A 'real man' cannot be raped
User Rating: 5 / 5
- Details
- Category: In brief
- Last Updated: Thursday, 08 August 2019 13:57
- Published: Thursday, 08 August 2019 12:49
- Written by Cecilia Castellani
- Hits: 2653
This article is going to tackle one of society’s taboos and issues that still is part of our everyday life: raped men. Indeed, XXI century western societies are pervaded by the false belief that men – as such – cannot experience instances of sexual harassment, abuse or even rape. It is for this reason that we will firstly look at those sexual and rape myths that are embedded in our society and, subsequently, we will refute them by analysing what happens on the biological, social and legal levels. Why is it so hard to believe that a man has been raped?
It has been said that rape myths permeate societies so that they create “prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists [generating hence] a climate hostile to rape victims” (Burt 1980: 217). In other words, rape myths represent people’s false beliefs and assumptions on individuals involved in sexual crimes, deriving from psycho-social prejudices, that end up shifting the focus of blame, and too often shame, on victims rather than the actual perpetrators. It is important to note that these myths do not target merely one sex, rather they involve both sexes arguing that, no matter what, all rapists should be considered mentally ill and horribly sick (Hall and Hirschman 1991). According to rape myths when a woman is a victim of sexual assault she ‘asked for it’, she ‘secretly desired it’ and she ‘was a bad girl so she got what she deserved’. On the other hand, a man ‘didn’t mean to rape her’ because his ‘desire was too urgent and didn’t realise her resistance’ or he thought she was consenting. The extension to which any western society blames the woman while trying to excuse the man is, accordingly to Howitt (2002), linked to the fact that rape myths are strongly tied to societies presenting a firm patriarchal structure. Additionally, on Burt’s note, “rape is the logical and psychological extension of a dominant-submissive culture [of] any industrialised country” (1980: 229).
Yet, it all changes when a man happens to be the victim and a woman the perpetrator. What happens when rape myths clash with societies’ sexual myths? Like rape myths, sexual myths derive from societies false beliefs and mis-conceptions about gender roles and ideals of hegemonic masculinity as well as femininity. Western societies drawn indeed in the assumption that a ‘real’ woman must be pure and innocent while the virility of a man is given by his psychological and physical strength. According to gender roles, women should be innocent, passive and sexually submissive recipients incapable hence to act violently (CSOM 2007; Denov 2004). Indeed, women do not act that way, they “cannot be violent [nor] as violent as men” (Gilbert 2002: 1272). When it comes to men, instead, societies hardly recognise their vulnerabilities and – following sexual myths – people do not acknowledge that, in truth, any man could be subject to sexual harassment or even assault. It is widely believed that a man is incapable of experiencing sexual arousement when being an unwilling participant (CSOM 2007); in simpler words, neither erection nor ejaculation are believed to happen if a man is having an unwanted sexual contact (Denov 2004).
It could be stated that official and research statistics suggest that females cannot be perpetrators of sexual assaults while males cannot be the victim of such crime. Yet, this is not totally true. The CSO (2019) reported that in 2018 in Ireland, at least 18% of sexual offences – rape and sexual assault – were filed with a man as a complainant. Additionally, the European Commission (2017) affirms that in 2015 Europe saw 1 in 10 rape victims, as well as 2 in 10 sexual assault victims, being males. Most recent data show that in 2016 England and Wales recorded 3,741 males reporting rape, followed by France (1,789), Sweden (492) and Germany (480). For the crime of sexual assault, instead, Germany recorded 6,166 men victims, 1,482 men in Spain and 1,260 in Sweden (European Commission, 2019). On a similar note, numerous studies (see Elliott and Bailey 2014; Cortoni and Hanson 2005; Cortoni, Hanson and Coache 2010; Cortoni, Babchishin and Rat 2017) affirm that females are responsible for about 4% to 5% of all sexual offences, as well as 7.3% of all juvenile sex crime instances (Finkelhor, Ormrod and Chaffin 2009).
So why is it so hard to believe that a woman can commits a serious sexual offence and that a man might be the victim? Biologically, studies show that – like vaginal lubrication – men can experience erections in situations of fear or emotional instability (Weare 2018). In their study, Sarrel and Master (1982) perfectly described how men – as victim of high degrees of violence and domination on behalf of women – experienced both erection and ejaculation even when being unwilling participants in sexual intercourse. Sarrel and Masters reported that victims experienced terror, helplessness, confusion and even shame during the attacks (1982).
