Experts: Male molest victims often choose to stay silent

SINGAPORE: In Singapore, police data showed there were 98 male victims of outrage of modesty, or molestation, last year, making up 7% of molestation victims.

The number of male victims was 74 in 2010, making up 5% of all molest victims that year.

While the number of victims who reported the offence to police has risen since 2010, social workers, medical professionals and lawyers interviewed say they are but the tip of the iceberg.

Sexual abuse cases in general tend to be under-reported because of factors such as the culture of secrecy and shame felt by victims.

Still, the increase in molestation cases reported could be a result of more professionals, such as teachers and social workers, trained to spot young victims, said Iris Lin, head of youth services at Fei Yue Community Services.

Veteran social worker Sudha Nair said it also showed that men, too, recognised that this was unacceptable behaviour.

On why it is much harder for a male victim to speak up, Kenny Liew, senior clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health, said: “The difference may be due to gender stereotypes and myths pertaining to sexual abuse of men, such as ‘boys and men cannot be sexually abused’ or ‘they were lucky to have been touched by a female’ or ‘they must be weak if they can be molested by another male’.”

Last year, 7% of the 1,347 molestation victims were male, including young boys. Of the 98, 60% were aged 21 and below.

As for the abusers, most were men. In fact, only eight women were arrested last year for outrage of modesty, compared with 864 men.