Victim blaming
Etymology
From "victim" (Latin "victima," a sacrificial creature) and "blame" (via Greek "blasphemein," to speak ill). The phrase gained currency through William Ryan’s 1971 book "Blaming the Victim," a critique of explanations that faulted the poor for poverty.
noun phrase · /VIK-tim BLAY-ming/
Holding the person harmed by an event partly or wholly responsible for it.
What it names
A common social reflex — shifting fault from wrongdoer to wronged, often to preserve a sense that the world is fair.
Example
Asking what she was wearing is victim blaming — it moves the fault from the attacker to the attacked.
Related idea
The just-world fallacy is the belief that feeds it — the comforting assumption that people get what they deserve, which makes victims seem complicit.