'Walking on egg shells': Policing sexual offences against men

This research explores the phenomenon of male rape and how the police recognise it, together with uncovering male rape myths in a local police force. Whilst male rape research is expanding, it was found that the police have a lack of knowledge, understanding, awareness, and specialised training of male rape. Therefore, police officers' attitudes, ideas, views, perspectives, and beliefs on specific topics pertinent to male rape are discussed. This project also seeks to comprehend gender expectations and stereotypes of men, so as to comprehend the prevalence of male rape, the negligence of male rape, and the under-reporting/recording of male rape. Moreover, because male rape is a part of sexual violence, feminist theory is used as a foundation for this project, since feminism seeks gender equality. Ultimately, this research emphasises the need for the police to adequately manage male rape victims and take male rape seriously, without any negative attitudes, ideas, views, perspectives, and beliefs.

72,000 men in England and Wales are victims of sexual violence each year. While sexual violence against men is slowly becoming recognised as a sociological and criminological issue because victims are steadily coming forward due to changes in policy and practice, gradually improving the reporting rate that causes sociologists and criminologists to take notice of a necessity to address the issue, there still however remains a noticeable gap regarding the context, contours, and consequences of policing male rape within England. This paper makes some attempt to fill in this lacuna, using data including police officers who completed indepth interviews and qualitative questionnaires (53 officers in total). This article focuses on several themes that emerged from the data, such as police insensitivity/secondary victimisation; police treatment of male rape; and police training, inter alia. It explores police officers' level of comprehension relating to the topic of male rape and, in turn, evaluates police training (or lack thereof) provided to help with understanding male rape. It considers the implications of poor police practice with regards to male rape. The results show that there are some police discourses that suggest that only women can be victims of sexual violence, not men, shaping how some officers think about and respond to male rape victims in practice.

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2020

Aliraza Javaid's Male Rape, Masculinities, and Sexualities (2018) is a sociological exploration of the phenomena of male sexual assault. Consisting of eight chapters, the book aims to dispel popular misconceptions of the topic which the author connects to gendered relations and power dynamics. The author bravely inserts his personal narrative as a gay male sexual assault survivor, supplementing his analysis of the literature with his own qualitative interviews with 70 public officials (e.g., counsellors, therapists, volunteer agency caseworkers and police officers) and open-ended questionnaires sent out to an undisclosed number of respondents. In so doing, he provides a soulful analysis of the topic of male sexual victimisation. His findings reveal what many criminologists might suspect, namely that an under-reporting of male sexual assault occurs due to widely held misconceptions that men cannot be raped, male victims are emasculated and the victims themselves are to blame. Thus, male sexual assault survivors must overcome inferences about their character based not only upon gendered notions of victimisation, but also the general stigma faced by all sexual assault survivors (Ralston 2012).

Drawing on heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity, this paper seeks to unravel the issue of the underreporting of male rape to the police and to the third sector. Critically examining the issue of male sexual victimisation will provide a fuller understanding of it within the police and third sector context. Underpinned by gender theories and concepts and the framework of heteronormativity, I argue that male victims of rape are reticent to engage with the police and voluntary agency practitioners because of hostile, sexist and homophobic reactions, attitudes, and appraisal, particularly from other men in these agencies within England to police masculinities and sexualities. I draw on primary data of police officers and voluntary agency practitioners (n = 70) to illustrate the ways wherein gender and sexualities norms and beliefs affect and shape their understanding and view of men as victims of rape. The data suggests that, when male rape victims report their rape, they are susceptible to a 'fag discourse', whereby the police and voluntary agency practitioners are likely to perpetuate language to suggest that the victims are not 'real' men, intensifying their reluctance to report and to engage with the criminal justice system. Thus, the police and voluntary agency practitioners', particularly male workers, masculinities are strengthened through emasculating male rape victims.

