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The letters continue: Erasure, misrepresentation and Orwellian doublespeak

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Last week insideMAN joined 30 other equalities advocates in a joint open letter criticising the Crown Prosecution Service for a report that deliberately erased thousands of male victims of crimes such as rape and domestic violence.

Our letter called on “the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders and all public bodies to affirm their commitment to addressing and eliminating intimate violence against human beings of any gender”. A reasonable enough request, you would think.

Just days later, however, a collection of leading women’s organisations, including the influential Fawcett Society, published their own joint letter condemning ours for veering from the narrative that when it comes to sexual violence, men must first and foremost be seen as privileged abusers.

Here we have re-published the response to their letter written by one of our own signatories Ally Fogg, which first appeared on his Freethought blog here.

*****

To the signatories of the letter Gender is all too relevant in violence statistics.

First let me thank you for the opportunity to continue this important conversation. It is clear your letter in the Guardian today is a reaction to the one signed by myself and 30 others last week, however it would be wrong to call it a response, as you do not appear to have addressed or even understood any of the issues our letter raised, preferring to criticise us on a variety of points which our letter simply did not make.

Allow me to be more specific:

‘Your correspondents call on the director of public prosecutions to “affirm [her] commitment to eliminating intimate violence against human beings of any gender” and criticise the Crown Prosecution Service’s presentation of statistics in its annual violence against women and girls report for being so explicitly gendered (Letters, 2 July).’

We did not criticise the CPS report for being so explicitly gendered. We would expect a report entitled “Violence Against Women and Girls, crime report” to be explicitly gendered. Nor did we condemn the CPS for producing a report with that subject and title.

We criticised the CPS report for being dishonest and misleading in including crimes against at least 13,154 (known) boys and men in a report entitled ‘Violence Against Women and Girls’ while going to some lengths to entirely obscure the experiences of male victims.

‘It is established fact that these crimes are massively disproportionately committed against women and girls (female genital mutilation exclusively so) and that they are related to women’s broader inequality with men. Your correspondents claim without citation that “one in six of all victims” are male. This is disputed, and certainly does not apply equally to all the forms of abuse in the CPS report.’

The figure of 1 in 6 did not require citation as it comes from the CPS report itself and the accompanying data tables. Where gender was recorded, 16% of victims of the crimes described in the report were men and boys. This is most certainly not disputed, the statistics are in Table 8 of the performance information here.

‘Furthermore, it is also critical that we retain gender in our naming and analysis of these crimes because of the gender of the perpetrators, whom your correspondents do not mention at all.’

We did not mention it because we had no dispute with how the CPS report covered the gender of the perpetrators. The report explained quite clearly that around 94% of offenders of these crimes within the criminal justice system were male and 6% female. We accept this, and had no reason to raise it in our letter.

‘In searching for recognition and then for justice and support for male survivors of abuse, it is a grave mistake to suggest taking gender out of the naming and analysis, and neutralising these crimes into Orwellian “intimate abuse”. A failure to name and call out the abuse of power in these crimes is what kept them invisible for so long.’

At no point in our letter did we suggest taking gender out of the analysis. On the contrary, we clearly expressed that male victims have their own gender-specific issues, such as those relating to social expectations of a ‘real man.’ Nor are gender issues neutralised by the phrase ‘intimate abuse’ or ‘intimate violence’ – this term has always been used by many public bodies including the Office of National Statistics, to describe crimes such as domestic violence and abuse – for example, see here, the chapter “Intimate Personal Violence and Serious Sexual Assault.”

You describe this phrase as “Orwellian.” I would suggest what is truly Orwellian is for the experiences of many thousands of violated men and boys to be described with the phrase ‘violence against women and girls.’ War is peace; freedom is slavery; boys are girls. What is truly Orwellian is for the CPS to highlight the conviction of Fr Francis Paul Cullen as an example of their success in prosecuting crimes against women and girls, when the large majority of his victims were boys, and for the gender of those victims to be entirely “taken out of the analysis” by descriptions of his victims only in gender-neutral terms as “young people.”

I would add that it is this type of erasure of male victims – even when the statistics and facts are right before our eyes – which has done so much to keep those crimes invisible for so long, a tragedy which your letter appears to strive to continue.

