Male Rape: The Unseen World of Male Rape
Dr Aliraza Javaid
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Abstract
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.
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The current paper focuses on police responses to male rape in England, UK. The data come from police officers and voluntary agency practitioners who completed in-depth interviews and qualitative questionnaires (N = 70). Questions about handling male rape cases were asked. The present paper focuses specifically on issues relating to the ways in which the police handle male rape cases. Thus, the way the police investigate male rape is critically explored. The police data were analysed using thematic analysis. Key issues emerged in the findings: male rape victims often get a poor response from the police; the police culture shapes officers' practices and decisions regarding male rape cases; and some police officers often see male rape complainants as making false allegations. If male rape victims are seen as supposedly falsely reporting, the implication of this is that the 'dark' figure of crime may develop because 'false' reports are 'no crimed', giving a distorted view of the extent to which male rape occurs. I argue that the police's treatment of male rape victims is largely influenced and shaped by preconceived ideas about male rape and gender bias. This paper attempts to tackle negative police treatment, and it raises awareness of male rape. It is significant to examine how the police manage male rape cases, to make changes to encourage reporting so that better services can be provided to rape victims.
Male Rape, Masculinities, and Sexualities: Understanding, Policing, and Overcoming Male Sexual Victimisation
This book critically explores the intersections between male rape, masculinities, and sexualities. It examines the ways in which male rape is policed, responded to, and addressed by state and voluntary agencies in Britain. The book uncovers how notions of gender, sexualities and masculinities shape these agencies’ understanding of male rape and their views of men as victims of rape. Javaid pays particular attention to the police and deconstructs police subculture to consider whether it influences and shapes the ways in which police officers provide services for male rape victims. Grounded in qualitative interviews and data derived from the state and voluntary sector, this book will be invaluable reading for sociologists, criminologists, and social scientists who are keen to learn more about gender, policing, sexual violence and male sexual victimisation.
Aliraza Javaid (2018) Male Rape, Masculinities, and Sexualities: Understanding Policing, and Overcoming Male Sexual Victimisation. London, UK: Palgrave Macmilan
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).
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Male rape, masculinities, and sexualities
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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.
Does male rape go unreported due to a societal taboo
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