Victim blaming arose from instances where rapists were let off based on a strategy of "blaming" the victim as "deserving" or "wanting" the rape to occur. Obviously that approach is highly problematic in multiple ways in that setting, but that's not what we're talking about here.

The concept of "victim blaming" has now morphed into a phenomenon where the victim is presumed to have done no wrong under any circumstances and is immune from any accountability because...well..they're a victim and victim blaming is bad. So we're not supposed to identify mistakes or otherwise learn from her situation in terms of steps that she could have taken to be safer because any suggestion that a mistake might have been made is victim blaming. It has to be 100% everybody else's fault so we should "blame" the police, the residence hall staff, and basically anyone that doesn't fall in the category of victims (her parents and close friends are clearly victims in this case).

If we're going to blame someone it should be the perpetrator who pulled the trigger as everyone else did not cause her death. All the people not in that category should be persons who we should evaluate critically in terms of improving safety going forward. I think that's being done extensively with the University and the campus police, which I applaud. I also don't think identifying mistakes by the victims is a negative in this context.