I do not speak today on behalf of the other signatories to our letter, only for myself, but I for one do not believe in taking gender out of the analysis of sexual and intimate offences. I believe gender issues are crucial to understanding why so many such crimes occur, and what kind of support is needed by victims. What I cannot accept is a cruel and misleading approach which focusses entirely on the gender of victims when they are women and girls and entirely ignores and erases gender when the victims are men and boys, or worse, when the experiences of those men and boys are subsumed into descriptions of violence against women and girls.

I finish on a note of genuine sadness. In our own letter we were very careful to honestly declare our full commitment to supporting all efforts to end violence against women and girls. Many of the signatories to our letter work with female survivors alongside men and boys, and are only too aware of the issues. But even though your response begins by noting our call for the CPS and other bodies to affirm their commitment to recognising and supporting male victims of intimate violence and abuse, in your response you could not even bring yourselves to offer a single equivalent word of support or compassion for the countless thousands of men and boys who are raped, abused, beaten and molested every year. I would add that, despite contacting them directly, we have as yet had no contact from the CPS or any other body that so much as acknowledges the existence of male victims, far less affirming support for their needs.

The male victims I know and support, and those engaged professionally by many of my co-signatories, often report feeling worthless and ignored, as if no one cares about what happened to them in the past or what will happen to them now and in the future. How tragic that your letter may well serve to confirm their darkest suspicions.

To read more of Ally Fogg’s powerful writing on gender issues visit his blog here

insideMAN signs open letter castigating CPS for “misleading and damaging” report that airbrushes out male victims

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In a letter published today in the Guardian newspaper, 30 of Britain’s leading experts in abuse recovery, child protection and men’s health have called upon Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders and other public bodies to reaffirm commitment to addressing and supporting the needs of all victims of intimate and sexual violence.

The letter explains how last week’s CPS report entitled ‘Violence against Women and Girls, Crime Report 2014-15’ seriously misled the public by counting male victims of intimate crimes including rape, sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence as victims of crimes against women and girls. As the accompanying data section made clear (but the text of the report did not) crimes against more than 13,000 men and boys were included in the statistics, equivalent to around one in six of all victims described.

It goes on to say:

Your article (More people than ever being convicted of violence against women, figures show, The Guardian, 25 June) was inaccurate and damaging. It is simply untrue to say, “about 107,100 cases concerning violence against women and girls were prosecuted over the [past] 12 months.”

Responsibility for this error, however, lies not with your staff but with the Crown Prosecution Service and their report, misleadingly entitled ‘Violence Against Women And Girls, Crime Report 2014-15.’

Despite the title, this analysis included more than 13,000 male victims of crimes including rape, sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence. Many will have been gay or transgender, many will have had their children or dependents affected.

Designating these men and boys as victims of crimes “against women and girls” not only misleads the public about the complex and diverse dynamics of abuse, but also serves to conceal and marginalise the experiences of all male survivors of intimate and sexual crimes while perpetuating the myth that “real men” don’t get raped, abused or become victims of domestic violence.

Victims of intimate violence face significant psychological barriers to reporting these events. Some fear they will not be believed, or even cast as the perpetrator. Those who find the courage to report their abuse to the authorities often say they are motivated less by the need for justice or revenge but for validation that what happened to them was real and was wrong.

Many men tell us  that the experience of intimate violation has left them feeling like ‘less than a man’ making interaction with authorities even more complex and challenging. For those same authorities to publicly disregard this and erase the experiences of around one in six of all victims is unjust and a cruel betrayal of their bravery.

We fully support drives to eliminate intimate and sexual violence and understand that focussing on female victims is central to this. It is also essential that we retain due consideration for male victims of these crimes. We call on the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders and all public bodies to affirm their commitment to addressing and eliminating intimate violence against human beings of any gender and to take care in future not to compromise the dignity and public understanding of any survivors.

Yours etc.