2009

The aim of this thesis is to examine the under-researched subject of male rape from a social constructionist perspective across a variety of contexts. First, the three studies which were conducted are contextualised by providing a critical review of the available literature on male rape; from the embryonic stages of male rape research within penal institutions through to its evolution from clinical to community-based studies. Second, the findings of the study on the specialist police response, (particularly that of the Sexual Offences Investigative Technique Officers) to male and female rape victims is explored using a thematic analysis. Few male rape cases were reported to the police but those that were suggested that more training is required about the complexities of male rape in relation to the psychological sequelae; and its impact on the survivors' masculinity. These factors may influence the male survivor's behaviour on reporting, and affect the police response received. It was also noted that male and female rape myths were pervasive in the police responses and influenced survivors' decision to report. Third, the incidence of client-perpetrated rape of male sex workers is investigated by employing an adapted form of grounded theory. It was found that in contrast with female sex work, sexual violence within the commercial male sex industry is reported to be rare. Fourth, whether the print media provided a gender-biased representation of rape victims as identified by the journalistic tone and the influence of the gender of the journalist and/or rape victim were investigated. It was found that contrary to the historical myth-laden and victim-blaming portrayal of female rape victims in the press (circa thirty years ago which would parallel the current time frame regarding the awareness of male rape), a sympathetic tone is evidenced in the male rape cases reported.

Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology

Male rape literature is limited in the UK, with little public attention and limited research about prison officers’ perceptions. The aim of the current study was to explore the attitudes and perceptions of prison officers in England and Wales. Two groups of participants were recruited: Group 1 included 24 retired prison officers; group 2 included 17 participants from the general population. A mixed method design was used to gather quantitative and qualitative data. Findings showed that prison officers did not accept societal myths on male rape, although some had negative attitudes towards male rape occurring in prison. Participants from the general population displayed similar results, demonstrating how being a prison officer does not affect beliefs and attitudes of male rape any more than the public. Support strategies for prisoners would further reduce the stigma of raped prisoners.

The Cambridge Law Journal, 2009

2021

This is a summary of findings from the analysis of 441 police rape case files involving female and male rape complainants 14 years’ and older. This data represent all rape investigations conducted over a two-year period by two policing areas in England and Wales. The use of qualitative and quantitative data from the case files and officer interviews (n=9) are analysed to test for the existence of a culture of disbelief in police officer decision making. No evidence of a culture of disbelief was found.

This paper critically examines male rape in law and the courtroom. In particular, the legal definition of male rape is explored. This is because the phenomenon of male rape in law and the courtroom has gained very little attention to date in the legal literature in England and Wales. This paper intends to fill this gap in the literature by critically examining the adequacy of the law regarding male rape, and also how male rape victims are treated in the courts as a result of the law being applied. This paper highlights several themes in defence questioning of male rape victims and argues that the problematic definition of male rape in the rape law in England and Wales does not fully reflect male rape victims' experiences of what they classify as rape. The paper argues that the legal definition of male rape should fully reflect male rape victims' experiences, and the defence counsels' expectations of how a male rape victim is supposed to have suffered contradicts the male rape literature.

This paper provides a critical review of the literature surrounding male rape, aimed at exploring how male rape myths shape society's responses and attitudes to male victims of rape and integrates the literature from a theory driven perspective. In doing so, this theoretical paper reveals information relating to the barriers to recognition of male rape. These barriers are male rape myths that prevent male rape victims from coming forward and seeking the support that they merit. There has been a lack of research on male rape myths, although some research has documented such myths to be present in practice. These myths could be harmful because they may influence societies' opinions of male rape victims, so this could affect the treatment and responses toward such victims. To understand and explain such myths so some attempt can be made at eradicating them, this paper will explore common male rape myths that seem to be prevalent in Western society. This paper will examine male rape myths in the areas of media, incarcerated settings, and the wider community, focusing on England and Wales, UK. This is important to do to recognise which myths are harmful and are facilitating the under-reporting of male rape. This paper will help raise awareness of male rape myths and not only attempt to tackle them, but also encourage male rape victims to come forward to report and seek the help that they merit. It will also address the gaps in the literature and areas ripe for research, so further empirical research can be conducted on male rape, highlighting ideas for future research and providing guidance in areas most needed in research on male rape.

