Supporting male victims (accessible) – GOV.UK

1. Introduction

This doc outlines the federal government’s assist for male victims of crimes that fall throughout the violence in opposition to ladies and ladies house. This doc sits alongside the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2021 and the Home Abuse Plan 2022, as a related and complementary piece of labor. Each the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique, and the Home Abuse Plan, set out our ambition to cut back the prevalence of all VAWG crimes, no matter who they have an effect on, and to assist all victims/survivors, together with males and boys.

This doc can be utilized by statutory our bodies, charity sector practitioners, victims/survivors, and the general public alongside the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique, and the Home Abuse Plan as: an informational useful resource on the male victims’ panorama, together with the particular challenges male victims face; a top level view to the assist providers outlook; and a information to develop greatest apply.

The time period ‘violence in opposition to ladies and ladies’ refers to acts of violence or abuse that we all know disproportionately have an effect on ladies and ladies. These crimes embody – and should not restricted to – rape, sexual violence, home abuse, stalking, ‘honour’-based abuse together with pressured marriage, ‘revenge porn’, and the harms related to intercourse work and prostitution. These crimes have profound and long-lasting bodily and psychological well being impacts and have completely no place in our society. Using this time period can not and mustn’t negate the experiences of, or provisions for, male victims of those crimes.

The federal government is dedicated to making sure that every one victims/survivors of those crimes, of all protected traits, obtain the assist they deserve, and recognises its tasks underneath the Public Sector Equality Obligation offered for within the Equality Act 2010.^{[footnote 1]}

The Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique, and the Home Abuse Plan, are each clear that whereas we use the time period ‘violence in opposition to ladies and ladies’ in each paperwork, this refers to all victims of any of those offences.

To tell the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique and the Home Abuse Plan, the federal government carried out a public Name for Proof, which the Residence Workplace ran in two phases. Section 1 invited the general public to reply to a public survey between 10 December 2020 and 19 February 2021. In Section 2, the general public survey was reopened by the Residence Secretary between 12 March and 26 March 2021, following the tragic rape and homicide of Sarah Everard.^{[footnote 2]} In whole, we acquired over 180,000 responses.

The Name for Proof was promoted utilizing Residence Workplace press, social and stakeholder channels, and was open to everybody. The general public survey was promoted actively to males and boys, together with via media akin to LADbible Group. The Residence Workplace held a devoted males and boys focus group with sector stakeholders, and in addition commissioned a nationally consultant survey.^{[footnote 3]} Organisations particularly supporting males and boys helped distribute the sufferer survey to make sure we gathered male sufferer views. The federal government has taken the suggestions from the Name for Proof under consideration, and recognises the challenges which may be confronted by males and boys.^{[footnote 4]}

On this doc we draw on the testimonies of these victims/survivors who bravely describe the impression these crimes can have. The doc is supplemented with case research to assist illustrate a few of the material described, and we’re grateful to the victims/survivors for bravely sharing their tales, and to the organisations who helped to facilitate. Some names and figuring out traits have been modified to guard identities. The federal government thanks all contributors to the Name for Proof wholeheartedly for his or her contributions, and is grateful to victims/survivors for sharing their experiences, and for the experience of specialist sectors that assist victims/survivors, lecturers, native authorities, and police and Felony Justice System colleagues.

A word on terminology

On this doc, ‘sexual assault’, ‘sexual offence’, ‘sexual violence’ and ‘sexual abuse’ are used interchangeably and never essentially of their technical or authorized definitions.

2. Male victims: analysis and proof

All victims of VAWG crimes are impacted in a different way by their distinctive experiences. Whereas it can be crucial that male victims should not seen as a single homogenous group, we acknowledge that there are patterns and commonalities in some experiences of male victims of VAWG crimes.

On this part we’ll present an outline as to the prevalence and scale of male victims of VAWG crimes. The 12 months ending March 2020 ONS Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW)^{[footnote 5]} is the newest CSEW knowledge accessible for VAWG crimes.^{[footnote 6]}

Boys and kids

The Home Abuse Act 2021 stipulates {that a} baby who sees, hears, or experiences the consequences of home abuse, and is said to the particular person being abused or the particular person perpetrating the abuse, can also be thought to be a sufferer^{[footnote 7]} of home abuse for the needs of the Act.^{[footnote 8]}

Boys can due to this fact be victims of home abuse in their very own proper, and the federal government acknowledges the brief and long-term cognitive, behavioural, and emotional impression that may be suffered by boys in consequence. Additional details about the impression of home abuse on kids, the obstacles they could face in accessing providers, and the necessity for frontline assist to take a trauma-informed method to recognise the particular wants of youngsters of various age teams or protected traits, may be discovered within the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance Framework.

Within the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique, the federal government dedicated to growing extra assist to assist academics ship the statutory Relationships, Intercourse and Well being Schooling (RSHE) curriculum in faculties successfully and confidently. The RSHE curriculum recognises that boys may also be victims of sexual violence, and advocates an understanding of wholesome relationships for all pupils.

The Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2021 units out the federal government’s dedication to making sure entry to top quality assist for all victims and survivors of kid sexual abuse, together with males and boys, wherever they stay within the nation and no matter when the abuse occurred. We’re doing this by boosting funding in native and nationwide specialist sexual violence assist providers.^{[footnote 9]}

Males and boys might face particular obstacles to accessing some assist providers, and should expertise explicit vulnerabilities. We all know that because of a lot of systemic, environmental, and cultural obstacles, a few of that are set out within the subsequent part, many don’t come ahead to report.

Home abuse and home murder

The 12 months ending March 2020 CSEW knowledge exhibits that 13.8% of males and 27.6% of ladies aged 16 to 74 have skilled home abuse behaviours^{[footnote 10]} because the age of 16, equal to an estimated 2.9 million male victims and 5.9 million feminine victims. Within the 12 months 2019/20, 3.6% of males (757,000) and seven.3% of ladies (1.6 million) had been victims of home abuse.^{[footnote 11]} Information on the main points of circumstances mentioned at Multi-Company Threat Evaluation Conferences (MARACs), which signify the very best danger home abuse circumstances, present that 6.1% of MARACs held between April 2020 and Might 2021 had male victims. The remaining proportion of victims had been feminine.^{[footnote 12]}

When trying in the direction of several types of home abuse, males usually tend to report being victims of associate abuse (2.4%) than household abuse (1.5%) within the earlier 12 months. This follows the identical development as for feminine victims. Home stalking was skilled by 0.7% of males and 1.3% of ladies within the earlier 12 months.

Of the 362 victims of home homicides in 12 months ending March 2018 to March 2020, 86 victims had been males (24%).^{[footnote 13]} In slightly below 60% of circumstances (51 victims), the suspect was both a guardian or different member of the family. In simply over 60% of circumstances the suspect was male (53 circumstances). Each the Respect Males’s Recommendation Line and the male victims assist charity, Mankind Initiative, noticed a rise in calls relating to suicide ideation over the pandemic interval.^{[footnote 14]},^{[footnote 15]} A Vulnerability Data and Apply Programme (VKPP) and Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) evaluate of home homicides and suspected sufferer suicides between March 2020 and 2021 discovered that of the 39 home abuse associated suicides recognized, 10% (4) concerned male victims.^{[footnote 16][footnote 17]}

Sexual assault

For the 12 months ending March 2020, an estimated 773,000 adults aged 16 to 74 years had been victims of sexual assault (together with makes an attempt), with an estimated 618,000 feminine victims and 155,000 male victims.^{[footnote 18][footnote 19]} The Centre of Experience on Baby Sexual Abuse estimates that at the very least 5% of boys and younger males expertise sexual abuse earlier than the age of 16.^{[footnote 20]}

Stalking

In accordance with CSEW, 526,000 males aged between 16 and 74 had been estimated to have been victims of stalking within the 12 months ending March 2020 (in comparison with 977,000 ladies).^{[footnote 21]}

So-called ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA), together with pressured marriage

Males and boys are additionally victims of so-called ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA). Simply as with feminine victims of HBA, they could be subjected to it for a wide range of causes. These embody: to punish behaviour which is seen as transgressing group norms or compromising household ‘honour’, to try to ‘treatment’ or masks trans identification or homosexuality, or moreover, within the case of being pressured into marriage, to acquire a visa or to discover a carer for a person with a incapacity.

