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Victims Quotes

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Victims Quotes

“Well before she became famous — or infamous, depending on where you cast your vote — Loftus's findings on memory distortion were clearly commodifiable. In the 1970s and 1980s she provided assistance to defense attorneys eager to prove to juries that eyewitness accounts are not the same as camcorders. "I've helped a lot of people," she says. Some of those people: the Hillside Strangler, the Menendez brothers, Oliver North, Ted Bundy. "Ted Bundy?" I ask, when she tells this to me. Loftus laughs. "This was before we knew he was Bundy. He hadn't been accused of murder yet." "How can you be so confident the people you're representing are really innocent?" I ask. She doesn't directly answer. She says, "In court, I go by the evidence.... Outside of court, I'm human and entitled to my human feelings. "What, I wonder are her human feelings about the letter from a child-abuse survivor who wrote, "Let me tell you what false memory syndrome does to people like me, as if you care. It makes us into liars. False memory syndrome is so much more chic than child abuse.... But there are children who tonight while you sleep are being raped, and beaten. These children may never tell because 'no one will believe them.'" "Plenty of "Plenty of people will believe them," says Loftus. Pshaw! She has a raucous laugh and a voice with a bit of wheedle in it. She is strange, I think, a little loose inside. She veers between the professional and the personal with an alarming alacrity," she could easily have been talking about herself.”

TruthLawMurderSexual AbuseRapeJudgeSexual AssaultSurvivorsLegalVictimsSerial KillersMisrepresentationTed BundyFalse MemoryFalse Memory Syndrome FoundationFalsely AccusedFmsfAbuse DeniersFalse AccusationsConvictedDefense ExpertExpert WitnessCourt CaseElizabeth LoftusElizabeth F LoftusFalse ImpressionsLoftusSocietal DenialRichard Ofshe
Book:Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
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“IN MEMORIAM: FLIGHT 752 I try to envisage the passengers seated in neat rows. Everyone knows the real risk is at take-off and landing, but after an hour delay, their plane was soaring. Relieved, they whispered prayers, dreaming of families and friends at arrival gates clutching coffee cups and bouquets. I like to think it was calm, the plane blanketed by night’s caress. Cellphones put away, the cabin lights dimmed, babies cooing in cots, and refreshments on their way. 176 hearts beating in one narrow womb. Closer to the heavens, I know their journey was short— earth angels for a while who were returning home.”

FlightCrashPassengersVictimsPlanePlane CrashIn MemoriamUkraine FlightCommemoratingFlight 752
Author:Kamand Kojouri
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“Victims?’ he asked. ‘Don’t be melodramatic, Rollo. Look down there,’ he went on, pointing through the window at the people moving like black flies at the base of the Wheel. ‘Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving – for ever? If I said you can have twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stops, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money – without hesitation? Or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax.’ He gave his conspiratorial smile. ‘It’s the only way to save nowadays.”

CrimeMurdererIncome TaxVictimsUnscrupulousThe Third Man
Book:The Third Man and The Fallen Idol
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“These three women picked up subtle signals that Bundy was sending off. When questioned, they said that he seemed too intent on what he was after and was uncomfortably nervous. Furthermore, they said he had spoken rapidly as if he were reading a script and he acted as if he had had a hidden agenda. Of the five different women who were approached by the stranger that day but didn’t go with him, two would later become severely psychologically traumatized when the truth about “Ted” came out, at the thought that they could have become a murder victim.”

PoliceInvestigationTrue CrimeDetectiveVictimsTed BundyPsycology
Book:The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
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“The extent of this killer’s crimes was growing as more of the pieces of the puzzle came together. As the handlers rushed toward me with their eager search dogs sniffing the ground ahead of them, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t want them anywhere near this cranium. Dogs don’t care where they put their paws. Crucial evidence could be destroyed or altered if the dogs ran through this site. A basic tenet of Criminal Investigation 101 was racing through my head: protect the scene. But it was too late. Almost on cue, and certainly by accident, a dog’s paw struck the ground and a human jawbone erupted through the leafy surface. I yelled for everyone to stay back, but within a few seconds another dog walked across the leaves and dislodged another human jawbone. Then another dog stepped on another mandible. In stunned amazement, we all realized that a detailed search of the mountainside was required. At the very least, we had just discovered the remains of two people.”

PoliceInvestigationTrue CrimeDetectiveVictimsTed BundyPsycology
Book:The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
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“The press creates its own magnified version of an event. The more intense the feeding frenzy for exclusives, the more the story changes from reporter to reporter until what the public gets is a distorted version of the truth. It’s as if the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle were at work everytime a large story unfolds in the media, so that the presence of the media itself creates, changes, and redefines the story. You always have to be wary of what the media reports because the media itself has created parts of the story.”

