Tilly's Ideal Victim

In 1986, for the first time, society was introduced to the term ‘ideal victim’, pioneered by Nils Christie. An ‘ideal victim’ is a coveted status that may be granted to an individual after an event of a traumatic nature. This status is only given as a result of the media's nuanced interpretations pertaining to the details of the current case, thereby discerning the level of sympathy to be extended to a victim, if any, based on the five attributes of ideal victimhood derived from Christie. In 2023, a young girl who goes by the alias ‘Tilly’, was unfortunately a victim of rape. Following the traumatic event, it was decided that she would undergo a full body examination at the hospital to monitor her physical and emotional wellbeing. Instead of being greeted with sympathy and care at the

Beyond the facts of the news article, Tilly presents many components that align with Christie’s ideal victim attribute list, one such attribute being that “the victim is weak” (Christie p. 19). Tilly was inherently predisposed to a position of vulnerability, due to her age and gender. It is reasonable to infer that she was not only weaker in comparison to her offender, but also to the hospital personnel. In addition, her weakness is shown through the vulnerability of her mental state following the assault, potentially amplifying the dire mental and emotional effects of the malpractice. Christie expresses the act of “carrying out a respectable project” (Christie p. 19) as another attribute of ideal victimhood. Tilly displayed this by attempting to prioritise herself and her well-being following the assault. The final attribute that Christie outlines is that “the offender was unknown” (Christie, p. 19). Whilst impossible to speak on the relationship the offender had with Tilly, it is easy to ascertain that the hospital staff and doctors were all unknown to Tilly during this