Victim is a person who has suffered physical, emotional or financial harm because of an act of violence, such as sexual assault, domestic and intimate partner violence, commercial sexual exploitation, child abuse, or robbery. Close family members of victims may also qualify for assistance. Many states and local governments have laws that protect victims of crime. This web page highlights rights victim have throughout the criminal justice process and lists resources that can help.
A person who embodies a victim mentality has a “woe is me” outlook on life and feels that they always have a reason for their unhappiness, inability or lack of success. They are often reluctant to take action to address the problems that they face and tend to blame others for their struggles. Victim mentality can be a coping strategy for some people to deal with the stress and chaos of their lives.
Research shows that a person can be manipulated into feigning victimhood to gain undeserved sympathy or compensation. They can do this by focusing on a specific victimization they have experienced or by acclimating to a culture that encourages such behavior. Some people fake victimhood to attain morally virtuous traits, such as empathy, or because they want a better reputation. They do this despite the fact that such claims often have little or no relationship to their true experiences. Others do it because they believe that they have a right to complain and that the world is unfair to them.