Letter to MP in response from a letter from the Minister of crime

prevention.

Dear Ben Bradshaw

I would like to thank you for forwarding me Norman Baker's
response to my letter about my concerns regarding the lack of
support for male victims of rape/sexual and domestic violence.

The CTS Reference is M3033/14
Your reference is C/Ind/ROB101046.

I would be very grateful if you could pass this letter on to Norman
Baker.

Norman Baker states that the Governent is committed to tackling
sexual offences, that every report of rape is treated seriously,
every victim is treated with dignity and every investigation to be
conducted thoroughly and professionally. I was just wondering if
this applies when investigating female teachers who sexually
abuse their male students. The reason I am asking is because I
don't find anything dignified or professional about a comment
made by a barrister stating her client was slightly immature and
who fell in love with the wrong man. Now as far as I am aware
anyone under the age of 18 is a child and so the"infatuated drama
teacher" Kelly Burgess didn't fall in love with the wrong man,She
abused her position of trust and that of her student. The case
stated she "had a fling" with the student and later "had sex with
him in a hotel room" This case which can be viewed
here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2598934/Infatuated-
woman-teacher-26-took-16-year-old-pupil-hotel-break-sex-
school-training-weekend.html highlights just how differently
female sex offenders and male victims are viewed by the media
but more importantly barristers. Would it be appropriate for a
barrister to have said that Jeremy Forrest fell in love with the
wrong woman? These young boys who are victims of child sexual
exploitation and abuse are made out to sound like they are in a
consensual loving relationship with their teacher. They have had
sex in hotel rooms, they have had flings, they had had affairs but
when it is a female victim they are groomed and raped. I can not
see therefore how the government is ensuring male victims are
treated with respect when their abuse is not even recognised as
their abusers gets a suspended sentence for falling in love with
the wrong man. This is absolutely disgraceful language to use
when you are talking about child sex abuse and if this language
had been used with Jeremy Forrests victim there would of been
total uproar with every womens rights charity creating a storm
over it. It seems a victim deserves to be treated with dignity but
only if they are female. If its a male victim the media and even
barristers down play what has happened and even go as far as
making ignorant observations and saying she had a fling.

Norman Baker also highlighted in 2011 the home office
committed 225k to support services that support male victims of
sexual and domestic violence over the next two years. He said 12
services had secured funding to offer dedicated and specialist
services for male victims. He was even helpful enough to provide
me with a link to such information. The
website https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/ending-
violence-against-women-and-girls-in-the-uk is absolutely
fantastic in highlighting the approaches the government are
making in tackling violence against women and girls. It highlights
the research being done in how best to tackle male violence
against women and girls. The new Clare's Law highlights how
women can check out the criminal record of a new partner and
what is being done about female genital mutilation. The
document is so informative I forgot I was actually looking at what
Norman Baker claimed to be information on dedicated and
specialised services for male victims. It took me a very long time
to find a very small paragraph amongst the pages aimed at
women to find a list of the 12 organisations that are funded to
help men. I guess what he means by specialist help is the fact
survivors UK are one of the 12 places funded to help men. This
was the only specialist service dedicated to male victims. The
other organisations have whole websites aimed at giving advice
and support to women and girls who have been raped or sexually
abused and victims of domestic violence. At best they say men
can be victims and they provide support - as specific as that. At
worst there is no mention of helping male victims so I guess men
are suppose to look at these feminist pages and think yes this will
be a good place to receive support. Then the womens aid charities
who are funded to help men may offer a outreach scheme to offer
emotional support but how many offer refuge space to men and
boys? It seems that the services that have been chosen to offer
specialised and dedicated support to men are services that firstly
prioritise women. Can Norman Baker actually give me a full
explanation as to why these charities were chosen to offer
specialist help to men as there are other charities that would of in
my opinion been in a better position to offer this. Survivors
Manchester, the blast project, Mens Aid, Men have rights too, the
ManKind initiative, Male Survivors South West all provide
dedicated and specialised support services to male victims and are
often run by male survivors. This to me would of been a more
suitable option then men having to make do with feminist
organisations who are simply trying their best to understand men
to can be victims, while prioritising women. The funding that was
ring fenced to offer specialist support should of gone to specialist
services that help men. Has any one actually checked what
support womens aid is providing to men? Or what support rape
crisis centres are offering to men as many don't help men?

