21 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. Joseph, S. Jergenson (eds.), An International Perspective on Contemporary Developments in Victimology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41622-5_2 Chapter 2 From Victim to Survivor to Overcomer Sarah Ben-David Introduction There is very little if any attention in the literature to the concept of self-identity or self-defnition of victimhood, and of the willingness to remain in the role, or the status of a Victim. A byproduct of this neglect is that the term Overcomer did not gain attention in research or practice. In addition, the differences between the terms Victim/Survivor/Thriver and self-defnition of an Overcomer is not in the focus of the study of human behavior in most scientifc criminological, victimological and psychological inquiry. In essence, the self-defnition as a Victim or as a Survivor is related to a factual victimization event, and the fact that the person survived this event, with or without physical or fnancial damages. But what is more important is that there are people whose self-presentation and self-defnition was changed after the victimization inci- dent, and they defne, feel or consider themselves as Victims, Survivors or Thriver Victims and not as Overcomer. The idea of the Overcomer self-identity came to me from three examples below: A student in a victimology class, before responding to a general question that was asked of the students, stated: “First I have to tell you that I am a Victim of an assault and lost two fngers.” Another student in a seminar came to my offce to discuss her seminar work (the topic was NOT related to victimology) and said: “I must tell you that when I was 5 years old my father murdered my mother.” A totally different experience was told to me by Dr. Levitt, a friend of mine, a physician. He told me that he had asked a patient with a broken leg that came to his clinic, assisted by her daughter, “Did you have any traumatic experience in the past? She said, “Never in my life, the fall and the broken leg is the frst such case.” Her daughter asked “My father died several years ago – was it not a traumatic event?" The mother said “Yes, you are right.” And then the daughter told the physician: “I have never considered my mother as a ‘widow’, but a woman that her husband died.” S. Ben-David (*) Department of Criminology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel