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Male rape victims left to suffer in silence


The World Today Archive - Friday, 9 February , 2001  00:00:00

Reporter: Nicole Johnston

Refocuses COMPERE: And in an unrelated matter, a special research project in Victoria has shown that male rape victims don't receive the same level of support and counselling as females in the circumstances. One hundred and twenty survivors of rape took part, many of them told the researchers that serious sexual assaults go unreported because accessible services for men simply are not available.

But there's an additional factor, as Nicole Johnson reports for us, men often avoid telling anyone because the courts and community still misunderstand male rape.

NICOLE JOHNSON: Melbourne psychologist Dr Sarah Crome says for every reported case of male rape, there are another 10 that go unreported. She says this is because social progress is 40 years behind in the area of male rape, and men are treated differently by the courts.

SARAH CROME: First of all, there's not much known about the crime. There's not much information recorded and it's quite difficult to understand and respond effectively and helpfully to a man in distress. And it can be quite threatening in a court room situation to male staff, which often court rooms are dominated by.

And given that the whole system's based around patriarchal, the man at the top of the family ideology, it can be quite threatening to those people. And they can actually be quite punitive or punishing to the victim basically, because of their gender.

And a lot of those things associated with being a macho man where you're in control, you can protect yourself, you're quite tough, all those kinds of almost fantasies about who you are suddenly fall down.

NICOLE JOHNSON: In that case, how should the legal system be changed when it's dealing with male rape victims?

SARAH CROME: First of all it needs to use its own research to look at what information there is about managing male victims. It also needs to reach out to the scientific community to access that research, use research into female rape victims responses and experiences.

They also need to encourage men, well men themselves need to encourage their own lobby movement and start coming forward and talking about how they need to be treated and supported rather than transplanting a model that suits women onto them. So it needs to come from the male community, because we don't want to undermine all the work females have done and other men, in supporting their plight.

COMPERE: Sarah Crome is a Melbourne psychologist, and she was speaking with Nicole Johnson.