The victim-offender overlap has been extensively studied and documented over the last decades. Various studies have identified young men as the most common victims of violent assault, yet the public, the media, but also criminological research have actively favored the discourse on the ideal victim. Consequently, not much is known about how victim-offenders experience and perceive victimization. The present systematic literature review aims to analyze how violent victimization is experienced and narrated by male victim-offenders in the context of hegemonic masculinity. Secondly, it aims to analyze in how far the public’s attitudes of victim blaming and victim concern are affected by a belief in a just world. Collectively, these findings aim to create a better understanding of criminal men’s victim identities. The public’s empathy and concern are reserved to the innocent and vulnerable victim; criminal men are perceived as culpable and deserving of victimization. The latter use violence as an instrument of dominance and subordination, in line with hegemonic masculinity beliefs, and reject the victim identity (antithesis of masculinity), forming a new category of the nonideal victim.