ABSTRACT
A group that is not doing as well as other groups is sometimes blamed for its predicament. Those who are prejudiced against the group, and those who seek to legitimate the inequality, attribute the problem to negative characteristics of the group rather than to external factors (Caplan and Nelson, 1973). In common parlance they “blame the victim” (Ryan, 1971). H istorically, social scientists have sometimes participated in this ideological enterprise. However, at the present time, sociologists and others who study “oppressed groups” tend to be sympathetic to them. In many cases, they openly reject explanations of the behavior of these groups that might blame them.
