On Gaslighting
The concept of innocence is an interesting one; legally and socially speaking. For the latter, it is in the eye of the beholder and, as a result, it is malleable in light of demographic data (race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability) and unconscious bias. Think about how members of marginalised communities are more likely to be seen as guilty than as innocent ( Gross, Possley and Stephens, 2017 ) ( Driscol, 2018 ) As a result, there is a feeling that "societal" innocence must be earned; like you would earn a treat for a job well done or like a slice of cake your cheat day. Conversely, legal innocence functions as a pre-existing right. - i.e. it is not earned. Innocence is, without getting into too many details, generally presumptive (i.e. innocent until proven guilty ) and extensive (i.e. it will always be, legally speaking, presumed). Despite their differences both types of innocence concern themselves with the same question, in theory - who is to blam...