How do Victims Self-Identify?

Well hello there OVS champs! Thank you for starting this thread and for engaging the community in this important discussion. To put it quite simply (speaking on behalf of CVTC down here in NYC), we use whatever terminology the individuals we serve use. There is often a fair amount of fluidity (said the director of the place with Victims in the title). For some, using the word victim can be empowering. For someone who was sexually abused as a child, for instance, the word victim may help make clear that what happened to them was not at all their fault, that someone made a choice to hurt them. For some the word survivor is the right word and carries a sense of empowerment. For others it can feel almost euphemistic, or like it carries too much weight within their identity. Some use the words interchangeably, and some don't like either word, feeling that it gives the traumatic experience too much weight. This is all to say that we strongly believe that the person who has experienced the harm is the one who gets to pick the way they talk about it.