Why Do Some Falsely Claim to Be Victims?

discovery.com ^ | Dec 5, 2013 01:27 PM ET // | by Benjamin Radford

[BenLurkin]

Dayna Morales, a New Jersey waitress, made national news last month when she claimed she was left a hate-filled, anti-gay note instead of a tip. Last week, she came under fire when she was accused of faking the incident.

Morales has since been accused of making other false claims as well, including telling her friends and family she had brain cancer and claiming to have seen combat when she served in the military. Morales has been suspended from her job at the bistro while the restaurant completes its investigation into whether her story was a hoax.

Why would someone lie about being the victim of discrimination, assault or even a hate crime?

...

False report claims typically fit widely accepted cultural narratives, such as a gay waitress being the victim of homophobic slurs, or a young black woman being targeted by racists, or a young white woman being attacked by a black man. Many false reports are committed as a way to bring attention to legitimate social problems such as racism, sexual harassment, sexual assault and hate crimes. By adopting the public image of a victim and a social justice crusader, the hoaxer not only enjoys the sympathy and public support of others who support their cause, but also the attention. By implicitly aligning the false claims with a larger, valid social issue, the hoaxers discourage a close examination of their claims.

[Damifino]

Simply stated, there is a commodity in victimization. In fact it is one of the few thriving industries in the US.

Take a poll of the billboards on your drive in to work today. You'll find the common thread in all of the businesses and organizations’ success requires a victim. My drive includes; personal injury attorneys, behavioral counseling (whatever that is), medical research charities, counseling for servicemen and women, medicare/medicaid application services, sinkhole litigation (I live in FL) and (still) BP oil-spill settlement assistance. There is, of course, the prolific billboard ads for the Lottery. They're followed closely by those providing gambling addiction therapy.

Very few ads for anything manufactured. Sad.

[az wildkitten]

Well, there was Susan Smith.

[BenLurkin]

I remember when "Susan Smith, the woman who drowned her children in a South Carolina lake, claimed that a black man had taken them...."

At around 8 p.m. Susan put her barefooted sons in the car, strapped them in their car seats and began driving around. In her confession she stated that she wanted to die and was headed to her mother's house, but decided against it. Instead she drove to John D. Long Lake and drove onto a ramp, got out of the car, put the car in drive, released the brake and watched as her car, with her children sleeping in the back seat, plunged into the lake. The car drifted out a ways then slowly sank.

Susan Smith ran to a nearby home and hysterically knocked on the door. She told the homeowners, Shirley and Rick McCloud, that a black man had taken her car and her two boys. She described how she had stopped at a red light at Monarch Mills, when a man with a gun jumped into her car and told her to drive. She drove around some, and then he told her to stop and get out of the car. At that point he told her he wouldn't hurt the kids and then drove off with the boys who she could hear were crying out for her.

http://crime.about.com/od/murder/a/susan_smith_2.htm

[lavaroise]

Irony is that they even make the act of crucifiction in which they partake a good act. They want their leaders to crucify them because they want it to be not a bad thing in their eyes, per say.

[Nea Wood]

I think it’s because all of today’s heroes are victims. We used to praise and admire the strong, the brave, the noble...the guy who rushed into a burning building to save lives, the cowboy in the white hat fighting the bad guys, the plucky widow who worked two jobs to support her kids, etc. Now we praise and worship supposed “victims” of homophobia, sexism, and racism. So today, if someone is not a victim naturally, they will do something that they know will result in disapproval from others...then claim to be victimized.