Can't Hear or Won't Hear: Gender, Sexualities and Reporting Male Rape

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.

The aim of this present work is to explore police officers' experiences and views in respect of male rape. I critically examine the role of the police, and their experiences and perceptions of handling male rape cases. This study presents detailed, in-depth, and rich data from the police in England. The findings are generated from the police, male rape counsellors, male rape therapists and voluntary agency workers. The participants were interviewed and filled out qualitative questionnaires, which were kept anonymous. I ensured that those who were interviewed did not also fill out a questionnaire, as each method addresses issues in a different form. To inform the development of the semi-structured interview schedule and the qualitative questionnaires, I drew on Abdullah-Khan (2008) in order to shape the types of questions that I asked. Overall, this study gained a sample size of 70 participants. In this paper, I solely focus on state agencies' responses and attitudes toward male rape. From the findings, five distinct themes emerged: (1) level of communications between officers and victims; (2) perpetuation of male rape myths and stereotypes by judges and juries; (3) lack of evidence in male rape cases; (4) attrition in male rape cases; and (5) issues of consent in male rape cases. There are serious concerns in terms of how the criminal justice system deals with male rape victims, resulting not only in poor treatment of the victims, but also increasing the attrition rate and decreasing the conviction rate in male rape cases. I attempt to tackle poor police practice herein.

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.

This paper adopts the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity to elucidate and make sense of male sexual victimisation. Critically evaluating the empirical data, which comprises of police officers and practitioners in voluntary agencies (N = 70), that this paper offers, I argue that gender expectations, hegemonic masculinities and sexism prevail in societies, state and voluntary agencies. It has been found that, because male rape victims embody subordinate masculinities, they are marginalised as 'abnormal' and 'deviant'. They are, in other words, classified as the 'other' for challenging and contradicting hegemonic masculinity, disrupting the gender order of men. Consequently, male sexual victimisation is not taken seriously in services, policy and practice, whilst the victims of this crime type are relegated in the gender hierarchy. As a result, male rape victims suffer a 'masculinity crisis' in the context of male rape. This paper attempts to open up a dialogue regarding male rape and male sexual assault, to challenge hegemonic masculinity, and to bring male rape 'out of the closet'.

This UK study is about perceptions and constructions of male rape among police officers and agency practitioners. This paper seeks to particularly understand and explain the relationship between vulnerability and male sexual victimisation in the UK. It employs gender and sex-ualities frameworks to elucidate the connection between vulnerability and male rape, offering primary data (N ¼ 70). The data consist of police officers and voluntary agency practitioners. I aim to make sense of male rape discourse through the participants' voices since they intimately serve male rape victims/offenders on a one-to-one basis. Because of the lack of male rape research specifically looking at this nuanced area that I seek to explore, this paper will attempt to open up a dialogue regarding male rape not only in an academic context but also in a policy and practice context. This paper also offers suggestions for policy and practice to better deal with male rape victims and to tackle gender inequality and injustice both in a social and criminal justice context. Ultimately, I argue that male rape is often mistakenly considered as a 'homosexual issue', so gay and bisexual men who have been raped are regarded as unmasculine or, in other words, not 'real' men. Myths and misconceptions of male rape have serious implications for the way societies, the criminal justice system and the voluntary sector view and treat these victims.

This paper critically engages with the different layers and dynamics of discourse pertaining to sexual violence, hegemonic masculinity, and male rape in the UK. This is achieved through the use of empirical data surrounding police officers, male rape therapists, counsellors, and voluntary agency caseworkers' attitudes toward, and responses to male rape victims (N = 70). The data were collected using interviews and questionnaires. The primary data not only give suggestions of how male rape is perceived and responded to by societies, state and voluntary agencies, but also give suggestions of how male rape victims may embody their 'broken' masculinities, considering that male sexual victimisation is embedded within destructive and painful taboo and stigma. Perhaps the most severely under-reported and under-recorded, male rape is one of several forms of sexual violence that goes unrecognised and unnoticed in academia and in western society. This paper, therefore, critically explores male rape discourse. It critically examines male rape from a masculinities and sexualities perspective, explaining how male rape is closely connected to hegemonic masculinity. The paper argues that taboos and stigmas of homosexuality and male rape challenge and contradict hegemonic masculinity. It also argues that prevailing and powerful discourses relating to hegemonic masculinity make male rape invisible, denying its existence and worth, whilst maintaining and supporting heterosexuality, patriarchy and harmful gender expectations of men. Male rape, then, is actively 'forgotten'.

