A first approach to perceptions of social norms regarding reactions towards innocent and non-innocent victims

This article aims to study whether individuals perceive secondary victimisation reactions as counter-normative or normative (at both a prescriptive and descriptive level) and whether these judgments depend on the victim's innocence (responsibility), the participants' belief in a just world and the sex of the victim. An experimental study was conducted and, overall, most ratings were in the direction of non-secondary victimisation reactions, independently of the innocence of the victim and of the norm considered. The sole exception involved the perception that most people approve of and do hold a non-innocent victim responsible for what happened to them. Nevertheless, even in the case of non-secondary victimisation reactions, participants stated that social norms regarding the victim's valuation and the recognition of their suffering would be more likely to be directed towards an innocent than a non-innocent victim. Furthermore, results suggest a discrepancy between injunctive and descriptive social norms regarding valuation and contacting victims. The latter result is discussed in light of the perverse norm concept.