Information from the joint Residence Workplace and International, Commonwealth and Growth Workplace Pressured Marriage Unit (FMU) exhibits that round a fifth of circumstances which they offered recommendation or assist to in 2020 relate to male victims and survivors (21% in 2020). Males seem like notably represented in circumstances the place the sufferer is LGBT (63% male), or the place they’ve psychological capability considerations (55% male).^{[footnote 22]}

Sexual harassment

Information from the Authorities Equalities Workplace’s Sexual Harassment Survey in 2020 used a broad, self-defined definition of sexual harassment, and located that, though it’s more than likely to have an effect on ladies, males additionally expertise appreciable ranges of sexual harassment and sexual harassment behaviours, 34% of males reported that that they had skilled at the very least one type of sexual harassment within the final 12 months.^{[footnote 24]} Within the office particularly, males had been virtually as prone to expertise office harassment as ladies (the incidence of experiencing harassment was 30% amongst ladies and 27% amongst males).

Demographics

The federal government recognises that some teams are at larger danger of sure crimes. We’re in a position to decide sure patterns and commonalities of expertise, nonetheless these teams should not homogenous and should face overlapping challenges.

The CSEW for 12 months ending March 2020 highlights that homosexual and bisexual males had been round twice as prone to expertise home abuse as heterosexual males; 6% of homosexual males and seven.3% of bisexual males aged 16 to 74 reported experiencing home abuse within the earlier 12 months. This compares to three.5% of heterosexual males.^{[footnote 25]}

There’s presently no nationally consultant knowledge on prevalence of home abuse in transgender individuals.^{[footnote 26]} In accordance with the CSEW, transgender individuals had been considerably extra prone to have been a sufferer of all crimes, together with crimes thought of violence in opposition to ladies and ladies (and excluding fraud).^{[footnote 27]} Greater than 1 in 4 transgender individuals (28%) had skilled crime in contrast with 14% of ^{[footnote 28]} people who find themselves not transgender.^{[footnote 29]} The Authorities Equalities Workplace’s Nationwide LGBT Survey discovered that transgender respondents had been notably extra prone to have skilled most incident sorts (48%) involving somebody they lived with than different respondents (28%). Transgender males had been extra prone to report incidents akin to verbal harassment, controlling or coercive behaviour, and bodily harassment or violence than males who should not transgender.^{[footnote 30]}

GBT+ males may be victims of so-called conversion remedy, that is abuse aimed toward altering, altering, or ‘curing’ LGBT identities, and may take the type of verbal, psychological, bodily, and sexual abuse.^{[footnote 31]}

In 2020-2021, 1 in 3 callers to the Males’s Recommendation Line – the nationwide helpline for male victims of home abuse run by Respect – recognized as being from ethnic minority backgrounds. Of these victims, an extra 1 in 3 reported experiencing incidents of controlling or coercive behaviours having occurred on 5 or extra events.

The CSEW finds that equally to general traits in home abuse, males from blended or ‘different’ ethnic teams usually tend to report being a sufferer of home abuse. For the 12 months ending March 2020 CSEW, 6.1% of these in ‘different ethnic teams’ and 5.9% of these within the blended ethnic group reported experiencing home abuse within the earlier 12 months. The prevalence for all males was 3.6%.^{[footnote 32]}

The federal government recognises the elevated danger of victimisation of VAWG crimes confronted by migrant individuals, together with migrant males. As highlighted within the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique, the Residence Workplace is working a ‘Assist for Migrant Victims’ pilot scheme to offer wraparound assist for migrant victims of home abuse who shouldn’t have entry to public funds, with an analysis report being revealed in the summertime.

