‘Nobody believes you if you’re a bloke’: Barriers to disclosure and help-seeking for male forced-to-penetrate victims/survivors
| Published date | 01 September 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580241238768 |
| Author | Siobhan Weare,Joanne Hulley,Duncan Craig |
| Date | 01 September 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580241238768
International Review of Victimology
2024, Vol. 30(3) 596 –611
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580241238768
journals.sagepub.com/home/irv
‘Nobody believes you if you’re
a bloke’: Barriers to disclosure
and help-seeking for male
forced-to-penetrate victims/
survivors
Siobhan Weare
Lancaster University, UK
Joanne Hulley
Lancaster University, UK; Independent Researcher, UK
Duncan Craig
We Are Survivors, UK
Abstract
Research on barriers that exist for male victims/survivors of sexual abuse in relation to disclosing
their experiences is limited. This article shares qualitative data in relation to disclosure and help-
seeking barriers encountered by male victims/survivors of female-perpetrated sexual abuse.
Findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 male victims/survivors in the United
Kingdom about their forced-to-penetrate (FTP) experiences are discussed. FTP cases involve a
man being FTP, with his penis and without his consent, the vagina, anus, or mouth of a woman.
During their interviews, male victims/survivors shared multiple barriers which resulted in delayed,
selective, limited, or no disclosure. These included; masculinity, feelings of shame and self-blame,
struggling to understand and label experiences, concerns about the consequences of disclosure,
and a lack of (knowledge about) support. These barriers are critically discussed and positioned
within their broader contexts and consideration is given to how they can be overcome by those
most likely to engage with male FTP victims/survivors.
Keywords
Male victims, sexual violence, help-seeking, female perpetrators, disclosure, qualitative data
Corresponding author:
Siobhan Weare, The Law School, Lancaster University, Bowland North, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK.
Email: s.weare@lancaster.ac.uk
1238768IRV0010.1177/02697580241238768International Review of VictimologyWeare et al.
research-article2024
Article
Weare et al. 597
Introduction
Research on barriers that exist for male victims/survivors of sexual abuse in relation to disclosing
their experiences (Sivagurunathan et al., 2019; Sorsoli et al., 2008) is limited in the academic lit-
erature, especially when compared with that which explores the experiences of female survivors
(see, for example, Evans and Feder, 2016; Lelaurain et al., 2017). This article makes a novel and
significant contribution to knowledge by sharing qualitative data in relation to disclosure and help-
seeking barriers encountered by male victims/survivors of female-perpetrated sexual abuse – a
sub-section of male victims’/survivors’ experiences that are even less visible. More specifically,
the article examines the barriers to disclosure and help-seeking discussed by 30 male victims/sur-
vivors in the United Kingdom (UK) in interviews about their forced-to-penetrate (FTP) experi-
ences. These FTP cases involve a man being FTP, with his penis and without his consent, the
vagina, anus, or mouth of a woman (Weare, 2018: 110). The term FTP is used here because under
current criminal laws in the UK only men, and not women, can be convicted as principal offenders
of rape (e.g. The Sexual Offences Act (SOA), 2003, section 1).
Examining and understanding barriers to disclosure and help-seeking for male FTP survivors is
essential to ensure that their support needs are met, as well as to develop effective strategies to
improve access to support for this group of men. In the context of this article, disclosure and help-
seeking are broadly conceived and refer to male FTP victim/survivors’ experiences of disclosure to
family, friends, health practitioners such as GPs, and support services. While not specifically
focusing on barriers to disclosure to police or other criminal justice agencies, there are likely to be
overlaps with these groups, and as such many of the findings may be relevant within such contexts.
It should also be noted that the term victim/survivor is used throughout this article when discussing
the experiences of men who have been FTP a woman. This term is used in recognition of the fact
that individually, the terms ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’ can hold different, specific, and often contested
meanings, and thus the use of the term ‘victim/survivor’ aims to go beyond the binary and recog-
nise the complex reality of many men’s lived experiences.
Literature review
It is recognised that the barriers to disclosure faced by male victims/survivors are likely to differ
considerably from those for female victims/survivors (see, for example, Hammond et al., 2017;
Pino and Meier, 1999; Sable et al., 2006). To this end, there is a body of research that, while still in
its infancy, is growing, and considers the specific gender-based disclosure barriers faced by male
victims/survivors of sexual violence. This is particularly the case in relation to male victims/survi-
vors of male-perpetrated sexual abuse (see, for example, Widanaralalage et al., 2022). In compari-
son, where research has considered barriers to disclosure for male victims/survivors of
female-perpetrated sexual abuse, it has been much more limited in both depth and scope. Indeed,
no existing research, prior to this project (Weare and Hulley, 2019), has specifically addressed the
barriers faced by male FTP victims/survivors within the UK.
While there is no previous direct research addressing the barriers faced by men who are FTP
women in the UK, the broader scholarship around barriers to disclosure and help-seeking faced by
male victims/survivors in other contexts, for example, childhood sexual abuse, male rape, and
intimate partner violence, provides some important and relevant insights within which to position
this study. Indeed, studies have found that regardless of the sex of the perpetrator, gender norms
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