Male survivors of abuse say they feel “ignored” by the Westminster government because crimes against them are being classified as “violence against women and girls”.
For the last 15 years, successive governments have grouped male victims of domestic abuse, rape, stalking and so-called honour-based violence into the same category as female victims, and charities are calling for change.
“Male victims can often feel ignored, negated because we’re not even listed and I just think there’s something about how important it is to be recognised, to be seen,” explained Duncan Craig OBE, founder of We Are Survivors.
“We know from the women and girls strategy how much difference it makes when somebody is seen. I and my fellow male survivors, we want to be seen.”
Recent research by the University of Central Lancashire found that 88% of male survivors believed the government does not care about them, 89% said the policy made it harder for them to get help and 90% were made to feel invisible.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said: “The term ‘violence against women and girls’ refers to acts of violence or abuse that we know disproportionately affect women and girls. Crimes and behaviour covered by this term include rape and other sexual offences, domestic abuse and stalking.
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“Men and boys can obviously be victims of those crimes as well, and many of the measures we have introduced apply equally to them too, including the launch of new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, the strengthening of anti-stalking powers and plans to embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms.”
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Rob Parkes, 45, from Milton Keynes, spent years in an abusive marriage with Victoria Breeden who was eventually convicted of three counts of soliciting his murder.
“She controlled a lot of my life, she changed my personality to such an extent where I was totally isolated from my friends, my family,” he told Sky News.
“After we separated and I managed to get custody of my daughter, things took a turn and over the following 10 years I came to understand that she had tried to arrange for my murder with various men who she had been involved with. She was eventually sentenced and served time in prison for that.”
The author, who has written a book about his ordeal, said that under the current system, his case would be classed as violence against women.
“The cultural bias is the assumption that men have to be perpetrators because there’s no classification of a male victim – it’s a footnote,” he added.