The CSEW knowledge present us that disabled persons are extra prone to be topic to home abuse. That is noticed for each women and men, with disabled males being over twice as prone to report experiencing home abuse (7.5%) than non-disabled males (3.2%), within the earlier 12 months.^{[footnote 33]}Within the three years ending March 2018, disabled males aged 16-59 (1.1%) had been extra prone to have skilled sexual assault and tried sexual assault than non- disabled males of the identical age (0.8%).^{[footnote 34]} Within the 12 months ending March 2020, disabled males (7.5%) had been greater than twice as prone to have skilled home abuse than non-disabled males (3.2%).^{[footnote 35]}

The scenario for male victims of home abuse and another crimes within the VAWG class may be significantly tougher and sophisticated the place they’ve parental tasks. ONS Crime Survey figures for 12 months ending March 2020 present that 34.1% of male victims experiencing home abuse stay in a family with two adults and at the very least one baby, and an extra 1.4% of male victims stay in a family with one grownup and at the very least one baby.^{[footnote 36]} Amongst victims of associate abuse who reported kids within the family, kids witnessed the offence in 20.5% of circumstances.^{[footnote 37]}

3. Identification and reporting

Dangerous stereotyping, mixed with widespread myths and misconceptions round male victims, can act as extra obstacles relating to reporting and searching for assist. For instance, stereotypes round masculinity can have a major function in a male sufferer’s expertise of home abuse. Male victims could also be much less prone to disclose that they’re being abused or might not recognise they’re victims of home abuse as they could consider the time period ‘home abuse’ is simply relevant to ladies.

The 12 months ending March 2018 CSEW confirmed that solely simply over half of male victims of associate abuse (50.8%) reported telling anybody personally about abuse skilled within the earlier 12 months. This compares to the 81.3% of feminine victims.^{[footnote 38]} Males and boys might face explicit challenges to disclosing abuse because of stereotypes and out of worry of not being believed. Obstacles to reporting these crimes, and searching for assist from specialist providers, may be skilled by all victims, no matter intercourse. These can embody, however should not restricted to: worry of not being believed; lack of religion within the felony justice system; emotions of disgrace, guilt or embarrassment; not recognising the scenario as abusive; not being conscious of how one can report crime; worry of shedding contact with kids; immigration standing; worry of their sexuality being revealed; threats of hurt from the perpetrator; and, stress from household and associates to stay in a relationship.^{[footnote 39]} Male victims with protected traits could also be at higher danger of going through obstacles to reporting and searching for assist.

Fashionable myths and misconceptions about male victims of crimes akin to home and sexual abuse may be notably damaging and act as an extra barrier to reporting and help-seeking.

Myths surrounding male victims of sexual abuse can embody, however should not restricted to: male survivors of sexual abuse will go on to abuse others; males/boys are solely sexually abused by different males/boys; bodily arousal throughout sexually felony abusive acts signifies consent.^{[footnote 40]} Of their nationwide analysis, the voluntary sector specialist umbrella company the Male Survivors Partnership concluded that 20% of the boys sampled took over 31 years to reveal being sexually abused.^{[footnote 41]}

A College of Durham research analyzing the expertise of male victims of home abuse throughout COVID-19 carried out in collaboration with the Males’s Recommendation line, run by home abuse charity Respect – reported that a few of their callers described how their concepts about what it means to be man, meant they discovered it onerous to consider that they had been a sufferer of abuse.^{[footnote 42]} This may additionally impression the methods male victims are abused, for instance, utilizing particular insults as a part of a sample of controlling or coercive behaviour. The research reported male victims had been informed they had been mocked by their perpetrators for being “not manly sufficient.”^{[footnote 43]}

4. Entry to assist providers

All victims/survivors deserve entry to well timed and acceptable assist. The significance of entry to acceptable providers was underscored within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rape Assist Fund, offered by the Ministry of Justice, has been prolonged till March 2023, to make sure assist providers have the funding stability they should meet demand. Core funding for rape assist centres via this fund has elevated by 50% this monetary 12 months (21/22), from £8m to £12m every year.

