Allow me to introduce Latrina Pixley of Washington, D.C. Of her four children, the two oldest were taken into foster care for their own safety. Her third child, six-week-old Nakya, she smothered and tossed into a large trash receptacle because Nakya was crying too much. That evening, she went out for barbecue with her boyfriend, who learned of the murder and called the police.

Although Pixley pled guilty to second-degree murder, District of Columbia Judge George Mitchell let her go with a three-year term, to be served only on weekends on grounds that she stay out of trouble. Nakya’s father became so distraught by the sentence that he hanged himself.

Pixley recently gave birth to her fourth baby, Cornelius, who soon was taken into foster care as Pixley wound up in jail for credit card fraud. (To the courts, this was apparently a more severe crime than infanticide.)

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Upon her December release, Montgomery County Judge Michael Mason returned Cornelius to Pixley despite her record of child abuse and infanticide. Mason justified this with notions of family preservation and racial uniformity. (Cornelius’ foster mother is of a different race and somehow incapable of raising him as well as a mother with a record of abusing and killing her children.)

A representative from the Child Welfare Agency claimed Pixley was no more a danger to her children than any mother suffering from post-partum depression. Here lies the frightening effect of this obsession with victimhood that has become so prevalent in American society. By this logic, Pixley is not the cold-hearted murderer of her daughter rather a victim of being poor and black. This insults the millions of mothers of all backgrounds who successfully nurture their children, often alone, in climates of poverty, racism and other adversities.

If Pixley is the victim, what does that make six-week-old Nakya, Cornelius, or the two children she abused? By the logic of judges Mitchell and Mason, the law as written would only apply to middle-class white suburban males, and infanticide is acceptable if one has had a hard time.

Now I’m aware of the effect one’s environment can have on behavior, and we ought to be working to improve the quality of life in our nation. However, an individual’s environment does not abdicate them from responsibility. When people see themselves as victims, they see their situations, not as obstacles to be overcome, but as something forced upon them that somebody (usually the government) ought to do something about. Some things do need to be changed, but if you live in a bad neighborhood, for example, you should take an active interest in its betterment, not wait for someone else to fix things for you.

Thinking of one’s self as a victim can be attractive. It gives you someone to blame, usually Them with a capital T. It abdicates you from responsibility because, after all, nothing you do is your fault society forced it on you. By encouraging this growing notion that everyone is a victim, people like judges Mitchell and Mason destroy hope for disadvantaged people.