Theorising vulnerability and male sexual victimisation (original) (raw)
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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.
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).
Can't Hear or Won't Hear: Gender, Sexualities and Reporting Male Rape
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.
Police Responses to, and Attitudes Towards, Male Rape: Issues and Concerns
This article critically examines how the police respond to, and deal with, male rape victims. It also explores male rape victims' experiences of the police. This is an issue that has been hugely overlooked in the growing literature on the treatment of sexual offences in the criminal justice system; that is, the treatment of adult male sexual assault and male rape complainants by police officers. To fill this gap in the literature, this article will explore findings from empirical studies of police attitudes alongside an increasing amount of research that has examined the experiences of male rape victims. This article also explores social attitudes to male rape victims and the different ways wherein such attitudes influence the police responses to male rape victims. Moreover, this article recognises three barriers to the recognition of male rape: police statistics; the under-reporting of male rape; and the masculine police subculture and policing homosexuality. Finally, the article concludes by considering potential strategies for improving the treatment of male rape victims in England and Wales.
Male rape, masculinities, and sexualities
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'.
Making sense of male rape: constructions of gender, sexuality and experience of rape victims
Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2004
This study reports a preliminary investigation into accounting practices for male rape in conversation. Two main issues are raised for discussion in response to a male rape incident: the experience of the rape act and societal responses to male victims. A 'hierarchy of suffering' is established where rape is judged to be worse for 'heterosexual' men than it is for 'women' or 'gay' men. Hegemonic, phallocentric representations of heterosexuality are mobilized to argue that acts of rape and consensual intercourse are the same for 'gay' men and 'women' and therefore less traumatic than for 'heterosexual' men. This obscures the violence of rape for gay men and women and exonerates perpetrators by minimizing injury sustained.
Moving through shadows: police, policing and male rape
From a human rights perspective, the present work aims to provide a critical analysis of the approaches used by the police and of the ways in which officers respond to male rape victims in England. Examining police attitudes towards, and responses to, male rape victims can help widen our understanding of policing male rape and the voids that need filling. I draw on primary data, which was collected through the use of semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires, to make sense of the issues involved with policing male rape. The data consist of police officers and voluntary agency practitioners (N = 70). The findings suggest that the police do not see themselves as a support provider, so that justifies their lack of support for male rape victims; their rights are being ignored or unmet. By not providing support to male rape victims, some police officers may not take the issue of male rape seriously, which may embolden them to under-record male rape allegations while discouraging male rape victims from reporting and engaging with the police. Finally, the limitations of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 mean that some officers may not enforce the law appropriately, partly because they misunderstand the law. The findings have serious implications for the ways in which the police serve male rape victims, such as bringing about secondary victimisation and providing a distorted view of male rape through police statistics, which give a false impression of male rape across police forces in England. I suggest ways in which to improve policy and practice that can help fulfil the rights of male rape victims.
Giving a Voice to the Voiceless: Police Responses to Male Rape
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.
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.