Then Norman highlights that in 2013 Damien Green the Victims
Minister agreed to allocate 2million to support victims of sexual
and domestic violence. The government has committed 500,000
for the male rape fund which I agree goes some way in helping
the 72,000 male victims of sexual violence. Of course I am sure the
Ministry of Justice will agree with me when I say that this figure
can only be a estimate because like women many men don't
report their rape and abuse. This means that when you think
about it even though 500,000 goes some way in helping male
victims get the support they deserve it is only going to be
scratching at the surface. I fear what is going to happen is there is
going to be a post code lottery with some areas being relatively
equipped to dealing with male survivors and other areas not
being able to help at all. While most major towns and cities in the
UK have a rape crisis service that help women and most help girls
over a certain age, most do not help boys and men. These services
are the ones that got most of the additional funding. Only 25% of
the funding went to helping male victims. To make it fair it should
of been 50%. Yes statistically women and girls suffer from sexual
and domestic violence more so it would make sense there is more
support for women and girls but who knows the true extent of
male victims. A Bristol Police Officer commented recently saying
up to 90% of male victims didn't report their rapes. In a year
Bristol Constabulary investigated 73 male rapes. That could mean
in one city there is over 120 victims and so nationwide the statistic
could be way over the estimated 72,000. The 500,000 isn't going
to mean that every major city or town has a specialised service for
male victims For example in Cornwall the rape crisis service that
helps women and girls do not help men and boys. The Esteem
project that was the only service that supported male victims of
domestic and sexual violence lost its funding and closed down
this year. That actually means a whole county is without a service
for male victims or survivors of sexual and domestic violence. This
highlights just how much more funding is needed to ensure men
and boys receive the same support women and girls do. Esteem
was actually going to be opening a mans refuge, the only one in
the whole of the south west and now this fantastic opportunity to
help men and boys has gone - even with the 500,000. Cities like
Manchester will fair much better as they already have a dedicated
service for men. Still I guess it is the first time the government has
ever allocated money specifically for mens services and for now
they have to make it spread very thinly.

Norman Baker quite rightly highlighted I suggested there needs
to be a helpline for male victims. If my letter had been read
correctly he would of realised I meant for victims of domestic NOT
sexual violence. Women have access to a 24 hour helpline of
which they can ring for help and support and access to emergency
accommodation. I feel men should have the same. Men shouldn't
just have to put up with the very few helplines for men that run
between 9-5. It is recognised women need help at any time day
and night and this should also be the case for men. Norman has
highlighted there is a a helpline, Survivors that help and support
male victims of sexual violence. I guess given the fact there are at
least 72,000 male victims all potentially looking for support the
line must be very busy during the 7 hours a week it is open. Again
if a woman is looking for support there is the national rape crisis
help line that can be contacted every day from 12-2.30 and from
7-9.30. While women have a helpline offering support 5 hours
every day men have to make do with 7 hours a week. Again it is a
case of we can recognise women need to have access to support
but the support offered to men is very scarce.

Another website Norman Baker pointed out was
the http://thisisabuse.direct.gov.uk. Here I could find a whole array
of information about domestic violence in teen relationships and
about consent. Again as with all campaigns I was quite frankly
appalled to see that every video was about a teenage girl
suffering at the hands of a teenage boy. Not one video
highlighted that a boy could be a victim and a girl can be a
perpetrator. This is suppose to be an educational site discussing
healthy relationships. All I came away with was the opinion of
teenage girls deserve the right to a healthy relationship and if
they are being abused they are encouraged to seek help but no
mention of what boys can do. All this is doing is reinforcing the
stereotype of girl is victim and boy is perpetrator. This site in my
opinion would not encourage a teenage boy to come forward and
seek help and this is the case on a wider scale. All rape crisis
campaigns and police campaigns show a female victim. Few show
a male victim and I am yet to see one that highlights women can
rape - even if not legally woman can and do force men women
and children into sex. My very own story highlights
this http://everydayvictimblaming.com/submissions/why-is-my-
rape-not-acknowledged/#comments. Norman Baker states it is
important male victims feel able to come forward and report their
crimes and get support. He is absolutely correct. I am not sure
how the current campaigns are encouraging this. All they are
telling young boys is girls get abused by boys. The rape ones
simply tell men only women are raped. Social media has a huge
impact on society and in this case I fear it is having a negative
impact. These sexist websites do nothing but tell us boys and men
are not abused. I have read similar comments to some of the
videos and so I am not the only one who found the videos to be
sexist stereotypical and only of help if you are a girl.

So all in all Norman Bakers letter has not assured me the
government is working hard to support male victims of domestic
and sexual violence. All it has done is reinforced what I already
knew and that is the governments priority is women and girls but
to look like they are acting in a non discriminatory and gender
neutral way they throw in the odd helpline number for men and
boys. There is still no government policy aiming to end violence
against all, just violence against women and girls. The legal
definition of rape needs to be extended so that women who force
a person to have sex is also charged with rape. Rape is the only
crime that can't apply to both men and women. If a man or
woman kills someone they are both charged with murder. If they
rob a bank they are both charged with robbery but when a
woman forces someone to have sex she has her crime minimised
to sexual assault or assault by penetration. This suggests the
government and the legal system fails to recognise the damage
caused by women who quite frankly get away with rape. The letter
from Norman also highlighted that if men were looking for
support they have to read a whole array of information often on
sites which state the man is the abuser before they get to a
paragraph that will be of some use to them. This doesn't suggest
the government are working hard to support male victims it
suggests they don't really care. A crying shame because if I was to
have a son and daughter who were abused I would want them
both to be supported. I wouldn't want either to feel their
experience didn't matter. I would want them both taught about
healthy relationships. It seems my daughter would be taught no
means no and a boy should respect that. My son should also be
taught no means and a girl should respect that.

A long way to go I am afraid before I agree the government and
services are working hard to support victims - unless they are
female of course.

Michaela Robinson