PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Rebecca Stewart
Telephone: 513-479-3335
Email: info@saveservices.org
CDC Says Men Are Half of All Victims of Sexual Violence. The Biden Sexual Assault Proclamation Omits That Fact.
WASHINGTON / April 5, 2021 – Last week, President Joe Biden issued a Proclamation on National Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Month. The proclamation emphasizes, “According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, done by the CDC, one in five women has been a victim of a completed or attempted rape at some point in her lifetime.” (1)
But according to the CDC, “Male victimization is [also] a significant public health problem,” with nearly one in four men experiencing some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetimes (2).
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reports that nearly identical numbers of men and women experience sexual violence. Each year, 1.92 million men are made to sexually penetrate, and 1.93 million women are victims of rape (3). In 82.6% of the “made to penetrate” cases, the perpetrator was a female (4).
A second study of 13,000 school children reported that three-quarters of boys who reported being sexually victimized said the person who violated them was another child. In a little more than half those assaults, the violator was a girl. Most boys who had been assaulted never told an adult (5).
A third study published by the American Psychological Association found that 43% of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience. In 95% of these cases, a female acquaintance was the aggressor (6).
UCLA researchers Lara Stemple and Ilan Meyer explain the word “rape” suggests the forcible genital penetration of women, which downplays the existence of sexual victimization of men. For this reason, it is necessary to use the term, “made to penetrate” in assessing levels of male victimization, Stemple and Meyer explain (7).
Earlier this year the Washington Post Magazine featured an article titled, “Sexual Assault Against Boys is a Crisis.” Author Emma Brown emphasized, “When we fail to recognize and address violence against boys, not only are we failing to protect boys, but we also may be stoking violence against women.” At the end of the article, Brown made a poignant admission: “Deep down, somewhere under my skin, I was holding on to some seriously wrongheaded assumptions — ideas so ingrained I did not even notice them, ideas that rendered boys as something less than human.” (8)
For reasons unknown, the Biden Sexual Assault Statement omits mention of sexual violence against men, even though this is one of the most important findings of the CDC survey. Persons should express their concerns to their elected officials at (202) 224-3121. Or make a comment directly to the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Links:
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/03/31/a-proclamation-on-national-sexual-assault-prevention-and-awareness-month-2021/
- https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/men-ipvsvandstalking.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6308.pdf Table 1, 12-Month section. Because of memory decay and selective recall, 12-Month numbers are more reliable than Lifetime numbers.
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6308.pdf Page 6.
- http://unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV365-Gewirtz-Meydan%20and%20Finkelhor%202019.pdf
- https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/03/coerced-sex
- https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2014.301946
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/02/22/why-we-dont-talk-about-sexual-violence-against-boys-why-we-should/