This chapter critically considers connotations of the concept “victim” and explores its multiple layers of meaning. The term victim may: lend credibility (Randall, 2010); denote sympathy (Lewis et al., 2021); provide impetus to protect (Leisenring, 2006); proclaim moral superiority (Gray & Kubin, 2024); denote role ascribed by the Criminal Justice System (MoJ, 2025); clarify power dynamics (Hockett et al., 2014); reveal response to trauma (Papendick & Bohner, 2017); suggest self-limiting personal identity (Papendick & Bohner, 2017); denote derision (Lamb, 1999). The chapter explores implications of denying access to victim status (Cross, 2018; Duggan, 2018), and reasons for rejecting the label “victim”, which is associated with weakness, disempowerment, and helplessness. Some eschew it, preferring the term “survivor” (Papendick & Bohner, 2017) which has ramifications for understanding offences, especially domestic and sexual violence (Barry, 1984). The chapter considers the context of denying or bestowing victim status, and how intersectional identity may alter experiences of victimisation, relationship to the term “victim” (Lockwood, et. al., 2021), and how associations between White femininity and victimhood (Barry, 1984) have been weaponised against vulnerable populations (Phipps, 2021). The chapter concludes by asserting the need for universal understandings of the term “victim” and its impact upon vulnerable populations, highlighting the role of self-identification and transformative identity (Chin, 2023) in post-traumatic growth and personal empowerment (Tedeschi, 1999). It contends that collective understanding can be reconciled with individual identification.