Barriers to Help-Seeking Behaviour for Male Victims of Sexual Violence
Barriers to Help-Seeking Behaviour for Male Victims of Sexual Violence
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Issue Date
2024-10-02
Authors
Helfrich, Ty
Journal Title
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Abstract
The research towards male victims of sexual violence is increasing. However, not many studies examine specifically the barriers present that prevent male victims of sexual violence from engaging in help seeking behaviour. Through a search of relevant of articles in PsychINFO and Google Scholar, I conducted a literature review of cisgender and transgender male sexual assault, with emphasis on barriers to help-seeking and how to overcome these barriers. Barriers exist for male victims of sexual violence, negatively impacting men’s willingness to access support. Shame and embarrassment regarding the assault negatively impact men’s willingness to seek help. Men fear how others will respond to their disclosure of sexual violence. Furthermore, masculine norms in society negatively impact men’s willingness by positing that they should not express their emotions and should be able to protect themselves from sexual violence. Lastly, the logistics of accessing resources serves as a barrier. Services are quite rare for male victims and often when they are available, they either are too costly or have too high of waiting lists. To overcome some of these barriers for men, it is imperative that there is an increase in advertising of services. The desire for peer support services by victims is noted by the research, highlighting the desire of men to talk to other men who have experienced the same trauma. By overcoming barriers to help-seeking, we can shed more light on male sexual violence.
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Keywords
barriers , help-seeking , male sexual assault , male sexual violence
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess