History Main / GoodVictimsBadVictims

||'''Divorce''' ||DomesticAbuse, amicable separation, spouse cheated, couple tried to "work it out" with marriage counseling, ComedyOfRemarriage ||spouse simply "got tired of" the other, DivorceAssetsConflict, WickedStepmother comes into the picture

||'''Financial Hardship''' ||[[HealthcareMotivation medical bills]], unforseen disaster ||loans, credit cards, "treats themselves" even just occasionally

||'''Cancer ''' ||hazardous worker, accidental toxin exposure, [[LittlestCancerPatient child victims]] ||smoker, heavy drinker, overweight or obese
||'''Abortion ''' ||against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape ||response to casual sex or [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]]

||'''Rape ''' ||chaste woman, child ||[[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]] ||

||'''Murder''' ||[[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent child]], woman murdered by husband/boyfriend, TokenWholesome ||AssholeVictim, DisposableSexWorker ||

||'''Vampirism ''' ||in-utero, transfusion, involuntarily bitten ||bitten, voluntary

||'''Rape ''' ||chaste woman, child ||promiscuous woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]] ||

||'''Cancer ''' ||hazardous worker, accidental toxin exposure, child victims ||smoker, heavy drinker, overweight or obese

* ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' has Louise tells Thelma that no one will believe that she was almost raped because she was seen dancing with her attacker by the entire bar[[spoiler: probably because she was blamed for her own rape]].

||'''Rape ''' ||chaste woman, child ||promiscuous woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]] ||

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' runs on this trope. Arguably one of the show's [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped greatest strengths]] is exploring just how arbitrary the idea of a "good victim" is, since even the "good" victims will almost invariably be portrayed by the rapists' defense attorney as asking for it in ''some'' way. Alternately, the protagonists will go out of their way to get justice for "bad" victims; in one episode, the ADA has to battle it out with the defense attorney over ''the way rape is defined by the law'', since the victim is a male stripper who was raped by three women, and the law's definition of rape as forcible penetration does not encompass what they did to him.

* ''Series/{{Brookside}}'' explores this both with teenage pregnancy and bullying when {{OverprotectiveDad}} Marty Murray is initially sympathetic to his underage daughter being pregnant when he assumes she must have been raped, but angry when she tells him she the sex was consensual. He also supports his son when he thinks he's being bullied by boys, but has a harder time being sympathetic when he finds out the bullies are girls. The last episode also ended with the cold-blooded murder of a violent drug dealer with most of the characters deciding that he deserved it. The show seems to leave it up to the audience to decide if they agree with this sentiment.

* ''Series/{{Eastenders}}'' Kat's uncle who raped and impregnated her when she was 13 tried to blame her for what happened by pointing out the way she dressed and that she wore heavy makeup. She responded by pointing out that she walked around in her mother's high heels when she was a toddler and asked if she was asking for rape then as well.

* Rain "daughter of [[Creator/RichardPryor Richard]]" Pryor wrote in ''Literature/{{Jokes My Father Never Taught Me}}'' that her father blamed her for her teenage sexual assault due to the way she dressed

* ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'': Lila's lacquered appearance and dating history lead to her being blamed and disbelieved when seemingly nice guy John Pfeifer tries to rape her

* ''Series/FootballersWives'' had a groupie raped while unconscious at a party of footballers who is payed off when the club owners persuade her that her actions at the party will be used against her.

* ''Film/BoysDontCry'' had a different kind of bad victim in Brandon Teena, where the cop who raped him seemed to think that his {{Transgender}} status was a far more relevant topic to focus on than the fact he was raped.

* Cited in ''Film/{{Malice}}''. When Tracy sues Jed for removing her ovaries due to his mistaken belief that they were necrotic and would have killed her via sepsis, his lawyer describes her, "A lovely young woman married to a handsome young man. He's an English teacher, she's a hospital volunteer. They buy a big old house and want to fix it up and fill it with children. That is a Norman Rockwell painting and you slashed it to bits with your scalpel." But when her husband Andy discovers that she'd been cheating on him, he goes to Jed and urges him to fight against the settlement, pointing out that the large amount was because "The jury thought they were dealing with Snow White. What if Snow White were sleeping with her lawyer?".

