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Crown Prosecution Service public statement on male victims of domestic abuse, rape, sexual offences, stalking, forced marriage, honour-based abuse, child abuse, prostitution, pornography, obscenity and human trafficking with a focus on sexual exploitation

Publication Policy and Guidance Policy and strategy Domestic abuse Sexual offences

What is this statement about?

In 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service published the first public statement specifically addressing male victims of domestic abuse, rape, sexual offences, stalking, forced marriage, honour-based abuse, child abuse, prostitution, human trafficking (with a focus on sexual exploitation), pornography and obscenity.

That statement was groundbreaking in recognising that while these crimes disproportionately affect women and girls, men and boys are also victims and face particular barriers to reporting and accessing justice.

As part of the new CPS VAWG Strategy for 2025-2030, the CPS has updated this public statement for male victims of these crimes, building on the commitments we made in 2017 and reflecting what we have learned since then. It has been developed through extensive consultation with male victims and survivors, organisations supporting male victims, criminal justice partners, academic researchers and policy experts.

Anyone can be a victim of these crimes. If you are a male victim or are supporting someone who is, we want you to know that we take these crimes seriously, that you will be believed, and that we are working to make the criminal justice system more accessible and responsive to your needs.

CPS Commitments to Male Victims

To further improve how we respond to male victims of these crimes we will:

Guidance and Training

  • Update the CPS Domestic Abuse prosecution guidance to better reflect male victims' experiences and challenges
  • update the CPS Rape and Sexual Offences prosecution guidance to address myths specific to male victims
  • update the Honour-Based Abuse, Forced Marriage and Harmful Practices prosecution guidance
  • Develop a Honour-Based Abuse/Forced Marriage strategic reference group, including groups and individuals with specific male victim expertise to improve our understanding and enhance the impact of this work
  • Produce a standalone training module for honour-based abuse, including male victims, this financial year
  • Ensure prosecutors understand the barriers male victims face in reporting and participating in prosecutions.

Support for Victims

  • The Victim Transformation Programme will improve support for victims of these crimes through the criminal justice system, taking learning from its evaluation and incorporating training on male victims for our victim support staff
  • Produce a dedicated section on our web pages for male victims of these crimes in 2025, with tailored information and signposting to relevant guidance and appropriate support
  • Hold a second Multi-agency Honour-Based Abuse conference in 2026 with dedicated reference to male victims. The CPS is dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of honour-based abuse
  • Share good practice and learning across CPS Areas.

Challenging Misconceptions

  • Use our public-facing communications to challenge harmful myths and stereotypes
  • Highlight successful prosecutions that demonstrate our commitment to male victims
  • Share this public statement across CPS policy and operational teams, ensuring learning is embedded across the organisation
  • Challenge societal misconceptions and reflect lived male victim experiences in media communications.

Partnership Working

  • Further strengthen our relationships with national men's groups as part of our External Consultation Group, including further representation for diverse and less represented victims
  • Include male victims as a suggested theme in new guidance for joint police and CPS DA scrutiny panels, encouraging learning across both organisations
  • Work across sectors and support ongoing enquiries into child sexual abuse, working across government and supporting recommendations of the Casey Report and others
  • Review and learn from wider CJS inquiries into child sexual abuse, which will have relevance for male victims.

Male victims and the types and patterns of abuse they may experience

Our 2017 statement recognised that significant barriers prevent victims from reporting these crimes and accessing justice. Through consultation with male victims, survivor groups and specialist organisations for this updated statement, we have learned that these barriers persist and, in some cases, are particularly acute for men and boys. There are often specific types, patterns or context of abuse for male victims. These are not universal, but still reflect the experience of many male victims of these crimes.

Barriers affecting all victims

Research and feedback from victim organisations confirm that common barriers to reporting include:

  • Fear of not being believed;
  • Shame or guilt about what has happened;
  • Not recognising a situation as abuse - many victims don't realise that what is happening to them is a crime;
  • Threats by the person abusing them;
  • Pressure from friends or family to stay in a relationship or not to report;
  • Being emotionally or financially dependent on the person abusing them; and
  • Lack of trust in the criminal justice system.

These barriers affect all victims, but male victims told us they experience some of these barriers particularly strongly.

When experiences don't match legal definitions

Nationally, male support organisations and victim advocates highlighted an important issue, namely that male victims often don't recognise their experiences in how crimes are defined in law or described by professionals. For example, a man experiencing controlling behaviour by a partner may not recognise it as "domestic abuse", a boy who was sexually assaulted may not understand his experience as "rape" or "sexual assault", and a young man being exploited online may not realise this is a crime.

This disconnect means victims may not:

  • recognise themselves as victims;
  • know whether what happened to them is a crime;
  • understand what support or legal options are available; or
  • report to police or contact support services.

This feedback has influenced how we communicate about these crimes and has informed our work to make guidance and information more accessible.

Barriers particularly affecting male victims

Through consultation with male survivors and organisations supporting them, we have identified barriers that exist primarily, or more strongly, for men and boys.

Assumptions about masculinity and victimhood:

  • Feeling that being abused diminishes their masculinity, particularly when the abuser is a woman
  • Facing assumptions that they should have been able to defend themselves or prevent the abuse
  • Having their sexuality questioned or stereotyped if raped or assaulted by another man
  • Having sexual abuse by older women dismissed or minimised - male victims described experiences being described as 'initiation' or that they should have wanted it, rather than recognised as serious abuse.

