Many men are survivors of sexual assault. The sexual assault and sexual abuse of men and boys is under-recognised in our society, even though prevalence rates indicate that 1 in 6 boys experience sexual assault before they are adults and 1 in 25 males are sexually assaulted over the age of 15.

In Australia an estimated 336,000 men (1 in 25 males) have experienced an incident of sexual assault since the age of 15 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013).

Research also indicates that in Australia 7.5% of males experience sexual assault as a child (Stoltenborgh, Ijzendoorn, Euser & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2011).

It can be very hard for a man to ask for help because of cultural expectations about manhood, fear of ridicule, and shame.

We encourage male survivors of child sexual assault, and adult men who have been raped or assaulted, to seek support and counselling services, to assist to lower the potential risk of the long term impacts of sexual assault trauma- including the impacts of living in isolation.

WHO ARE THE PERPETRATORS?

Men are usually sexually assaulted by other men. Cortoni, Hanson & Coache (2010) found that in Australia over 90% of sexual assaults are perpetrated by males.

Adult men can be sexually assaulted by women, but this is much less common and is probably even more under-reported than other assaults. Research has also only recently begun to explore females as perpetrators (Stathopoulos, 2014). Cortoni et al (2010) analysed official reports from five countries and found that on average across all countries 4.6% of sexual assaults were committed by women (Cortoni, Hanson, & Coache, 2010).