Male rape: what we know, don’t know and need to find out—a critical review

ABSTRACT

Male rape is a prevalent issue in society that can have a profound number of negative effects on a victim. Research into male rape is estimated to be roughly 20 years behind female rape, but has received a greater amount of academic attention in the last few decades. The aim of this research was to critically discuss male rape research, outlining the main theories, discussing gaps in the research and suggesting avenues for future investigations. The main areas in the review are the definition of rape and sexual assault in the U.K., prevalence of male rape, reasons why reports of male rape may be low, attitudes and stereotypical beliefs towards male rape victims, effects that these attitudes and male rape can have on the victim and specific characteristics of victims, offenders and the offence of male rape crimes.

KEYWORDS:

• Male rape
• rape myths
• victim blaming
• stereotypes
• offence characteristics

Disclosure statement

The authors confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this work and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Pearson

John Pearson At the time of writing was a Graduate of the MSc in Investigative Psychology and a current PhD Candidate.

Deborah Barker

Deborah Barker was the CEO of the Rape & Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre in Darlington with 15 years’ experience of working with both male and female victims of sexual violence.