Research conducted with male victims and shared by academic experts has been essential in helping us understand how these gendered assumptions affect reporting and engagement with the criminal justice system.

Not knowing it's a crime

Stakeholders, including victim organisations, explained that some male victims are unaware that their experiences constitute a crime under existing law. This affects their understanding of whether they can seek justice.

Difficulty finding appropriate support

Organisations working with male victims highlighted persistent challenges in accessing support:

  • Many support services have limited capacity to support male victims or don't advertise that they accept male clients
  • Some services lack facilities appropriate for men
  • Male victims told us they sometimes experience further harm when seeking support from services that are unprepared or unable to validate their experiences as genuine
  • Disability is also disproportionately a factor for male victims across these crimes.

This feedback has informed our work with partners across the criminal justice system to improve service provision for male victims.

Particular reluctance to report certain crimes

Research partners and support organisations reported that male victims are generally less likely to report certain crimes, particularly online sexual extortion. For gay and bisexual male victims, threats to reveal their sexual orientation or HIV status can both drive the crime and create a powerful barrier to reporting.

What these barriers can mean for victims

These barriers mean that:

  • many male victims never report what has happened to them
  • when they do report, it is often long after the abuse occurred
  • male victims may seek help at crisis point rather than at an early stage
  • the true scale of male victimisation is likely much higher than official figures show
  • male victims are less likely to report sextortion, and threats to expose HIV status can be a barrier for gay men.

Understanding these barriers is essential for everyone - the public, support services, and the criminal justice system - to respond more effectively to male victims.

Progress the CPS has made since 2017

We have changed our approach to investigating and prosecuting rape and domestic abuse, informed by research and feedback from victims and victim support organisations:

Focusing on the suspect, not the victim

In 2023, working with police colleagues, we introduced a new approach to investigating adult rape cases. Previously, investigations sometimes focused heavily on examining the victim's behaviour and credibility. Now, we build cases by examining what the suspect did before, during and after the alleged offence. This approach, informed by research into victim experience, particularly benefits male victims, who research shows are often subject to harmful assumptions about how they 'should' have responded to being assaulted.

Police and prosecutors working together from the outset

The joint CPS-NPCC Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP) was launched in November 2024 and sets out how the police and CPS will strengthen joint working – from building stronger cases from the outset to improving victim safeguarding to deliver more timely justice for victims. This coordinated approach is key to breaking cycles of abuse, securing prosecutions, and ensuring that victims are heard, protected, and supported throughout the criminal justice process.

Working with people who support male victims

We established a forum where organisations supporting victims of child sexual abuse can feed into our policy and practice. We also brought together our work with organisations supporting male victims into a single External Consultation Group. This means that male victims' voices and the expertise of organisations supporting them directly shape how we work.

Training our prosecutors

All prosecutors now receive training on how trauma affects victims of these crimes. This helps prosecutors understand why victims, including male victims, may not report immediately, may have gaps in their memory, or may appear calm or unemotional when describing traumatic events.

Using evidence from organisations supporting male victims

Our guidance to prosecutors on understanding victim experience now includes data about male victims of domestic abuse, provided by national organisations supporting men. This evidence, based on the real experiences of male victims, has been essential in improving our understanding.

Challenging harmful myths about male victims

In 2023, we updated our guidance to prosecutors on rape and serious sexual offences to include a dedicated section on tackling myths and stereotypes. This specifically addresses misconceptions about male victims of rape and sexual assault—such as assumptions that men cannot be 'real' victims, or that their sexuality is questionable if assaulted by another man. Research shared with us by victim organisations and academic experts shows these myths create significant barriers to male victims reporting and engaging with the criminal justice system.

Victims Transformation Programme

The Crown Prosecution Service has introduced an enhanced service to adult victims of rape and serious sexual offences, together with pilots for domestic abuse victims, both of which include male victims. Victims are provided a dedicated Victim Liaison Officer, and adult victims of rape and serious sexual offences receive the offer of a pre-trial meeting with the CPS. The Victim's Programme is also piloting services designed to give a better experience and improved communications to all victims of crime. This includes the CPS communicating its charging decisions directly to victims.

Key developments since 2017

Since 2017, there have been significant developments including:

Changes in legislation

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 introduced the first statutory definition of domestic abuse in UK law and recognised children who witness abuse as victims in their own right. This and other legislative changes have strengthened the framework for protecting all victims, including men and boys.

Growing evidence base

Research into male victimisation has expanded significantly. Academic studies, data from victim support services, and testimony from male survivors have deepened our understanding of how men and boys experience these crimes and what prevents them from seeking help.

Learning from practice

The CPS and our criminal justice partners have gained experience in prosecuting cases involving male victims and supporting them through the justice process. This practical learning has highlighted where our approaches are working and where improvements are needed.

Feedback from male victims and support organisations

Through ongoing consultation, male victims and the organisations supporting them have told us what difference our 2017 commitments have made and where further action is needed. This updated statement reflects this learning and sets out our renewed commitment to securing justice for male victims.

Engagement and research

The statement is informed by male survivors, support organisations, and subject matter experts, including our VAWG External Consultation Group, a victim reference group with male survivors of abuse and a dedicated Community Accountability Forum of subject matter experts.

Sources

The sources listed below form part of the extensive sector research, used as part of developing this statement.