Ally Fogg, Writer and journalist
Michael May, Director, Survivors UK
Duncan Craig, CEO, Survivors Manchester
Jane Powell, CEO, CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably
Mark Brooks, Chair, The Mankind Initiative
Nick Smithers, National Development Officer, Abused Men in Scotland
Bob Balfour, Founder, Survivors West Yorkshire
Prof. Damien Ridge, Professor of Health Studies, University of Westminster
Dr John Barry, UCL Medical School
Dr Nicola Graham-Kevan, Reader in Psychology, University of Central Lancashire
Dr Mike Hartill, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport, Edge Hill University
Dr Ben Hine, Lecturer in Psychology, University of West London
Dr Melanie Lang, Senior Lecturer in Child Protection in Sport, Edge Hill University
Dr Michelle Lowe, Lecturer in criminological and forensic psychology, University of Bolton
Dr Luke Sullivan, Clinical Psychologist and Director of Men’s Minds Matter
Anthony Murphy, Lecturer in Psychology, University of West London
Dan Bell, Features Editor, insideMan magazine
Martin Daubney, Journalist, broadcaster and committee member, Being A Man Festival
Brian Dempsey, Lecturer, School of Law, University of Dundee
Richard Duncker, Founder, Men Do Complain
Alex Feis-Bryce, Director of Services, National Ugly Mugs
Justin Gaffney, CEO, MSH Health & Wellbeing
Glen Poole, UK Coordinator, International Men’s Day
Shane Ryan, CEO, Working With Men
Martin Seager, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Mark Sparrow, Journalist
Simone Spray, CEO, 42nd Street
Gijsbert Stoet, Reader in Psychology, University of Glasgow
Martyn Terry Sullivan, CEO, Mankind Counselling
Tina Threadgold, Trustee, UKNSWP

 

‘Yes means yes’ doesn’t mean men accused of rape are now guilty until proven innocent

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If the headlines were to be believed, the sudden announcement last week of new “yes means yes” guidelines in rape prosecutions, reversed the presumption of innocence before guilt in rape trials and with it one of the corner stones of British criminal justice. But that is not actually what the guidelines say, writes Ally Fogg  in an exclusive analysis of the new rules for insideMAN.

This week Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, announced that a new toolkit of rape investigation procedures is to be sent to police officers. The reaction from men around my digital neighbourhood on social media, comment threads and forums was pretty fierce – abusively angry at worst and concerned or worried at best.

The negative reactions were understandable, given the headlines. They were also misplaced. The proposals announced are I believe modest and necessary, they are also genuinely helpful not only to women and  girls, but to men and boys.

What the new guidelines say

First, the facts. Despite what you might have (reasonably) taken from some of the headlines, it is not true that those accused of rape must now produce proof that they had consent in order to defend themselves. Read through to the actual words of the DPP and what she said was:

“We want police and prosecutors to make sure they ask in every case where consent is the issue – how did the suspect know the complainant was saying yes and doing so freely and knowingly?”

If there is a scandal here, it is not that police investigators will be expected to ask such questions from now on – the scandal is that they might ever not have asked such a question in the past.

Similarly, it is not true that every drunken hookup will from now on involve a male rapist and a female victim. Again, in Saunders’ words: “it is a crime for a rapist to target someone who is no longer capable of consenting to sex though drink.”

Most importantly of all, it is most definitely not the case that the burden of proof in rape cases has now been reversed, that an accused man is now legally guilty until proven innocent. The guidance under discussion could not be more clear:

“In investigating the suspect, it must be established what steps, if any, the suspect took to obtain the complainant’s consent and the prosecution must prove that the suspect did not have a reasonable belief that the complainant was consenting.”

In other words the law is exactly as it stands. In order to obtain a conviction, the prosecution must prove that the suspect did not have a reasonable belief that the complainant was consenting. How could the prosecution prove such a case? That will continue to be very difficult.

Not changing the law, but clarifying it

Many or most cases will continue to pivot on a case of he said/ she said, and someone will still need to be found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The truly guilty will continue to lie through their teeth, the brave victim will continue to be put through an ordeal, as will the accused innocent. Police will still have to consider the possibility that an allegation is mistaken, misguided or malicious, and as ever, some will be so. Not much has changed.

