History Main / GoodVictimsBadVictims

||'''Rape ''' ||Chaste or otherwise "good" woman, child, elderly ||[[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] or otherwise "bad" woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]], already raped someone ||

||'''Abortion ''' ||Against her will, when the pregnancy is due to sexual abuse or rape, when the pregnancy can be fatal to both her and the fetus ||Response to consensual/casual sex or adultery, response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

||'''Abortion ''' ||Against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape, when the pregnancy can be fatal to both her and the fetus ||Response to consensual/casual sex or adultery, response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

||'''Abortion ''' ||Against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape, when the permanency can be fatal to both her and the fetus ||Response to consensual/casual sex or adultery, response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

||'''Rape ''' ||Chaste or otherwise "good" woman, child, elderly ||[[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] woman or otherwise "bad" woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]], already raped someone ||

||'''Rape ''' ||Chaste woman, child, elderly ||[[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]], already raped someone ||

||'''Abortion ''' ||Against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape ||Response to casual sex or adultery, response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

||'''Rape ''' ||chaste woman, child, elderly ||[[ReallyGetsAround promiscuous]] woman, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale man]], [[PrisonRape convicted criminal]] ||
||'''Unemployment''' ||Laid off, displaced, single mother ||[[{{NEET}} never hired]], [[LazyBum laziness]], incompetence, fired for something of their own fault ||
||'''AIDS ''' ||in-utero, transfusion, rape victim, needle stick injury or other occupational exposure ||sex (especially if it was ''gay'' sex), shared drug needles, rapist ||
||'''Cancer ''' ||hazardous worker, accidental toxin exposure, [[LittlestCancerPatient child victims]] ||smoker, heavy drinker, overweight or obese, poor diet, doesn't exercise, never had children (reproductive cancers), goes tanning (skin cancer)
||'''Abortion ''' ||against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape ||response to casual sex or adultery, response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

||'''Drug Addiction ''' ||as a result of prescribed medication ||as a result of illegal drugs used recreationally

||'''Vampirism ''' ||in-utero, transfusion, involuntarily bitten ||bitten, [[VoluntaryVampireVictim voluntary]]
||'''Lycanthropy ''' ||involuntarily bitten, inherited, cursed ||voluntary
||'''Superpowers ''' ||accident, inherited (sometimes), experiment ||voluntary, inherited (sometimes)
||'''Murder''' ||[[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent child]], woman murdered by husband/boyfriend, TokenWholesome ||AssholeVictim, DisposableSexWorker, DisposableVagrant ||
||'''Spouse Cheats''' ||okay with it, ArrangedMarriage, loveless marriage, IncompatibleOrientation, cheated on spouse is incapable of having sex||STI or unwanted pregnancy results, cheated on spouse is HollywoodHomely, cheated on spouse first
||'''Financial Hardship''' ||[[HealthcareMotivation medical bills]], unforseen disaster ||loans, credit cards, "treats themselves" even just occasionally, unemployment
||'''Divorce''' ||DomesticAbuse, amicable separation, spouse cheated, couple tried to "work it out" with marriage counseling, last resort, [[DivorceIsTemporary comedy of remarriage]] ||spouse simply "got tired of" the other, DivorceAssetsConflict, WickedStepmother comes into the picture
||'''Weight Problem''' ||endocrine problems, can't exercise due to disability or illness, attempts to solve it by dieting ||doesn't like working out, eats junk food even just occasionally or to be polite, woman, has health problems related to weight, BigEater, not ashamed of how they look

* There's a bizarre variation on this in ''Series/{{Oz}}'' when homophobic Dino Ortolani becomes more sympathetic to a dying AIDS patient on discovering he is not gay as he assumes but got AIDS from taking heroin. There is also a storyline involving Tobias Beecher deciding that a teenage boy is deserving of being raped due to him being convicted of raping his ex.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' runs on deconstructing 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. In another episode, despite one of the perpetrators confessing on the stand to rape, the judge overrides the jury's guilty verdict, claiming that the defendants had no way of knowing the victim didn't want it, as they've seen her in adult films getting fake-raped on camera.

** If a character massacres a human noble family, like Rendon Howe to the Cousland family in ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins DAO]]'' and [[spoiler:Thom Rainier]] to his commander's entire family in ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition DAI]], they are depicted as complete monster and the family as unambiguous victims. However, if a character massacres mages or elves, odds are the narrative treats it as a [[GreyAndGrayMorality morally ambiguous]], if not [[IDidWhatIHadToDo justifiable]], decision; along with in-universe justifications for what the mages and/or elves did or might have done to deserve getting killed.