In this paper, the bodies of male rape victims as the‘other’are problematized. The social and cultural constructions of male rape within a policing context are examined since the police play a major role in impeding the progress of male rape cases. The author draws on police data, generated from interviews and qualitative questionnaires with the police, to illustrate the problems with policing male rape in England, UK. While the author provides empirical data, sociological, cultural, and post-structural theoretical frameworks largely inform it. It is argued that the bodies of male rape victims are positioned in inferior positions, whereby their bodies are metaphorically and symbolically marked as ‘abnormal’, ‘deviant’, and the ‘other’. Through social and power relations, their bodies are tainted, which reinforces gender and social norms.

Female rape attracts a lot of attention in the social sciences, but male rape is greatly overlooked by feminism, which searches to highlight the gendered nature of rape. As a result, there is a lack of numerical evidence on male rape, although it is necessary to classify the theoretical development of male rape as a social issue as it looms across the social research discourse. Therefore, it is important to examine this growth because the current direction of the research on male rape has worrying ramifications for how male rape is theorised. Male rape in the 21 st century is problematic because males are still frightened to report for a wide range of reasons. Therefore, explanations of underreporting are examined, how male rape is considered in criminology, the police, and how male rape victims are construed within the law, prison, media, and support organisations. Ultimately, this dissertation stresses the need to account adequately for both female and male rape victims alike.

This article examines a recent history of criminal justice reform to responses to the investigation of rape offences. Beginning with a selective overview of the professional development of detectives and criticisms relating to investigation of „low status‟ crimes this article points to the challenges in the professionalization of detectives in the context of investigative responses to marginalised victims. The paper goes on to outline police responses and evaluations of initiatives aimed at improving effectiveness before summarising the complexities and vulnerabilities faced by victims and how these experiences impact upon the likelihood of successful prosecution. Finally the paper summaries the main analysis and indentifies the key challenges to the criminal justice sector in improving responses to rape victims.

The UK has one of the lowest conviction rates for rape in Europe. This article presents unique evidence on the factors that influence the attrition of rape allegations in the English criminal justice system. The study is based on a large, representative sample of rape allegations reported to the London Metropolitan Police, the UK's biggest police force. The dataset contains unprecedented detail on the incident, victim, suspect and police investigation. The results lend support to the influence of some rape myths and stereotypes on attrition. These findings suggest that further central factors include the ethnicity of the suspect as well as what police officers and prosecutors perceive as evidence against the truthfulness of the allegation: the police record noting a previous false allegation by the victim, inconsistencies in the victim's account of the alleged rape, and evidence or police opinion casting doubt on the allegation.

PLOS ONE, 2020

Rape is the most demoralizing type of crime violating human rights worldwide. Research has primarily focused on children and women's experiences of rape, even though victims include men and little documentation available concerning their experiences of reporting these incidents. The study aimed to investigate men's experiences when reporting rape to the police. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to collect and analyze qualitative data from a purposive sample of eleven men who were rape victims. The findings of the study revealed three superordinate and twenty-two subordinate themes. First, motivation for reporting rape to the police included self-protection from re-victimization, being killed, and prevalent prison cultural practice, seeking justice and answers for rape, moral duty, family support, and encouraging reports of the crime. Second, perceived barriers for reporting rape included fear of stigmatization and ridicule, unknown perpetrators, internalized homophobia, men's preconceived prejudices, perceived justice system delays, fear of being killed, and protecting their reputation. Third, negative experiences when reporting rape included a long waiting period at the reception before opening a case file and the delayed responses of police investigating the rape scene. Also, there was discouragement from the police, disparaging behavior of police, victim-blaming, lack of communication with the victim about case progress and experiences of police homosexual intolerance. The findings show that most men were motivated to report rape to the police despite the perceived barriers and negative experiences they had with the police. Thus, this provides baseline evidence for strategies to be developed to encourage the reporting of rape. Each police station must provide dedicated personnel for professional and sensitive handling of all rape victims, including men. Furthermore, future studies should be conducted to evaluate rape victims' satisfaction with the services provided by the police.