The new guidelines do not change to law, but they do clarify it, to everyone’s benefit. I hold it as an article of faith that most men are not rapists and do not want to be rapists. The law says that there is only one way to be sure you are not a rapist and that is to make absolutely sure you have your partner’s consent to penetrative sex. The question that the police are now being told to put to rape suspects is no more or less than the question every one of us should ask ourselves at any time sexual consent is in doubt. If I  cannot answer that question there and then, forget the police, I might be about to rape someone, and that is a far, far more important consideration.

A significant milestone for sexual consent

So the new guidelines will probably have a material influence on a tiny handful of the tens of thousands of rape reports filed each year, if that.  Nonetheless they mark a significant milestone in how British society considers sexual consent. In the jargon, it has pushed us closer to a definition of consent which stands at yes means yes, rather than no means no.

One of the less-observed elements to a yes-means-yes model, is how valuable it could be for male victims of sexual violence. One of the myths of male-on-male rape is that it is primarily committed by gay men against straight men. In truth the male victims of rape are  disproportionately gay or bisexual, and often their attackers identify as straight.  One feature that emerges commonly from case studies is victims saying “he told me I must want it because I’m gay.”

Underpinning that (homophobic) prejudice is a related myth, that men are – if you’ll pardon the expression – up for it at any time. Recent years have seen a slight but growing recognition of the extent and harmful consequences of the sexual abuse of underage boys by women and even sexual assaults upon adult men – an issue which leapt into mainstream debate with the recent case involving actor Shia Laboeuf. It seems likely that many of the women committing such serious assaults do not think of themselves as sexual abusers or even rapists. They have been raised with the belief that men are insatiable animals who will never say no to anyone, allied to the pernicious though pervasive lie that an erection equals consent.

The right thing to do.

it might well be the case that male victims are far from the thoughts of Alison Saunders or most campaigners for affirmative consent. As so often in these respects, male victims tend to he thrown in as an afterthought, if at all. However the laws and the policies are gender neutral, and if there is a problem with the authorities disregarding male victims, that is not helped by the rest of us doing the same. .

Will a more affirmative model of sexual consent prevent the rape at abuse of men and boys, of women and girls? Not alone, not overnight, no it won’t. However some small but profound shifts in our sexual mores, our expectations, our habits, our rituals could perhaps make a significant difference in the long term.

Even if that is ambitious, as the father of two boys I am happy to help teach them how sexual consent should be both offered and understood, explaining you should never do anything intimate with anyone unless you are absolutely sure it is what you both want. I will tell them that, not because it is what the law demands, but because it is the right thing to do.

Photo: StockMonkeys.com

Ally Fogg is one of the UK’s leading media commentators on men’s issues. You can follow his writing on gender at freethought blogs and find him writing in various publications especially The Guardian. He’s also a regular tweeter@AllyFogg

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10 Great British writers on men’s issues you should read keep an eye on in 2015

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As Christmas approaches and 2014 draws to a close, our news editor Glen Poole lists some of his favourite writers on UK men’s issues.

As I drew up this list I was struck at how vibrant the conversation about men’s issues has become in the past year. This is partly because of the growth of online media like the wonderful insideMAN (of course); partly because more people who have been around the men’s movement for years are taking time to publish their thinking and partly because there are (I think), more people than ever before engaged in conversations by, for and about men in the UK and worldwide.

This is good news and I for one would love to see this list of writers growing exponentially in 2015. If we are to tackle the many different issues affecting men and boys  then it is vital that we build a critical mass of people who are informed about men’s issues and engaged in conversations that make a difference.

If you don’t write yourself, you can still play your part by reading, commenting on and sharing what these writers have to say. You could also become a writer yourself in 2015 and share your thinking with the world. If you have an idea for an article then why not get in touch with insideMAN? Make it your resolution for next year.

Also,  if there are people writing about men’s issues that you admire and think we should be aware of do please let us know in the comments section.

Enough of the preamble. Here, in no particular order, is my list of favourite UK men’s issues writers from 2014:

1. Ally Fogg

If you don’t know him yet, Ally Fogg is a left-wing social commentator who has carved a regular slot for himself at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free section where he has become their “go to guy” for men’s issues. While he writes on various subjects, his dedication to the gender conversation is such that he blogs regularly on the subject at Freethought Blogs where a lively debate is guaranteed under each article. I admire Ally for his rigour in digging through research and statistics that others don’t bother with and for  attempting to view each argument on its merits rather that from a position of ideological prejudice—and he’s a lefty so you can generally rely on him to see the world from a “patriarchy hurts men too” perspective.