On common, within the 12 months ending March 2021, the charity ManKind Initiative skilled 23% extra calls to their helpline per thirty days and 61% extra guests to their web site per thirty days than the earlier 12 months.^{[footnote 44]} Some assist providers – such because the Males’s Recommendation Line, the nationwide helpline for male victims of home abuse, run by Respect – additionally supply net providers which permit the person immediate and non-instant responses from employees. From 2019-2022, the federal government has allotted £168,000 a 12 months for the helpline. Along with this quantity, the federal government offered a funding uplift in 2020/21 of an extra £151,000 to assist the continued working of the service in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021/22, the federal government offered one other funding uplift of £64,500 to fund extra exercise.

The federal government additionally recognises the extra obstacles to reporting which male victims with protected traits might expertise, and that male victims might have specialist wants. Some obstacles to reporting and help- searching for are sensible and contain service availability.

LGBT victims and survivors could also be much less prone to search assist as a result of there generally is a lack of readability as as to if providers are ‘LGBT pleasant’.^{[footnote 45]} The assist organisation Galop recognized that LGBT individuals skilled a spread of structural, cultural, particular person, and interpersonal obstacles when accessing home abuse and sexual violence providers within the UK.^{[footnote 46]}

Male victims/survivors within the jail property might have issue accessing related assist providers. Figures obtained in a UK research by the Howard League for Penal Reform (2014), detailed that when overcrowding in male prisons elevated, the variety of recorded sexual assaults by male prisoners rose. Reductions within the quantity of contact time between officers and prisoners on account of COVID-19, might make it tougher for employees to establish prisoners liable to sexual assault, or to forestall or detect sexual assaults in jail.^{[footnote 47]} In 2020, Her Majesty’s Jail and Probation Service recorded 239 sexual assaults in male safe institutions – together with prisons, Youth Offender Establishments and HMPPS managed Immigration Removing Centres – in England and Wales.^{[footnote 48]}

It’s important that assist providers:

• are clear concerning the assist they provide and to whom

• think about the wants of victims/survivors

• perceive the impression of dangerous stereotyping, mixed with myths and misconceptions about male victims that may act as obstacles for males to have interaction.

When commissioning assist providers, native areas ought to discuss with the Nationwide Assertion of Expectations and accompanying Commissioning Toolkit, which offer steering on how one can fee sufferer assist providers to fulfill wants successfully and be certain that the native response is collaborative, inclusive, strong, and efficient.^{[footnote 49]}

We’re conscious of the superb sources already in place developed by sector consultants that assist commissioners and suppliers to develop and supply the perfect providers for male victims/survivors. The beneath exhibit some examples of greatest apply:

• The Respect Male Victims Toolkit^{[footnote 50]}

• LGBT+ Home Abuse Service Provision Mapping Research^{[footnote 51]}

• Commissioning for Inclusion: delivering providers for LGBT+ survivors of home abuse^{[footnote 52]}

• Male Home Abuse Community: High quality Requirements for Providers Supporting Male Victims/Survivors of Home Abuse^{[footnote 53]}

• Male Survivors Partnership: Male Service Requirements for organisations working with males and boys affected by sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation^{[footnote 54]}

5. Prosecution

The CSEW for 12 months ending March 2018 discovered that solely 14.7% of male victims of associate abuse had informed the police about their abuse, in comparison with 18.4% of ladies.^{[footnote 56]}

Whereas the federal government totally acknowledges the vary of obstacles many male victims face, we encourage all victims/survivors to report incidents to the police, so perpetrators may be delivered to justice. The federal government recognises these crimes can have an enduring impression on victims/survivors and can proceed to work with companions throughout native and nationwide authorities, police, and the voluntary and group sector to assist male victims/survivors.

We recognise that having cops with the appropriate expertise is important in making certain circumstances are progressed and managed successfully. We’re supporting police to do that via funding ‘Operation Soteria’, which is working to enhance the police response to rape circumstances, and the Vulnerability Data and Apply Programme (run by the Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council, which drives enchancment within the policing response to all safeguarding crimes, together with grownup sexual offences). We’re additionally supporting the recruitment of 20,000 cops, and the appointment of DCC Maggie Blyth as the total time Nationwide Policing Lead on Violence Towards Girls and Women. DCC Blyth recognises that there are victims throughout all offences captured throughout the VAWG space, together with males and boys, and her plans will search to utilise enhancements for all victims no matter intercourse.

