Interviews with Sexually Assaulted People - Article Example

Chapter 4: RESULTS 4.1 The participants and interviews The inclusion criteria for participants in this research was male gender and age at least sixteen years, who had been raped or sexually assaulted at any point in their life, and subsequently accessed counselling. Six males volunteered to participate, and all interviews were undertaken between July 2007 and August 2007. I transcribed each interview immediately afterwards. The interview with one participant, Jonathan, failed to record, but I did take notes. Jonathan later read these and confirmed and approved the information. The decision had to be made whether or not to include this interview in the data. Based on Glaser’s de-emphasis of tape-recordings and verbatim transcripts, it was decided to do so. The interview yielded valuable insights and acted to confirm the findings of the other interviews. The interviews were semi-structured to allow the exploration of common themes while also allowing unique material to emerge in each case. I asked participants about their feelings and thoughts regarding what barriers had existed for them when they wanted to access counselling. The uniqueness of each interview was highlighted in my interview with Simon, who had struggled to find any counselling support for males, so he set up his own organisation. Interviewing him therefore gave a slightly different kind of information from that in the other interviews. 4.2 Demographic Information Three participants classed themselves as British, one British White, one English and one British American. Members of other ethnic or race groups were not interviewed because the sample was a convenience one and all participants were volunteers. Table 4.1 below shows their demographic characteristics. Of the six participants, one described his assault as rape, two described theirs as rape and sexual abuse, one described his assault as rape plus physical and abusive violence, and one described it as date rape. Participant Age at time of research Sexual orientation Age at rape / sexual assault Age when accessed counselling Delay in accessing counselling* 1 (Karl) 33 straight 28 28 or 29 6 to 9 months 2 (Andi) 43 gay 21 to 30 + 37 16 years 3 (Jay) 36 straight 4 or 5 32 (+ 3 months after flashback started 27 or 28 years 4 (Mark) 33 straight 7 to 10 31 21 years 5 (Simon) 39 straight 10 and 15 Tried when he was in his 20s, unsuccessfully. Set up MRSA. Finally had counselling himself 2.5 months prior to the research, aged 39 29 years 6 (Jonathan) 49 gay 47 47 ½ 6 months Table 4.1: Demographics of research participants Of the three participants who were assaulted as adults, one accessed counselling 16 years following the first rape, which had occurred in the context of an abusive relationship lasting 9 year. The other two men had delayed between 6 and 9 months before accessing counselling. It is interesting to note the apparent trend towards a longer delay before accessing counselling when the assault happens in childhood. 4.3 Emerging themes 4.3.1 Lack of knowledge The first interview I conducted was with Karl, who was raped as an adult and took several months to access counselling. I attempted to identify a core variable in his concerns. Even though Karl quickly found out about MRSA, his knowledge was initially inadequate as he did not think either that he needed counselling or that it would help. His parents made some phone calls to get help for him, and thereby put him in touch with the group. One is left wondering what male rape victims do if they are unable to turn to family members or friends. Karl said, “I knew about the support group, MRSA and I’d sort of been a couple of times but I was a bit iffy about it first of all… . Simon… found it sort of a bit difficult getting counsellors at the time… we had… people coming in towards the group… but it was sort of a bit shaky ground at the time.” Two themes emerged here, one being MRSA’s difficulty in getting counsellors, and the other being Karl’s “iffy” knowledge and stance about the counselling. The first theme is related to the practical real-life situation of a lack of services for male rape survivors. The second is related to the core theme of inadequate knowledge, which emerged repeatedly in the interviews. The second interview I did was with Andi, who said it was only when he saw Simon’s article in a newspaper that he sought help. Until then, he described himself as “I couldn’t deal with anybody, I couldn’t face anybody, I couldn’t face the outside world.” I checked with him twice whether it was directly because of the article that he sought help, and he confirmed this. Andi had lived silently with his trauma for seven years, isolating himself and unable to talk to anyone. Further confirmation of the core theme of lack of knowledge came during the third interview, with Jay. Jay was raped as a young child, and although he had gained some academic knowledge about psychology he was still unaware of the availability of help for male survivors. At age 32 Jay had a “humongous flashback, just came out of nowhere…and I started having bad nightmares then and I thought right I’ve had enough of this and sought counselling.” It took him three months of flashbacks before he did seek counselling. When asked, “What do you feel would have helped you seek counselling sooner?” Jay replied, “Er, I think it would have been information about counselling coz, I think counselling still really is in some places a new concept.” The fourth interview was with Mark, who was also raped as a child. When I asked him about the reasons for this delay, he stated, “It was really, erm, I suppose thinking that I was dealing with it, not admitting that I had a problem. …problems through relationship dictated that things wasn’t right, erm, through the relationship and then not being able to do my job at work.” Mark was referred for counselling through his Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). He had felt he was coping, but it was his wife and employer who recognised a problem and helped him to access counselling. Mark’s main concern was the difficulties associated with counselling itself, such as a limit to the number of sessions, and his own emotional denial. His main concern was not lack of knowledge about counselling facilities for male rape survivors. Instead he had displayed a lack of self-knowledge, unable to recognise signs of post-traumatic reactions. This is a sub-theme