Classic Ally Fogg article: The five little words that betrayed Emma Watson 

2. Neil Lyndon

2014 has seen the welcome return of Neil Lyndon to the “men’s issues” debate with regular contributions at Telegraph Men. Neil was one of the first men to dare to put forward the radical idea that men and boys, as a gender, experience sexism, discrimination and inequality. This simple idea is still as radical today as it was over 20 years ago when he first published his seminal work on men women, No More Sex War. He is older, perhaps more socially conservative than Fogg and while he is more connected to men’s issues on a personal level seems to have less understanding of how social policy on gender is practically delivered. However, he is no ranting, irrational misogynist; he is a rigorous and intellectual commentator whose writings provide a vital, counter-cultural viewpoint from the frontline of gender politics.

Classic Neil Lyndon article: Abortion: why aren’t men allowed a say? 

3. Duncan Fisher

I’ve know Duncan longer than anyone on this list as he commissioned my first ever article about “men’s issues” nearly 15 years ago, for  a website called Fathers Direct (a project that became the Fatherhood Institute). Duncan is the most pro-feminist man on this list. He believes that men’s equal participation in parenting is key to delivering equality for women, but rather than taking the finger wagging “why don’t men pull their weight” approach, he proudly advocates for the benefits of involved parenthood and highlights the barriers that prevent men from having an equal opportunity to be an involved parent. I find Duncan’s “Mums and Dads Net” facebook page a useful source of articles I wouldn’t otherwise find and have to commend him for producing the most popular insideMAN article of 2014—four reasons feminism is alienating teenage boys.

Classic Duncan Fisher article: “Do men do their fare share of housework?” This is a sexist statement.

4. Chris  Good 

In contrast to the old hands like Fisher, Fogg and Lyndon; Chris Good is a newcomer who’s made his mark in the past few months. At the risk of sounding like Louis Walsh on the X-Factor—he reminds me of a young Neil Lyndon. He seems raw from  personal experience and driven to make sense of the debate around gender and find a way to make it work for both men and women (as demonstrated by the name of his blog is All For Equality). Chris has taken a stand against the feminist narrative around gender and writes in an open, vulnerable and honest way as a man who seems to be evolving and defining his own gender politics as he writes. He gained some notoriety this year by having his articles removed from the newly formed Huffington Post Men, but more interesting than this incident is the intelligent way he responded to it (see classic Good below):

Classic Chris Good vlog: Feminism has the power to silence opposition in the media

5. Martin Daubney 

Just like Chris Good, Martin Daubney has the sense of a writer who’s developing his gender politics and working out his perspective with each new article. Like Chris, he’s critical of feminism, but not coming from an entrenched anti-feminist perspective, rather questioning feminist perspectives on gender and inviting discussion and debate. Daubney has the additional advantage of a having an existing track record as a journalist and editor as the longest serving editor of Loaded magazine. He has been writing on men’s issues at Telegraph Men throughout 2014.

Classic Martin Daubney article: Why men have a problem with the word feminism 

6. Dan Bell

Dan’s my partner in crime at insideMAN and has been pushing mainstream media outlets to talk about men’s issues as a journalist for several years now, having worked for both BBC and ITN online (amongst others). Dan’s writing is rooted in journalistic integrity and you can rely on him to bring rigour and balance to his writing about men’s issues as his investigative work into funding for men’s health initiatives revealed in 2012. However, the writing I most enjoy from Dan happens when he puts himself into the story whether that’s visiting a military rehabilitation centre, recalling a fight between two women or reflecting on a conversation about boys between mothers on  a London bus.