* {{Mutants}} in the ''ComicBook/XMen'' mythos are feared and despised by having natural powers, yet people like {{Spider-Man}} and Mr. Fantastic are loved by the public, even though the only difference is that they got their powers in accidents. While nearly all heroes in the Marvel Universe have been hunted by the authorities at one point or another, only mutants are (nearly) always despised simply for being mutants. Making matters worse, all superpowers manifested by humans have the same root cause: genetic experiments performed on the ancestors of humanity by aliens. Mutants are simply the subset of humans for whom manifesting powers is a matter of time.

||'''Abortion ''' ||against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape ||response to casual sex

||'''Cancer ''' ||hazardous worker, accidental toxin exposure, child victims ||smoker

||'''AIDS ''' ||in-utero, transfusion, rape victim ||sex, shared drug needles, rapist ||

A morality trope about the arbitrary distinctions writers make between certain sorts of victims. If a character in fiction has a problem or ailment or social situation, and the creators intend him to be sympathetic, the character will have acquired the problem in the most socially acceptable way. If the character isn't sympathetic, then he will have contracted the illness through [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming "your own damn fault".]]

* Cited in ''Film/{{Malice}}''. When a woman sues her doctor for removing her ovaries due to his mistaken belief that they were necrotic and would have killed her via sepsis, his lawyer describes her, "A lovely young woman married to a handsome young man. He's an English teacher, she's a hospital volunteer. They buy a big old house and want to fix it up and fill it with children. That is a Norma Rockwell painting and you slashed it to bits with your scalpel." But when her husband discovers that she'd been cheating on him, he goes to the doctor and urges him to fight against the settlement, pointing out that the large amount was because "The jury thought they were dealing with Snow White. What if Snow White were sleeping with her lawyer?".

||'''Abortion ''' ||against her will ||response to casual sex

** The Orlesian Empire is infamous for conquering and occupying its many neighbors, especially Ferelden (the setting of the first game) and the Elven Dales. Their occupying Ferelden, Nevara, and other human nations is depicted as 100% inexcusable, yet most in-universe characters and codex entries excuse Orlais' conquer of the Elven Dales as the elves' own fault because they didn't help against the Blight a few decades before, and were acting too "isolationist" and "unfriendly" when Orlais sent missionaries and trade caravans into their border (even though Orlais was leading Imperialist expansion campaigns against their other neighbors at the same time). [[note]]Elves had just recently been granted freedom after millennia of slavery under humans, and were focusing on trying to restore their half-forgotten lore that they lost during their period of slavery under humans. [[http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_The_Exalted_March_of_the_Dales One codex entry]] speculates that Orlais was clearly undermining the elves' autonomy, and notes how the conveniently placed the Dales is between Orlais and its eventual prize of Ferelden.[[/note]]
** Even characters who feel sorry for mages being abused by Templars tend to feel this way about [[BloodMagic maleficar]]. It doesn't matter how badly the mage was abused beforehand; as soon as they're discovered to have dabbled in blood magic (even if they never used it to hurt anyone in their lives) they're instantly deemed unworthy of any sympathy, at fault for anything bad that happened to them, and condemned to death or [[EmptyShell Tranquility]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': Most mage characters are depicted sympathetically for all the horrors and abuses they suffer under Templars... ''until'' they're discovered to have dabbled in blood magic and/or demon summon. Then they're depicted as AlwaysChaoticEvil and/or TooDumbToLive. Even Anders, the most [[SingleIssueWonk notoriously pro-mage companion in the franchise]], doesn't feel blood mages deserve any sympathy or second chances.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': Elven companion Sera has a lot of pity for the nondescript "common folk" (Andrastian humans, "non-elfy" elves, and surface dwarves) who are oppressed by cruel and abusive nobles, but has no such pity for mages or [[BoomerangBigot "elfy" elves]]. She figures that the former's magic being dangerous to the common folk and the latter's "us against them" attitude toward humans means they ''deserve'' how they're treated.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAge2'': Most mage characters are depicted sympathetically for all the horrors and abuses they suffer under Templars... ''until'' they're discovered to have dabbled in blood magic and/or demon summon. Then they're depicted as AlwaysChaoticEvil and/or TooDumbToLive. Even Anders, the most [[SingleIssueWonk notoriously pro-mage companion in the franchise]], doesn't feel blood mages deserve any sympathy or second chances.