BY KYLE MCDANIEL
According to www.nsvrc.org/statistics, only 9 percent of rape and sexual assault victims are male, which is a telling fact. I read and hear all the time that women are afraid to speak up, but it is a hundred times worse for males, because males look at sex differently.
If I reported that I was raped, my friends would be laughing hysterically. They would say things like, “Dude, you got to have sex with a woman, why you complaining?” but if you didn’t want to and they forced you into it, that is sexual assault.
The definition of sexual assault according to criminal.findlaw.com, is any crime in which the offender subjects the victim to sexual touching that is unwanted and offensive.
It doesn’t help that a lot of the crime shows on networks like Investigation Discovery only really cover the topic of sexual assault when it comes to females. Portraying almost all the perpetrators as male. Shows like “Obsession: Dark Desires,” “Stalked Someone’s Watching” and “Surviving Evil” are virtually all about females. From a combined 95 episodes from the three shows, only nine were about male victims. The network plays reruns of episodes from these shows all the time, with new seasons coming generally once a year.
Now getting to the main point, no one wants to report the assault or rape for fear of retaliation and embarrassment. Overall, 63 percent of rapes and sexual assaults aren’t reported period, making it the most under-reported crime, according to www.nsvrc.org/statistics. A reason why it is grossly under-reported, is because about 50 percent of rapes for men and women, are perpetrated by intimate partners and acquaintances, according to www.nsvrc.org/statistics. This could make the victim extremely fearful of what could happen if they speak up.
Yes men are generally bigger and stronger, which could help them when it comes to an attempted rape. However when 11 percent of cases involved a weapon according to www.rainn.org, that could be a problem. The same site also states that 90 percent of sexual assaults are committed by one offender, which again could favor the males.
Even with all these statistics, mostly favoring women, men could still be raped or sexually assaulted. It doesn’t just have to be woman on male crime, it could even be male on male
The one major problem that’s tough to prevent is a child sexual abuse. Only 12 percent of child sex abuse is reported, which is startling when 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18, www.nsvrc.org/statistics states. Again though statistics don’t favor the males, as 96 percent of those who sexually assault children are male, while 34 percent are a family member.
If we can start teaching the children about speaking up, if someone is touching them inappropriately maybe we can stem the tide a little bit more.
No matter what it was or how scared you are, everyone needs to speak up if you felt taken advantage of. People will help you anyway they can.
I just want males to feel that they can speak up if they feel they were taken advantage of. Don’t worry about how you will look with your friends, if they are truly friends they will support you. It’s getting to this point in society where you can speak up, if you feel something is wrong.
Plus don’t feel bad if you turn someone in, they’ll most likely be out before 10 years, due to overcrowding!