Classic Dan Bell article: Why Kitchener’s finger gives me the arsehole

7. Karen Woodall 

The only woman on this list and deservedly so. Karen works on the frontline with men and women who are alienated from their children after separation is groundbreaking. She’s had her mind on the challenges of gender inequality for years and after decades of approaching life as a proud feminist, she is now a born again anti feminist. I don’t listen too carefully to her passionate anti-feminist tirades—like a scorned lover I know she only has bad things to say about feminism—but her writing about the reality of working with men and women and children on the frontline of family breakdown is peerless. The world needs more Karen Woodalls! If you want to take an in depth journey into gender politics of social policy in 2015, start reading Karen’s blog on a regular basis.

Classic Karen Woodall article: Gas-lighting masculinity: the dimming of post-separation fatherhood

8. John Adams

It’s great to see the growing number of UK daddy bloggers who are taking time to record their experiences of fatherhood—many of whom you can see featured at Love All Dads. My personal favourites are those who can step back and see their experience within the context of broader gender politics. A great example is John Adams who can go from writing articles about baby changing facilities and men’s fashion ranges to interviewing Nick Clegg or an SNP representative on Scotland’s Equal Opportunities Committee. You can follow John on at Dad Blog UK.

Classic John Adams article: Discussing family friendly, flexible working with Nick Clegg 

9. Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos is a controversial journalist and entrepreneur who appears to have been drawn into the gender debate via his interest in technology. He is writing a book on GamerGate which in his words “represents a brutal clash of worlds: put-upon, basement-dwelling nerds and the bloggers and feminists who have for years been claiming that video games are hateful, misogynistic and should be censored”. As a highly intelligent, provocative and influential writer (currently writing at Breitbart and Business Insider) he has recently positioned himself as a fearsome defender of men who feel unfairly attacked by feminism. Whether he continues to write on “men’s issues” in 2015 remains to be seen.

Classic Milo Yiannopoulos article: What is ‘manspreading’ and why are people angry about it?

10. Glen Poole

I know, I know it’s highly self-congratulatory to list yourself as one of your own favourite writers (and definitely weird to refer to yourself in the third person) but I love writing about men’s issues and I do enjoy looking back on my articles from time to time, so stuff it, I’m including myself in this list. If you want to take a look at what I’ve been up to this year, you’ll find much of it here at insideMAN; my Guardian and Telegraph articles are bookmarked over at Journalisted and then there’s one article at Huffington Post Men that I may add to in the coming year.

Classic Glen Poole article: It’s International Men’s Day so let’s give men a break 

A FEW OTHER WRITERS AND WEBSITES WORTH KEEPING AN EYE ON

—Photo Credit: flickr/Jimmy Brown

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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Yes, we do need to speak about male violence

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Guardian columnist Ally Fogg says that if we want to make a difference for men and boys, we can’t evade the fact that most serious violence is committed by men.

—This is article #70 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys 

There is an exchange that plays out in the media on pretty much a daily basis. The moves have become so familiar we can see them performed almost as a ritual dance. In the aftermath of some tragic, violent incident – whether a mass shooting, a domestic homicide or a shocking sexual assault – a commentator with liberal or feminist leanings will describe the incident as an example of ‘male violence’ and, therefore, not just an isolated incident but part of a systematic pattern involving hundreds, thousands, millions of related incidents across the world each day.

There follows a storm of comments, social media updates and blogs as detractors – primarily but not exclusively male – throw up their digitised hands in horror and disgust. This is nothing to do with me! I’ve never killed anyone! Why are you blaming an entire gender for the crime of an individual?

The defensive reactions may be understandable, but are largely based on a misunderstanding. Saying that men have a problem with violence does not mean that all men are violent, any more than saying Britain has a problem with obesity means that all Britons are fat. In both examples, it means the phenomenon causes immense social harm and individual suffering, and occurs at levels far above those we should be willing to tolerate in a civilised society.

What about female perpetrators?  

Yes, women can also be violent, especially towards intimate partners and family members. However in recent years the men’s sector as a whole (and I include myself in that) has often become so fixated on demonstrating and documenting the extent of male victimisation at the hands of women that we may have lost sight of the bigger picture.

According to the UN’s estimates, there were more than 450,000 homicides globally last year. Not only were 95% of the killers male, so too were 80% of the victims. In England and Wales, 800,000 adult men were injured in a violent attack in 2013 and around three quarters of perpetrators were not their female partners, but other men. On the other side of the coin, around 37,000 men are in prison today as a consequence of their own violent behaviour. To deny or turn our eyes from the extent of men’s violence is to turn our backs on one of the most pressing and severe social and health issues facing men and boys across the world today.