There have been 84,734 home abuse-related crimes recorded within the 12 months ending March 2021, and simply over 1 / 4 (26.9%) of those concerned male victims.^{[footnote 57]} Regardless of elevated police-recorded home abuse crimes in recent times, the variety of home abuse perpetrators charged, prosecuted, and convicted has been falling. For the 12 months ending March 2021, solely 8% of recorded home abuse crimes had been assigned an consequence of charged or summonsed in that very same 12 months.^{[footnote 58]} In home associated prosecutions for 12 months ending March 2021, 13.6% of victims had been male.^{[footnote 59]}

In 2017 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed a public assertion on male victims of crimes thought of inside their Violence Towards Girls and Women (VAWG) technique, which outlined the CPS assist for male victims/ survivors of abuse and reaffirmed their commitments to them. The assertion recognised the numerous numbers of males and boys affected by these crimes and made a number of commitments. This included commitments to offer info for prosecutors to assist problem myths and stereotypes, perceive the expertise of male victims throughout the Felony Justice System, and supply particulars of assist providers for male victims.

6. Commitments

Annex A of the Tackling Violence Towards Girls and Women Technique incorporates full particulars of authorities progress in opposition to the actions dedicated to within the Male Victims Place Assertion 2019.

The federal government will proceed to construct on our work with the sector to assist male victims/survivors of those crimes and be certain that well timed and high-quality acceptable assist is on the market to them. As well as, we’ll:

• Proceed to contain various nationwide males’s teams in stakeholder engagement on points associated to VAWG.

• While acknowledging the disproportionally gendered nature of VAWG, guarantee authorities VAWG communication campaigns are inclusive of male victims to boost consciousness, problem dangerous societal myths about masculinity, and encourage male victims and survivors to report abuse.

• Proceed to utilise proof from throughout authorities on male experiences of VAWG crimes to tell related future authorities insurance policies. For instance, a complete VAWG data landscape has been revealed on Gov.uk. This consists of sources from throughout authorities, academia and the voluntary sector and consists of knowledge on male experiences of VAWG crimes.

• Throughout 2021-22, the Ministry of Justice dedicated over £1.4 million to the Male Rape Fund. An extra £1.4 million will likely be dedicated in 2022- 23.

• By way of the Ministry of Justice, proceed to fund Safeline’s nationwide male rape helpline and SurvivorsUK’s webchat till March 2023.

• Explicitly spotlight that the remit of the Minister for Safeguarding consists of duty for male victims of VAWG crimes.

• Work carefully with the Workplace of the Home Abuse Commissioner (DAC), making use of the knowledge offered via the DAC’s survivor survey^{[footnote 60]}– which is presently being analysed after closing on 31 January 2022 – to tell future potential areas of analysis.

• Work to develop a framework to coordinate and align funding for sufferer and survivor assist providers throughout authorities will likely be taken ahead via the Ministry of Justice’s forthcoming Victims Funding Technique.

• Introduce a Victims Regulation as quickly as doable, to ensure that victims are on the coronary heart of the felony justice system. All through the current session course of, we have now engaged straight with victims, together with male victims and the specialist providers working to assist them – to listen to first-hand their experiences, and the particular challenges they’re going through.

• Improve Ministry of Justice funding for sufferer and witness assist providers, to £185 million by 2024-25. Over three years, £47.1m will likely be ringfenced for community-based providers supporting victims of home abuse and sexual violence, this consists of male victims/ survivors.

• Undertake additional authorities work via the Spending Evaluate, and thru a panorama evaluate of the supply of sexual violence assist providers.

• The federal government is dedicated to launching the world’s first authorities funded Sufferer Assist Service particular to Conversion Remedy. This service will present preliminary pastoral assist and route to specialist providers, akin to counselling and emergency housing. It would additionally act as an info useful resource on the harms that conversion remedy practices trigger, its authorized standing, and hyperlinks to specialist assist. This helpline will likely be open to anybody who feels they’ve undergone conversion remedy, in addition to involved household, associates, and professionals in secure guarding roles.

• Work to boost consciousness of this doc throughout authorities departments, native authorities, police forces and different statutory our bodies.