Louise O'Neill: The impulse to blame victims can act as a form of self-protection

'We want to believe that we have some control over our lives, that if we take certain steps we can avoid danger.'

'As a sober 36-year-old woman, I marvel at my… carelessness? Bravery?'

When I turned 30, I wrote a blog post saying farewell to my 20s, detailing some of the stupid things I had done when I was younger.

Drunkenly stumbling out of the Trinity Ball after I’d lost my friends, barefoot, and following a man I met on the street without another thought. Taking money to get a taxi to Brooklyn at 2am — “it’s not safe at this hour of the night,” my aunt said — but I pocketed the cash and got the subway instead.