Only once we acknowledge the scale of men’s violence can we begin to ask why it occurs. I suspect many people are uncomfortable with the suggestion that there is something inherently violent to masculinity. What we might instead call ‘male culture’ colours our attitudes to work and to leisure, to lifestyles and relationships, even to how we communicate and interact. That culture has too often included attitudes towards violence that are directly implicated in too much death and injury.

Are men conditioned to be violent? 

How many of us grew up believing that to be a man demanded that we be ‘tough’ and ‘hard,’ or in other words to be willing to endure and inflict violence? Such traits don’t always come easy, and too many boys still have them literally beaten into us by peers or, tragically, parents and other adults. Research has consistently shown that where formal or informal physical punishment is used, boys are beaten more regularly and more forcefully than girls.

At the same time, psychologists have long known the rough recipe for a violent adult. According to one study by Murray Straus, a child who grows up in a family where the adults are violent to each other is almost three times as likely to display violent behaviour as others. Another study found that a child subjected to physical abuse who also witnesses violent behaviour at first hand is between five and nine times as likely to become an abusive adult. It is true that not all violent adults lived through an especially violent childhood, and absolutely vital to understand that many, many people who experienced violence and abuse in childhood will never harm anyone in turn. Neither fact, however, should obscure the truth that violent adults – by which we most commonly mean violent men – are not born, they are made.

Nor does male violence exist in isolation from other male-specific issues. Only once we acknowledge and face up to the reality of male violence can we begin to unpick the complex relationship between men’s emotional isolation and unaddressed mental health needs, our tendency to self-medicate or escape into excessive alcohol and drug use and from there, the intimate link between intoxication and violent behaviour.

No I am not being anti-male 

It is not anti-man or misandrist to acknowledge that our society brutalises men and boys to a sufficient degree that some will become brutes. On the contrary, I would argue the misandrist position is to claim that men’s violence is an inescapable law of nature, some relic of evolution or neurobiology. Testosterone does not breed violence, violence breeds violence, and the evidence, I am happy to say, is all around us. Current levels of violent crime remain distressing, but are a fraction of what they were 20 years ago. The vast majority of men are not violent and the numbers who are get smaller all the time.

As mentioned above, 800,000 men were wounded in violent attacks last year, but the same statistic in 1994/5 was 2.4 million. Domestic violence, as estimated by the Crime Survey of England and Wales, has dropped 78% over the same time frame. The same story is playing out across the developed world. Nor is it just the effect of increased prison populations keeping violent offenders out of harm’s way. The number of children and young people entering the criminal justice system (ie being caught for the first time) is at its lowest since records began. Meanwhile the fastest growing section of the prison population over the past few years has been the over 65s.

The explanations for this phenomenal social change are hotly debated by criminologists but one thing is for sure, male biology has not evolved in a couple of decades. It is likely there are a variety of social and even environmental factors involved, I would suggest that it is no coincidence that the least violent generation of young men in living memory is the first to have been raised in the era of the rights of the child, in schools and homes that have increasingly eschewed violent punishments, with anti-bullying policies and where the social acceptability of violence of all sorts has been challenged and rejected as never before.

There is little doubt that men today are less violent, less aggressive, less militaristic than we have been at any time in living memory but there is still a long way to go. The journey will be driven not just by policy and politics but by the desire of all women, children and men to live in a safer, more peaceful world and the principal beneficiaries will be men ourselves.

—Picture credit: striatic

Ally Fogg is one of the UK’s leading media commentators on men’s issues. You can follow his writing on gender at freethought blogs and find him writing in various publications especially The Guardian. He’s also a regular tweeter @AllyFogg

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

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Is sexism to blame for the number of men in prison?

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The number of men in prison should be radically reduced says a British Academy team backed by former Lord Chief Justice writes Glen Poole.

The number of male prisoners in the UK has nearly doubled in 20 years, but the majority should not be in prison according to a new report from experts at the British Academy.