In order to support this argument is interesting to note Bancroft’s (1980) and Kinsey’s (1948) studies on the parallels between humans and animals – dogs for example. Both researches affirm that “anxiety-provoking situations can lead to genital responses” (Sarrel and Masters 1982: 128). As such, spinal-cord discharges deriving from the human reaction of freezing in a fearing situation, childhood-forgotten sexual fantasies or even instances of general body tension may cause a positive sexual response to coercion or genitalia’s slight stimulation (Weare 2018; Sarrel and Masters 1982; Kinsey et al. 1948; Bancroft 1980). Sentiments of inadequacy along with general anxieties and feelings of abnormality have been described by victims showing that males may experience the so-called post-assault syndrome. Depression, sexual aversion and alterations in sexual competence closely resemble women’s psychological harm and distress caused by the post-rape trauma syndrome (Sarrel and Masters 1982). Look at the growing support and counselling for men experiencing domestic violence in Ireland, organizations such as Anyman.
The fact that societies believe that, biologically, a man cannot be raped generates a whole lot of problems on the social and legal levels. Socially, sexual myths heavily impact on the detection and recognition of such crimes. In patriarchal societies, whereby conservatism and machismo are at the core of the ideal of hegemonic masculinity, it is quite impossible to accept that a grown-up man experienced a female’s assault (Wijkman, Bijleveld and Hendriks 2010). Studies show that individuals hardly approach authority figures due to fear of shame and the feeling of being ‘robbed’ of their masculinity.
Additionally, professional biases – of policemen, clinicians, doctors and lawyers included – generate a male-perpetrator focus, disregarding male-victim instances (Denov 2004). This particular focus could be deriving from what Reiner (2000) defined as the "police culture": those “values, norms, perspectives, myths and craft rules that inform their conduct” (p. 117). Unfortunately, the police culture is characterized by features such as machismo, discrimination and conservatism which, eventually, lead the victim to distrust authority figures and avoid reporting the crime (Reiner 2000). Sadly, it is even harder to detect the crime when the victim happens to be a minor. Because sexual aggressions could be concealed in daily care practices by a known individual – such as bathing and changing diapers/nappies – the offences could go under-recognized by the victims or, in cases of teenagers, these may be perceived as ‘cool stuff’ that ‘makes them a man’ (Lewis and Stanley 2000; Dollar et al. 2004).
Finally, the legal aspect can be considered as a factor heavily influencing the recognition of such crimes. First of all, because the phenomenon of sex offending has been regarded for a long time as a crime committed merely by men (Grayston and De Luca 1999), state policies – together with treatment and management programmes – amply over-looked the need for male-victim action plans. Secondly, due to the previously mentioned police culture, victims fear judgment and because of that believe that – no matter what they claim – legal proceedings will not be brought forward (Wijkman, Bijleveld and Hendriks, 2010). As a matter of fact, because the guiltiness of the perpetrator must be proven ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’, cases might drop for several reasons (Taylor, 2007). Failed police response, insufficient or irretrievable data and evidence, the eventuality of possible acquittals as well as policy reasons – such as the defendant entering psychological therapy – are only a few of the reasons which may prevent cases of abused men being heard by higher courts or result in convictions (Wijkman, Bijleveld and Hendriks 2010).
Lastly, it is important to note that, because every jurisdiction has different laws, some countries adopt gender-specific laws while others have more generic legislations (Javaid 2014). In fact, it should be recognized that gender-specific laws – according to which rape and sexual assault happen solely when a) the penis penetrates and b) the vagina is penetrated – of course heavily affect the legal perception on who can be considered as a criminal and who as a victim (Javaid 2014). This, eventually, allows society to keep the stigma of ‘being a rapist’ onto men and, additionally, reinforces gender roles for which women cannot offend and men cannot be the victim. Gender-specific laws also permit perpetrators who committed similar crimes to be sentenced with very different convictions – this is the case of countries like Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland (Weare 2018).
Concluding, it is important to acknowledge that the under-recognition of such crimes at the expenses of men does very much affect our knowledge on such phenomenon. Indeed, statistics show that in 2015, England and Wales recorded 8,395 men reporting rape and sexual assaults, Germany 5,981 and Sweden 1,587 males. Yet, the number of females imprisoned appears to be particularly low if compared to that of reported crimes: England and Wales convicted 88 women for the crimes of rape and sexual assault, Germany convicted 29 females while Sweden only 3. In 2014 Italy recorded 341 males reporting rape and sexual assault while only 86 women were officially convicted for those crimes (European Commission 2017). These data show that men actually report the crimes of sexual assault and rape and that women are indeed convicted for these offences. These figures are particularly important if we want to understand the fact that everyone can be a perpetrator and most importantly a victim and, as such, both categories need appropriate support and management on social, legal and judicial levels. Only in this way we will comprehensively understand the category of sex offenders.