PoliceInvestigationTrue CrimeDetectiveVictimsTed BundyPsycology
Book:The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
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“If it can be said that serial killers, through the control they exert and the terror they spread, make victims of the entire communities—families and loved ones, the police who track them, and the general public who must live in fear—then in his own way, Dave was a victim of the Green River killer, just as I became one of Ted Bundy’s victims.”

PoliceInvestigationTrue CrimeDetectiveVictimsTed BundyPsycology
Book:The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
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“But then, not long after, in another article, Loftus writes, "We live in a strange and precarious time that resembles at its heart the hysteria and superstitious fervor of the witch trials." She took rifle lessons and to this day keeps the firing instruction sheets and targets posted above her desk. In 1996, when Psychology Today interviewed her, she burst into tears twice within the first twenty minutes, labile, lubricated, theatrical, still whip smart, talking about the blurry boundaries between fact and fiction while she herself lived in another blurry boundary, between conviction and compulsion, passion and hyperbole. "The witch hunts," she said, but the analogy is wrong, and provides us with perhaps a more accurate window into Loftus's stretched psyche than into our own times, for the witch hunts were predicated on utter nonsense, and the abuse scandals were predicated on something all too real, which Loftus seemed to forget: Women are abused. Memories do matter. Talking to her, feeling her high-flying energy the zeal that burns up the center of her life, you have to wonder, why. You are forced to ask the very kind of question Loftus most abhors: did something bad happen to her? For she herself seems driven by dissociated demons, and so I ask. What happened to you? Turns out, a lot. (refers to Dr. Elizabeth F. Loftus)”

MemoryNonsenseChild AbuseDemonsWitchesSexual AbuseRapeDissociationHysteriaSurvivorsExpertIncestVictimsFalse MemoriesSalemWitch HuntFalse MemoryRepressed MemoryFmsfFalse AccusationsMemory WarsDefense WitnessSocial DenialElizabeth LoftusElizabeth F LoftusFalse Memory Syndrome SocietyWitch TrailsProtecting Abusers
Book:Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
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“The pulsing heartbeat of true crime, of all human stories when you got right down to it, was we all wanted and hoped and dreamed and loved, but we had no control over what happened in the end. There was a reason why even the most sensationalistic supermarket paperback would tell you that the victim loved animals and wanted to be a veterinarian, or that another victim was three days away from her birthday. "These books promise closure and justice," I said to Lenore, scratching her under her chin. "But ultimately they reinforce the reality that so many lives are interrupted, so many dreams unfulfilled.”

UnpredictableVictimsUnfulfilled DreamsTrue Crime Murder Books
Book:Love in the Time of Serial Killers
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“Women are infantilized, demeaned, deprived of dignity, denied their rights, and all in the name of the rule of law. The elite approach followed within the courtrooms often asserts supremacy while excluding the poor, women, children, Dalits, tribals, and other subaltern groups. In itself, a court cannot change the law, yet, the court has the power to interpret and implement the given law in a sensitive manner while upholding the constitutional spirit and values, and that is what a litigant expects and society hopes for. However, this is not happening.”

LawRule Of LawJustice SystemVictimsLitigation
Author:Shalu Nigam
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“He isn't my prince,' said Marra acidly. 'If you plan to kill him, he is. Your victim. Your prince. All the same. You sink a knife in to someone's guts, you're bound to them in that moment. Watch a murderer go through the world and you'll see all his victims trailing behind him on black cords, shades of ghosts waiting for their chance.”

GhostsMurdererVictimsNettle And BoneT KingfisherMarraBoundThe Dust WifeDust WifeBound Together
Book:Nettle & Bone
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“Then Drago began the deliberate, precise, business-like process of killing.  A knee-buckling burst of fire and flash laid waste to men and material within seconds.  A Panhard vehicle to Silva’s left simply disappeared in an explosion that spraying metal parts willy-nilly in every direction in a spread so thorough that Drago thought they were under fire, and he yelled at his men to respond.  Another blast destroyed a six-wheeled reconnaissance vehicle, but it didn’t break it apart; it simply expanded as if swollen or bloated, like an air mattress or inflatable toy, though it still had weight and quickly collapsed over its own suspension.  Some trucks were overturned; a Jeep flipped end-over-end.  None were left unscathed.  In short order, what had been ten or twelve vehicles were reduced to a single steaming and smoking pile of metal.”