in the theme of lack of knowledge about male sexual assault. During the next interview, with Karl, it emerged that knowledge about rapists and the perpetrators of sexual assault is another aspect of this theme. Karl said, “I think there was one thing that helped out a lot… some research in an American website… they did research on the kind of people who act like that… it was finding out that the kind of people who act like this don’t really care who you know, who they hurt you know, regardless…” I checked if he meant that learning about the characteristics of perpetrators had been very helpful for him, and he confirmed this. So far, the core theme identified was “lack of knowledge”, with sub-themes including: lack of knowledge about counselling and support for male rape victims lack of knowledge about reactions as a survivor lack of knowledge about perpetrators. Further evidence for this core theme came from Simon, who was sexually assaulted as a child and teenager. He had tried to access counselling in his twenties but had been turned away from several organisations because he was male (Simon’s interview, pp 2 & 4). He thus set up MRSA, but found that his efforts to advertise the group were blocked. He stated, “…when we take posters round Doctors’ surgeries… we took two posters round, very similar, one for male, one for female. Every one of the male ones were taken down.” I asked Simon, “Do you think the services need to be there for men, or the information needs to be there before the services, or both together?” He replied, “I’d say the services primarily, the services available, er, for men then obviously the information, the correct information getting out there, will hopefully draw them in, will hopefully help them to disclose and talk about it.” Simon stated that there were only ten organisations serving men, and only two safe houses for men. He perceived the lack of services as the primary problem, and lack of information or knowledge as a related but secondary problem. When asked what kind of information should be used for advertising, Simon replied, “that there’s a contact number, that there is other people out there… just letting them know there is such things as counselling for them, or, support work, therapy groups.” This was echoed by the other participants, all of whom felt that more information ( e.g. posters, leaflets, business cards) would help men to access support sooner. One stated, “…maybe adverts in papers … even on telly… “ Another said, “Posters then breaking the myths before you’ve even rang that company up. I think that would be a big help… can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are myths.” This statement relates both to the theme of lack of knowledge and also to that of stereotyping, which is mentioned later in this chapter. Most of the participants also felt that information on normal reactions to being raped would help men to come forward for support. One said, “…you know that obviously that I’m not on my own because there’s an advert there saying they can help you and whatever, erm and they are telling you what you’re experiencing and whatever so they know what they’re talking about…. I’d have the confidence of going straight into it rather than [having to] build up the confidence to do it.” Simon discussed the financial expense of advertising, and stated that this was a problem for his organisation and that he was hoping to secure funding (Simon’s interview, p. 7). He said, “If I had the money I would gladly fork out for an advertisement…. I think that would have so much power.” The final interviewee, Jonathan, stated that he had waited six months after the assault before accessing counselling because he did not know that there were services and support groups for male rape victims. Thus a lack of knowledge of such services was a problem for each and every participant in this study. This sub-theme is therefore the most important aspect of the core theme of lack of knowledge about male rape. However, the lack of knowledge about support services for men is linked to the practical reality that there are not very many such services in existence. 4.3.2 The counselling experience Another theme which emerged was that of the counselling experience. Every participant said he found counselling helpful, although most did experience some kind of difficulty with it. Three said they had felt they were dealing with their assault and did not feel comfortable seeking support. Karl said that he found it difficult to talk about his feelings: “Well I found it very hard at first… it’s difficult to express things… for the first while I didn’t think it was doing me any good because if anything after the counselling I was erm going out wi my mate and going out drinking… it was coz it sort of helped to block things out really… I was a bit edgy coming up to and after sessions, for a couple of days I’d be a bit down.” Karl also spoke of the pain of recalling the assault. Similarly, Andi remarked, “…for the first… three counselling sessions I hardly said a word. It were finding how to bring the, the things up without upsetting myself too much so I feeling suicidal at the time anyway. I was self harming a lot…” Simon had also mentioned self-harm as a way of trying to deal with his emotions. Several participants also indicated that they preferred not to be pressured to talk until they were ready. There were positive comments about counselling too. Most participants said it was helpful not to have to wait more than a week between sessions. One participant mentioned that limiting the counselling to six sessions (through EAP) was insufficient, while another stated that the time limit of an hour per session was too short. Two men felt there should be more counsellors in G.P.s’ surgeries to help accessibility and reduce waiting times. Comments were also made to the effect that the men did not want to feel publicly visible and thus preferred the counsellor’s office to be in a private building. In terms of the counsellor’s characteristics, some participants preferred to talk to a woman while others would talk only to a male. Some preferred the counsellor to have personally survived a sexual assault, while others felt that if he or she had a lot of experience in rape counselling then this was sufficient. Most preferred an informal, welcoming atmosphere in the therapist’s office, and some felt that the therapist’s style of dress was important. Sub-themes for the theme of counselling experience are therefore: difficulties with expressing oneself the emotional pain of remembering the assault the time-frame (adequate time allowed in sessions; not waiting too long for the next session) the physical attributes of the counselling experience (e.g. therapist’s office décor and dress; privacy of the building). 