This theoretical and conceptual article critically examines the issue of male rape in England and Wales, United Kingdom. Bringing different studies together from disparate disciplines reveal that men's experiences of rape and sexual assault are similar to women's sexual assaults and rapes, although there are some gendered differences as to how men deal with these crimes, particularly in regard to men's willingness to report to officials and masculine ways wherein some men frame their experiences. To understand men's experiences of rape and sexual assault, the theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism and hegemonic masculinity are used. I argue that men draw on "masculine" behaviors to cope with their victimization, and hegemonic masculinity constructs and shapes men's experiences of rape. The analysis in this article is vital to understand how men respond and cope with rape, and it encourages further theoretical and empirical research on this neglected issue in England and Wales, United Kingdom. This article contributes theoretically to discourses on unacknowledged and unreported rape, and also to a broader literature on non-reported crime.

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.

Drawing on a Foucauldian approach and on interview data including male rape counsellors, therapists and voluntary agency caseworkers (N=70), the author attempts to make sense of the different ways in which male rape is constructed in order to better understand how it is considered and responded to in current English society. The qualitative data herein, which were collected through semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires, are theoretically and conceptually informed. The author argues that male rape is socially and culturally constructed in voluntary agencies in England and shaped by discourse, power and knowledge. For example, discourse on male rape is constructed and reconstructed through social and power relations, and through social interactions between voluntary agency practitioners and male rape victims, accompanied by the attendant social structures and social practices. The implication of these arguments is that the voluntary agency practitioners think about and respond to male rape victims in an inconsistent, unpredictable and variable way, meaning that the practitioners are reliant on different discourses and cultural myths about male rape when providing support and services for male rape victims.

This paper critically discusses understandings of male rape and male sexual assault in the UK, using a sample size of 70 respondents who consist of police officers and voluntary agency practitioners to shed light on their understandings and explanations of male rape, since they intimately deal with male rape victims/offenders. An analysis of how they make sense of male rape, using radical feminist and hate crime perspectives as frameworks to elucidate male rape and male sexual assault, reveals nuanced findings that suggest that men rape other men as a way in which to exercise power and control, but also as a way in which to unleash homophobia. Thus, this study found that male rape can be carried out as a form of hate crime and homophobic violence, demonstrating the prejudicial hatred the sexual offender has for his male rape victim. This finding is absent from the current literature on male rape. While there are some similarities to women’s rapes and sexual assaults, in terms of rape being about power and control, male rape is unique in that it is characterised by hatred not only in a gang male rape context, but also in a one-to-one context. This finding suggests some rather explanatory differences between male rape and female rape. The study begins an important exploration of the different explanations of male rape and male sexual assault. It encourages further theoretical and empirical research of male sexual victimisation.

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.

This article seeks to explore hegemonic masculinity and its influence on male victims of rape, particularly when seeking support from voluntary services, such as Victim Support, that are designed to deal with both male and female victims of rape and other victims of crime. The article argues that voluntary services do not meet male rape victims' needs when these victims do build up the courage to seek support. The linking thread among the themes presented in this article is the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity, which will be the theoretical foundation used to elucidate the conception of male rape and the responses to it. Throughout the critical exploration of these themes, the article questions service provisions that handle male victims of rape. It also argues that voluntary services are inappropriately trained to deal with male rape victims because of stereotypes and misconceptions relating to male rape, which inhibit a complete understanding of this phenomenon. The illustrations and arguments considered in this article are important for practical and theoretical considerations of community safety and peace, and to help eradicate harmful gender expectations of men and women that can influence the type of service male rape victims and male victims of sexual assault receive.

Male rape is surfacing slowly amongst society and is a hot topic worthy of debate. Male rape doesn't seem to get the same recognition as female victims of rape and should, as it is equally serious. In recent research, it has been argued that the reason for male victims of rape to not report to the police is due to fears of homophobia and stigmatisation. However, this research aimed to discover whether this was the case, or whether it was due to a social taboo such as masculinity. The participants involved in the research were two police officers and one Superintendent from Greater Manchester Police (GMP). The two officers were both openly homosexual and work within the gay village in Manchester. The Superintendent has almost thirty-years of experience with the police and has worked amongst the LGBT community and others. A semistructured interview was used to gain rich and valuable data and allowed each participant to discuss all areas surrounding the topic of male rape. The findings show that male rape seems to be unreported due to a social taboo regarding masculinity with a small influence from perceived stereotypes of homophobia within the police service. Chapter 1: Introduction This dissertation aims to analyse the un-reporting of male rape incidences, current issues surrounding male rape victims and whether un-reporting is down to a societal taboo or the police. Essentially, this dissertation will unravel explanations as to why some male rape victims do not report their crime, and why the police, and some societal members decide to ignore male rape as an issue. King (1990) illustrates that male rape is clearly underreported and under recognised, and future research should be drawn to discover why this is. Therefore, the evidence gathered about male rape can give male rape victims