Comments on: Case Study 1: Who Is the Victim? http://sophistryandillusion.com/ethics/case-study-1-who-is-the-victim/ Sophistry and Illusion is an inclusive blog and community open to all people who share an interest in philosophy. Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:00:05 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: W. M. Hess http://sophistryandillusion.com/ethics/case-study-1-who-is-the-victim/comment-page-1/#comment-35 W. M. Hess Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:38:25 +0000 http://sophistryandillusion.com/?p=190#comment-35 That there is a cycle of violence is well established. Numerous authorities have documented the transgressions committed against individuals who in turn transgress. The question here is whether an individual is capable of getting off the merry-go-round, to use a macabre metaphor. Since most abused children do not themselves end up as criminals who commit crimes against others, there must be some sort of escape. What perplexes one here is whether those who commit crimes like Inman ever have the chance to escape. The essential psychological capacity for escape is empathy, and only those who have experienced empathy can ever develop it in themselves. This takes us to the moment in individual life where one perhaps encounters a person who is willing to express empathy for the distress of the abused individual. Is there a choice of allowing one's self to experience empathy? Is it a door that one must open? Or, in the case of Inman, did the door never appear? Was the world around him so brutal and uncaring that such a person never appeared? Here one is left with probability that such a person did appear and that the abused individual chose not to engage with him or her. That there is a cycle of violence is well established. Numerous authorities have documented the transgressions committed against individuals who in turn transgress. The question here is whether an individual is capable of getting off the merry-go-round, to use a macabre metaphor. Since most abused children do not themselves end up as criminals who commit crimes against others, there must be some sort of escape. What perplexes one here is whether those who commit crimes like Inman ever have the chance to escape.

The essential psychological capacity for escape is empathy, and only those who have experienced empathy can ever develop it in themselves. This takes us to the moment in individual life where one perhaps encounters a person who is willing to express empathy for the distress of the abused individual. Is there a choice of allowing one’s self to experience empathy? Is it a door that one must open? Or, in the case of Inman, did the door never appear? Was the world around him so brutal and uncaring that such a person never appeared?

Here one is left with probability that such a person did appear and that the abused individual chose not to engage with him or her.

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