The report argues that the majority of men in prison “face challenges or disadvantages of one form or another or have suffered a troubled upbringing” and should be transferred from prison into treatment and rehabilitation facilities, or given non-custodial sentences .

In particular, men with mental disorders, learning difficulties or suffering from drug or alcohol addiction, should not be in prison, say the report’s authors who are backed by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales.

What the report doesn’t address is that while the concept of removing female offenders with “particular vulnerabilities” from the prison system has become a mainstream idea, our sexist assumptions that “real men aren’t vulnerable”, leaves us collectively incapable of viewing male prisoners as being vulnerable and needing an alternative to imprisonment.

The vulnerability of male prisoners

According to the British Academy report, the particular vulnerabilities that male prisoners experience include the following:

  • 68% of prisoners were not in paid employment prior to being imprisoned
  • 59% of young offenders have learning difficulties or borderline learning difficulties
  • 55% of prisoners commit crimes connected to their drug taking
  • 47% of prisoners have no educational qualifications
  • 41% of male prisoners were permanently excluded from school
  • 27% of men in prison are victims of child abuse
  • 24% of men in prison were removed from their families and spent time in care
  • 21% are from an ethnic minority (compared to 10% of the general population)
  • 18% of men in prison have a physical disability
  • 15% of male prisoners were homeless prior to being imprisoned
  • 12% of imprisoned men are black (compared with 3% of the general population)

From a moral perspective, the report’s authors say that the way we treat men who commit crimes should reflect the fundamental values of our society. They argue that the number of men imprisoned is excessive and fosters and institutionalizes social fragmentation along the lines of age, race, disability and of course gender.

Lack of opportunities for men

Criminal behaviour, they claim, is not simply the result of “faulty reasoning on the part of offenders” but a social problem shaped by the “educational, employment and social opportunities that society affords” men. For men who are economically excluded, they argue, “there is humiliation and disrespect, along with the sense of alienation which comes with relative deprivation in a world that prizes material success and purports to offer equal opportunity”. These men’s “identities are fragile rather than fixed or grounded [and] solutions to these conditions are found in…hyper-masculinity…and crime,” says the report.

With the cost of imprisoning men in England & Wales rising from around £1.5 billion to £3 billion in the past 20 years, the team of academics argue that the case for reducing the male prison population could reduce the financial cost to the public purse. They also stress that the state has a responsibility to keep the public safe, but claim that the majority of men do not pose a serious threat to society.

“In some cases sending a person to prison will be the most appropriate response to, and punishment for, the crimes that they have committed,” says the report. “But…this is not true in the majority of cases…… we should presume that in the majority of cases a custodial sentence will not be appropriate”.

Most male prisoners have mental disorders

The report’s authors are particularly concerned that mentally disordered offenders should be removed from prison through investment and transfer to more appropriate facilities, treatment and rehabilitation. According to the Prison Reform Trust, 72% of men in prison suffer from two or more mental disorders.

One of the biggest barriers to introducing the reforms proposed in the report is the fact the vast majority of prisoners are men. According to The Guardian columnist, Ally Fogg:

“Since the Corston report of 2007, there has been a persistent focus on reform of women’s sentencing from charities, campaigners and politicians of all parties. This gives a strong message that female offenders are special, to be pitied and understood. Male prisoners, by implication, are creators of their own ill-fortune.”

As the academics behind the British Academy report observe, it is all too tempting to subject offenders to look term stigma and exclusion. This is particularly the case when the offender is a man.

There is much to recommend this report. If it only focused on female prisoners, I’d be confident that its ideas and analysis would be broadly welcomed and put into practice. However, because of the sexist nature of our beliefs and our greater collective tolerance of the harm that happens to men and boys, it seems unlikely that we’ll be seeing the male prison population significantly reduced anytime soon.

To read the full report see: A Presumption Against Imprisonment: Social Order and Social Values

Tell us what you think. Is sexism at play in the treatment of male offenders and prisoners? Are we more open to acknowledging the vulnerabilities of female offenders when compared to male offenders? Should we be doing more to take male prisoners with specific challenges and disadvantages out of the prison system? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.

—Photo Credit: flickr/msakr 

Written by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men