I saw this mentioned in a thread some time ago about rape.
The basic gist is that when confronted with something terrible, people will go out of their way to find some way to justify or explain it away (ie: “well, what part of town was she in? How was she dressed?”). This is apparently a normal cognitive bias.
I can’t remember what the term is, unfortunately. Help!
“Blaming the Victim” is, I think, the term you are reaching for. It is a form of the “Just World” bias (eg the universe is fair place, so people get what they deserve, so if bad shit happens to someone, they earned it somehow. Helps us to feel safe in this dangerous, unpredictable world.