References
Bancroft, J. (1980). ‘Psychophysiology of sexual dysfunction’. In: Handbook of Biological Psychiatry, Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 359-392
Burt, M. (1980). ‘Cultural myths and support for rape’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38 (2), pp. 217 – 230
Centre for Sex Offender Management (2007). ‘Female Sex Offenders’ [online]. Available from: http://www.csom.org/pubs/female_sex_offenders_brief.pdf [Accessed 28th September 2018]
Central Statistics Office (2019). ‘Recorded Crime Victims’ [online]. Available from: https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-rcv/recordedcrimevictims2018/ [Accessed 13th July 2019]
Cortoni, F. and Hanson, R. K. (2005). A Review of the Recidivism Rates of Adult Female Sexual Offenders (R-169). Ottawa: Research Branch, Correction Service of Canada
Cortoni, F., Hanson, R. K. and Coache, M. È. (2010). ‘The recidivism rates of female sexual offenders are low: a meta-analysis’, Sexual Abuse: a Journal of Research and Treatment, 22 (4), pp 387 – 401
Cortoni, F., Babchishin, K. M. and Rat, C. (2017). ‘The proportion of sexual offenders who are female is higher than thought: a meta – analysis’, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44 (2), pp. 145 – 162
Denov, M. S. (2004). Perspectives on Female Sex Offending: A Culture of Denial. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company
Dollar, K. M. et al. (2004). ‘Influence of gender roles on perceptions of teacher-adolescent student sexual relations’. Sex Roles, 50 (1/2), pp. 91 – 101
Elliott, I. A. and Bailey, A. (2014). ‘Female Sex Offenders: Gender and Risk Perception’. In: McCartan, K. (2014). Responding to sexual offending: Perceptions, Risk Management and Public Protection. London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan
European Commission (2017). ‘Violent sexual crimes recorded in the EU’ [online]. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/EDN-20171123-1?inheritRedirect=true [Accessed 12th November 2018]
European Commission (2019). ‘Intentional homicide and sexual offences by legal status and sex of the person involved - number and rate for the relevant sex group’ [online]. Available from: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.do [Accessed 13th July 2019]
Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R. and Chaffin, M. (2009). ‘Juveniles who commit sex offenses against minors’, Juvenile Justice Bulletin [online]. Available from: http://unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV171.pdf [Accessed 12th November 2018]
Gilbert, P. R. (2002) ‘Discourses of female violence and societal gender stereotypes’, Violence Against Women, 8 (11), pp. 1271 – 1300
Grayston, A. D., and De Luca, R. V. (1999). ‘Female perpetrators of child sexual abuse: a review of the clinical and empirical literature’, Aggression and Violent Behavior, 4 (1), pp. 93 – 106
Javaid, A. (2014). ‘Male rape: the ‘invisible’ male. Why is it that male rape victims are less focused on that their female counterparts by criminology, state agencies and the media?’, Internet Journal of Criminology, pp. 1 – 49
Hall, G. C. N. and Hirschman, R. (1991). ‘Toward a theory of sexual aggression: a quadripartite model’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59 (5), pp. 662 – 669
Howitt, D. (2002). Forensic and Criminal Psychology. UK: Pearson Education Limited
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. P., and Martin, C. E. (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Saunders, Philadelphia
Lewis, C. F. and Stanley, C. R. (2000). ‘Women accused of sexual offenses’, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 18 (1), pp. 73 – 81
Reiner, R. (2000). The Politics of the Police (3rd eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Sarrel, P. M. and Masters, W. H. (1982). ‘Sexual molestation of men by women’, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 11 (2), pp. 117 – 131
Taylor, N. (2007). ‘Juror attitudes and biases in sexual assault cases’. Australian Institute of Criminology, 344. Retrieved from https://aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi344 [22/11/18]
Weare, S. (2018). ‘“I feel permanently traumatized by it”: physical and emotional impacts reported by men forced to penetrate women in the United Kingdom’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, pp. 1 – 26, DOI: 0886260518820815
Wijkman, M., Bijleveld, C. and Hendriks, J. (2010). ‘Women don’t do such things! Characteristics of female sex offenders and offender types’, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 22 (2), pp. 135 – 156
Cecilia Castellani, an Italian student who just finished her BA Criminology at University College Cork with first-class honours.
