Representaciones sociales de la víctima: Entre la inocencia y la militancia política

Abstract

Hindsight, plus trying to make sense out of incidents that took place within a timeframe full of violence generates massive arguments about their causes, who they should blame or about their victims. This article presents the results of a research aimed at exploring and analyzing societal representations that involve victims of the military dictatorship. The methodology that was used combined questionnaires and in-depth interviews applied on 30 relatives of the disappeared and 22 former political prisoners, and included quantitative techniques applied to a sample of 400 people that lived in the Jujuy province, Argentina. Results indicate that society does not put the blame on them but that it rather constructs a humanistic-victimization image, which contrasts with the image that victims have of themselves as survivors and as social or political activists.