4.3.3 Sterotypes and stigma All participants felt the media should look at changing the way they portray male rape or sexual assault. One participant stated “I think the way they deal with things… sometimes it’s very negative and it totally shocked me now…” Another participant said, “ …even when I’ve seen, you know, gang rape or whatever on Crimewatch… I can’t remember anytime when it’s been straight males… I feel that sort of, adds to the myths as it were, rather then people being educated, it’s not, that’s not the case… it’s sort of late night sort of comedy stuff and they’ll bring up something like that and try and humourise it… at first… I was quite upset by it…” Another said, “Sometimes you’ll pick up… one of the national newspapers and they’ll have… an article about…how women deal with abuse… domestic violence or stuff like that, but it’s not really brought up on the male side of things.” Another participant linked the stereotyping with the lack of awareness and knowledge: “You see plenty of things out there for female help, none specifically for men. Erm, so it’s as if they feel it doesn’t happen to men, erm, and that I think again needs to be looked at.” The difference noticed between men and women extended to perpetrators as well as survivors. One participant said, “There has been a case up in Morecambe… it was a woman who’d been sleeping with a fourteen year old boy and a man who’d been sleeping with a fifteen year old girl. He got a prison sentence, she got a slap on the wrists.” 4.3.4 Effects of the assault Another theme which emerged from the interviews was that of psychological effects following the rape or assault. Symptoms and behaviours covered a wide range and concurred with the information in my literature review. Three men reported feeling suicidal or self-harming; three experienced reduced self-confidence; three found it difficult to mix with other men; two experienced flashbacks; two mentioned nightmares; one mentioned anger; one drank more heavily; and one withdrew from the world. 4.3.5 Telling people Four men said that having the support of others was very helpful and one mentioned that he felt good about supporting others in turn. Three had told someone, with two of these being men who were assaulted as children and spoke to an adult at the time. Two participants felt they could not tell anyone of their assault. One man found that when he tried to tell his (gay) friends, they “didn’t take it seriously, put me off looking for support and made me feel worse, made me feel I were to blame for everything.” Some other comments on the theme of telling people were: “I just didn’t think I could. I kept it locked away, you see, locking it away for, there would be things that kept bringing it back up every now and again, if I saw something on the telly or something like that…” “If it hadn’t been for their help and my brother and my friends and all that, if it hadn’t been for that I don’t think I’d be here.” “A female friend of mine who, who got me out of the relationship, thank goodness, she were the only one that I could really talk to but only some of the problems.” Two men said they informed their G.P. but found them unhelpful. Both of them mentioned that they were given anti-depressants, and felt that this was unhelpful. Once felt it was done partly done to silence him. 4.3.6 Police attitudes Two participants felt the negative attitude of the Police prevented them reporting their assault, while one felt that too long had passed since a childhood assault, and one felt it would be his word against the perpetrator’s. Two did report their assault to the Police but found this unhelpful. One said, “…if the Police have changed their attitude towards… these sort of things but I feel, well if they haven’t, they need to, and if they have already then I think there should be some sort of advertisement…” Another participant recounted how he had been asked to speak more loudly when reporting his assault at the Police station, which he found traumatic. He suggested that people should be able to report a rape at a hospital instead. He also said, “There was certain questions they asked about sexuality and stuff like that… I didn’t expect it to put so bluntly and it could have been a bit more… one of them shouted at me and that, was I gay?” Jonathan also recounted an incident when a Police sergeant had arrived at his home to question him, and started off by telling Jonathan that he (the policeman) was happily married and had never considered being gay. Jonathan also said that he was questioned about his delay in reporting the assault, and he found all of this very hurtful. 4.4 Summary and conclusion As the above results indicate, there are many reasons why men may not access counselling following being raped or sexually assaulted (no matter what their age at the time of the assault). In addition to the practical issue of there not being many services for male rape survivors, the main theme that emerged was lack of knowledge. This theme had the following sub-themes: lack of knowledge about counselling and support for male rape victims lack of knowledge about reactions as a survivor lack of knowledge about perpetrators. lack of funding and public support when trying to spread knowledge A second important theme was the counselling experience, with the following sub-themes: difficulties with expressing oneself emotional difficulties associated with remembering the assault the time-frame of counselling physical attributes of the counselling experience. Other themes which emerged and did not have significant sub-themes were Stereotypes and stigma Effects of the assault Telling people Police attitudes There are many changes that can be made to improve this situation, so that male rape survivors are aware of counselling organisations as well as post-trauma symptoms, and they know where to go for help. Some of these changes would require funding, but changing social attitudes is not entirely dependent on money. It is hoped that the current research will go some way towards easing the plight of men who have experience this most personal assault, and to help break the silence. Read More