Summary Of Adam Benforado's Unfair

There are many faults to the United States criminal justice system. Weaknesses in today’s judicial system fail to uphold our nation’s values and protect society’s most vulnerable members. Many of these weaknesses can be mistakes found in the way people think or the psychology behind many cognitive forces. One of these flawed psychological processes frame the way we see victims of crime. The book, Unfair, written by Adam Benforado points out how labeling victims can influence exactly how a case is handled. In chapter one, he discusses the story of David Rosenbaum, a New York Times journalist, who died due to a label based only first impression and image of him and the crime scene. In a span of several hours, paramedics, cops, firefighters, …show more content…
The tendency to blame rape victims makes it easier for people to explain why these attacks are so prominent. It is easier to find an excuse to why someone got raped than to recognize our own vulnerability or to rationalize why the assailant conducted such a vulgar act. The Just World Hypothesis explains that women get raped not because of the fault of others but because it is a way for the universe to “even” out the playing field (Rape Crisis Information Pathfinder, n.d.). “The greater harm means that harshly punishing the perpetrator isn’t sufficient to restore a ‘just world.’ To do that, we may need to cast the victim as partially responsible (Benforado, 2016, p.18).” In this quote Benforado summarizes The Just World Hypothesis in a way such that we subconsciously justify rape is by punishing the perpetrator along with blaming the victim. So not only do victims of sexual assault get labeled as drunk or slutty or asking for trouble, but it is also easier to blame them for what happened to explain the occurrence of rape and sexual