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".]] Compare and contrast LoserProtagonist.

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

||'''Unemployment''' ||Laid off, displaced, single mother ||[[{{NEET}} never hired]], incompetence, fired regardless of circumstances ||

->''"I don't give a fuck'' what ''[George Floyd] did. I don't'' care '' what [Floyd] did. I don't care if he'' '''''personally''''' ''kicked Candace Owens in her stinky pussy!"''
-->-- Creator/DaveChappelle on George Floyd's death and his reaction to Candace Owens' playing this trope regarding it.

||'''Drug Addiction ''' ||as a result of prescribed medication ||as a result of illegal drugs

* ''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. In another episode, despite one of the perpetrators confessing on the stand to rape, the judge overrides the jury's guilty verdict, claiming that the defendants had no way of knowing the victim didn't want it, as they've seen her in adult films getting fake-raped on camera.

||'''Abortion ''' ||against her will, when the pregnancy is due to a rape ||response to casual sex or [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]], response to the news that there's something wrong with the fetus

** Bad Victims: Generally speaking, these are {{Yes M|an}}en who [[BecomingTheMask uphold]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatemae their facades]] to deny the truth they already know or their feelings which need to be admitted. [[TheBully Hiyori]] and her GirlPosse are such examples in the PresentDay [[spoiler: up until episode 3]]. Kumiko, Haruka's mother, is another one for her use of IHaveNoDaughter when Haruka revealed her [[YourCheatingHeart parents' adultry]] in the DownerBeginning. [[spoiler: Like Hiyori, Kumiko also develops away from this during the GrandFinale. It's even implied that [[HeelRealization she finally realized]] that Haruka is {{Telepath|y}}ic during that time.]]

-->-- ''Dave Chappelle on George Floyd's death and his reaction to Candace Owens' playing this trope regarding it.''

* ''{{Series/Unbelievable}}'': Marie suffers a version of this, not only from the detectives but her foster mother, a ''fellow rape victim'', who thinks her reaction was "off". This makes the detectives suspicious, and then finding a very minor inconsistency in her makes convinces the two Marie made it all up.

||'''Spouse Cheats''' ||okay with it, ArrangedMarriage, loveless marriage, IncompatibleOrientation, cheated on spouse is incapable of having sex||STI or unwanted pregnancy results, cheated on spouse is HollywoodHomely, cheated on spouse cheated first

||'''Unemployment''' ||Laid off, displaced, single mother ||[[{{NEET}} never hired]], fired regardless of circumstances ||

* ''Series/{{The Good Wife}}'' had a seemingly-the episode aired 6 months before the famous RealLife event occurred-{{Ripped from the Headlines}} episode about a massage therapist who accuses a politician of sexual assault but decides not to press charges as there is too much in her past that would be used to paint her as a bad victim.

* ''Series/DesigningWomen'' had an infamous VerySpecialEpisode in which, after agreeing to plan a funeral for a gay man terminally ill with AIDS, the main characters come up against a bigoted woman who believes AIDS is "killing all the right people" (homosexuals and drug users) and God's way of eradicating sinners. Julia retorts that, if this were true, the woman herself would have contracted it by now.

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

* {{Mutants}} in the ''ComicBook/XMen'' mythos are feared and despised by having natural powers, yet people like Franchise/SpiderMan 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 (notably The Hulk and Spider-Man), 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. [[https://journeyintoawesome.com/2013/09/13/in-defense-of-the-mutant-oppression-metaphor-part-1/ |This]] [[https://journeyintoawesome.com/2013/09/19/in-defense-of-the-mutant-oppression-metaphor-part-2/ |four]] [[https://journeyintoawesome.com/2013/09/25/in-defense-of-the-mutant-oppression-metaphor-part-3/ |part]] [[https://journeyintoawesome.com/2013/10/04/in-defense-of-the-mutant-oppression-metaphor-part-4/|essay]] goes into more detail about the reasons why humans hate Mutants.

||'''Superpowers ''' ||accident, inherited, experiment ||voluntary

* ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': The main character is a heroic half-vampire who contracted it not in the normal way (being bitten) but in-utero when his pregnant mother was bitten. Victims of bites are uniformly evil.
* {{Mutants}} in the ''ComicBook/XMen'' mythos are feared and despised by having natural powers, yet people like Franchise/SpiderMan 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.