Male Victims of Sexual Violence and Factors Associated With Reporting to Law Enforcement in the United States

Abstract

Of the violent crimes, sexual assault remains the least likely to be reported to law enforcement across various countries, particularly for male victims. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study uses National Crime Victimization Survey data from 1992 to 2020 to examine the relationship between victim, offender, and situational characteristics to the reporting of rape for male victims by both male and female offenders. Of the 330 male victims, only one in six (16%) reported it to law enforcement. In the multivariate model, men were less likely to report the incident when the offender was a woman or a juvenile, the victim was college educated and lived in a rural area, and when the incident was a completed rape and occurred at night-time. Older victims are more likely to report, and when a weapon is used or there are injuries. Implications for efforts to increase reporting among victims of male sexual violence are discussed.