Hi! My name is Kathryn Phillips and I am a PhD student from Canterbury Christ Church University. My PhD concerns men who have experienced unwanted sexual contact in adulthood. The goal of my research is to make recommendations to the police to improve the police response to male survivors.

This post has been made to advertise my survey. The survey is for men who have experienced unwanted sexual contact and asks about your decision of whether to report the contact to the police, and if you did so, your experiences of the police. You do not need to have reported to the police in order to participate, however.

The survey is completely anonymous and all data will be held strictly confidential. If there are any questions in the survey you feel uncomfortable answering, you may skip these and leave them blank.

To be eligible to participate:

  • You must have been 18 or over at the time of the latest unwanted sexual contact
  • Be an adult male
  • The offence(s) must have occurred in England and/or Wales

If you are interested in participating, you can find out more and participate by following this link: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/canterbury/mss

Any questions? You can email me ([kp347@canterbury.ac.uk](mailto:kp347@canterbury.ac.uk)) or comment below.

Thank you.

by CCCUMaleSurvivor

25 comments
  1. Just filled this out. Big props for putting so many links to support services front and centre. This survey has clearly been approached with a huge amount of sensitivity and understanding. It’s nice to see someone paying mind to what is, in my opinion, an often overlooked problem.

  2. I’m not the demographic that should fill this out but it’s important, so I’m mainly just commenting to thank you for looking into this. We need more stats on under-reported issues like this and I wonder if it might actually be helpful for some men who fill this out to realise and be validated about what they went through.

  3. If you’re wondering who the angry participants was, it was me. Thank you for doing this, I very much needed to know somebody is actually listening

  4. I’m not a male but I know plenty of males who have been affected and felt like they couldn’t talk about it. Thank you for addressing this issue, it is more common than people think but it is just not spoken about. I encourage anyone who is affected to use this as a way to get their story out there. <3

  5. I was sexually abused when I was 11 by another boy in my year ☹️ I’ll fill in your survey later.

  6. Filled this out. One of the first times I’ve ever brought it up to anyone who’s not in my close friends. Thank you.

  7. Just filled it out, hopefully it helps, but like most things male related we are so far away from this having no stigma attached you only have to look at responses in male vs female child sexual offences where if it’s an attractive female doing the crime it’s often treated like a luxury not a boundary crossing heinous crime

  8. Filled in but let’s all be honest, the police or courts aren’t going to a single thing about this

  9. Thank you for this. Very necessary to talk about this, but I’m really grateful that the purpose of this study is to provide better support, including intake through to prosecution, available for victims. As well as just the fact that your work exists highlights to men who participate that this is a serious matter and their concerns are being heard. For the record, I am a woman, but I think we all need to be behind causes like this.

    Please do come back and tell us you experiences – I think knowing that law enforcement and non profit organisations take this seriously will in and of itself make a difference.

  10. Thanks. Completed.
    It’s nice to see something like this about. It’s incredibly important. 

  11. I was honestly not sure if my experience warranted sharing but did it anyway. Felt really good. Hope others can feel the same. Good luck with your research

  12. Genuine question: Are Trans Men able to participate? I’ve experienced unwanted sexual contact both before and after passing. Attitudes towards it changed.

  13. I just completed the survey. 

    Most questions made me angry to answer not because of the author, but because every answer I gave makes me so angry that survivors like me don’t get to tell a story of receiving support.

  14. I have filled it out. Good luck with your PhD I think this kind of research is very valuable and it helps to know that people do care about what happens to you with the kind of situations will be describing.

  15. Filled out and thank you for doing the survey too to hopefully raise awareness/change perception of this issue.

  16. Not living in the UK (don’t judge, I like hanging out here), I can’t participate, but I’m glad to see a study like this. Having experienced multiple incidents of unwanted grabbing of my crotch, being forcefully kissed, and a friend thankfully intervening as I was being undressed while unconscious, I have sadly also experienced quite a bit of ridicule, including the literal quote “as if men can say no”, words that sound so cartoonishly vile that I might not have believed somebody would actually say that if I hadn’t experienced it myself.

    Women have been ignored for too long and it’s important that we keep giving them a voice about these issues. But often it does feel like male victims are still being left behind. And too often trying to point this out is met with arguments like “women have it worse”. Which may very well be the case, but it doesn’t help male victims. Attention for these causes shouldn’t be seen as a scarce resource. Men can be included in the conversation without taking away the platform for women.

  17. I’ve just completed this myself, it approaches the subject so well. I really appreciated the support links being reiterated in here, it means a lot to see things like this discussed, thank you

  18. Filled out, long time since I thought of all that. Appreciate you doing something for the space. I hope it goes well for you

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