LossViolenceHatredCivil WarIntriguingVictimsPerspectivesPage TurnerSenseless ViolenceBalkan
Book:Magenta
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“Since no photos of me were published, I was curious about what photos would accompany the articles; a silhouette of a girl looking out a window, a teardrop on a cheek, duct tape over her mouth. All of this was accurate, in terms of the solitude, the silencing. But the incredible thing is that a victim is also the smiling girl in a green apron making your coffee, she just handed you your change. She just taught a class of first-graders. She has her headphones in, tapping her foot on the subway. Victims are all around you.”

VictimVictimsRape SurvivorRape Survivors
Book:Know My Name
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“One in four girls will experience sexual abuse by the time she is sixteen, and 48 percent of all rapes involve a young woman under the age of eighteen. It’s not surprising then, that in a society where sexual abuse of young women is rampant, many women never share their stories. They remain hidden and invisible.”

AbuseTraumaSexual AbuseRapeRape CultureVictimsTraumatic ExperiencesSurvivors Of AbuseChild RapeChildhood Sexual AbuseSurvivorshipSilent PainSexual Abuse Of A ChildInvisible PeopleRape StatisticsHidden ShameHidden VictimsInvisible Girls
Book:Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse
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“Women could be villains as well as victims, sometimes both simultaneously, and could simply make bad decisions like everybody else; Jane Parker, Viscountess Rochford's involvement in Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Katherine Howard's downfalls could be read as an example of all three things.”

ComplicatedVictimsVillainsExamplesBad DecisionsMulti FacetedDownfalls
Book:The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
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“Those who were molested or beaten as children or teenagers might later be vulnerable to sexual abuse or violence, because their natural impulses to protect themselves and protest (physical and verbal) were extinguished. Expectation of hurtful treatment by others or one's own failed capabilities can stubbornly persist despite overwhelming evidence that such is no longer the case.”

Self HelpTraumaVulnerabilitySurvivorChild AbuseRapeSelf DefenseSexual AssaultVictimsTraumatic ExperiencesChildhood AbuseComplex PtsdTraumatic StressRevictimisationPhysical Assault
Author:Babette Rothschild
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“Blame is a Defense Against Powerlessness Betrayal trauma changes you. You have endured a life-altering shock, and are likely living with PTSD symptoms— hypervigilance, flashbacks and bewilderment—with broken trust, with the inability to cope with many situations, and with the complete shut down of parts of your mind, including your ability to focus and regulate your emotions. Nevertheless, if you are unable to recognize the higher purpose in your pain, to forgive and forget and move on, you clearly have chosen to be addicted to your pain and must enjoy playing the victim. And the worst is, we are only too ready to agree with this assessment! Trauma victims commonly blame themselves. Blaming oneself for the shame of being a victim is recognized by trauma specialists as a defense against the extreme powerlessness we feel in the wake of a traumatic event. Self-blame continues the illusion of control shock destroys, but prevents us from the necessary working through of the traumatic feelings and memories to heal and recover.”

MemoriesEmotionsIllusionBlameMental HealthTraumaBetrayalMental IllnessShockControlPtsdPowerlessnessEmotional HealthVictimsVictimhoodTraumatic ExperiencesTraumatizedOut Of ControlVictimizationHigher PurposeVictim BlamingAffectPosttraumatic Stress DisorderBetrayal TraumaTraumaticSelf BlameTraumatic MemoriesHypervigilanceAffect RegulationPosttraumatic StressBetrayal BondTrauma VictimsBetrayal Trauma TheoryRegulate Emotions
Author:Sandra Lee Dennis
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“Her eyes bled from venomous anger... Her flower had been gruesomely deflowered... Her life had slowly turned into a blunder... There was no more thinking further.... She would rather become a Foetus murderer Than end up a "hopeless" mother.... Of course, she found peace in the former Until later years of emotional trauma Oh, the foetus hunt was forever! The only thing you should abort is the thought of aborting your baby. Stop the hate and violence against innocent children.”

RealityPainRelationshipsHurtHealingResponsibilityCourageFantasyCrazyLonelinessHorrorLiesAbuseShameVictimBlameGuiltDenyBetrayalRecoveryInsaneInnocenceDenialPropagandaControlManipulationSurvivorChild AbuseDesperationSexual AbuseEmotional AbuseRapeChild Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsAbusivePretendRitual AbuseVictimsAbusersPerpetratorsSociety DenialChildhood AbuseRitualsChild ProtectionInvalidationChild Sexual Abuse LiesInvalidateMedia DistortionsMedia CampaignTruth Violators
Author:Chinonye J. Chidolue
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