Victim Blaming

[Kheldarson]

This is assuming the locked door would have stopped the burglary.

I think the main thing with locking the doors is time. True, if you've got a seasoned pro it won't mean anything, but an amateur? A locked door may deter or may end up taking enough time for somebody to notice them.

[jackfaire]

I think the main thing with locking the doors is time. True, if you've got a seasoned pro it won't mean anything, but an amateur? A locked door may deter or may end up taking enough time for somebody to notice them.

Also can depend on the motivation. In my old neighborhood there were kids that would go door to door just trying the door and then when they found one unlocked they would take stuff. We lived in an upper middle class neighborhood they mostly just did it because they could.

[Greenday]

Depending on what the situation is, I might blame the victim for making it easier for the offender. I'll probably still feel bad, but there's no reason to set them up and help them.

If people properly locked their stuff up, there would be a lot less thefts. I mean, if you have a locker and you locked it, no one would steal from it, would they? I'm not going to say that locking your house or car up is going to completely prevent all thefts, but I'm sure there's a point where a potential thief would walk up, see that it's locked, and just say, "Fuck that, odds are there's another car/house nearby that's unlocked and will be a lot easier."

If people didn't get super trashed and then walk through shady parts of town where there's no lights, there would be a lot less muggings. No one deserves to get mugged, but by ignoring the blatant risks, you really made life easier for muggers. By the time you are legally an adult, you should know not to walk alone in dark areas with high rates of muggings/assaults.

My sophomore year of college, a report went out that some woman from school was walking back to her dorm from a party at 3am on a Saturday. She was also coming from a place on the street that is all frat/sorority houses. Some random guy, who she did not know at all, stopped over and offered her a "ride". Now, common sense would tell us that getting a ride from a stranger when you are drunk, especially if you are a woman, is a bad idea. Getting drunk when you are going to walk home alone is a bad idea. Yet she decided both were good ideas and that guy DID give her a ride. He also dropped her off at her dorm afterwards. She didn't deserve to get raped. No one does. But damnit, she was fucking stupid and people should learn from her stupidity.

This kind of shit wouldn't happen if people weren't so stupid about things. Lock your shit up. Don't take rides from strangers, especially when you are trashed. Don't walk down certain blocks that have no lights and there's been a shit ton of muggings/assaults on them lately. The crimes committed against them aren't there fault, but being stupid is.

[protege]

A locked door may deter or may end up taking enough time for somebody to notice them.

That's usually what happens. The amateurs will simply move on to an easier target. It's all about slowing them down. That's why my car is always locked, even though the most valuable thing in there is a few CDs in the center console. I'm not about to let some idiot kid get in there because I can't be bothered to lock the car.

My neighborhood is relatively safe--when I was younger, my parents never locked the cars, and sometimes left the garage door up. It simply wasn't a concern then. Now, many year on, it's changed. We have a Section 8 housing complex nearby...and the trash that lives there, has taken to stealing whatever they can get their hands on. It's unfortunate, but if you ever head down to my borough's police department and look at the 'crime map' on the wall...a good number of the push-pins are located in that complex.