which consequently shapes the inability to understand the victimizing experience(s)). Attention is focused on the role of Narrative Victimology for the “de-idealization” of the identity stereotype of the Ideal Victim and the decolonization of suffering from an ethical and political sense that allows the voices of victims and survivors to be accountable.