Our general election manifesto manifesto had a lengthy section on sexual abuse (pp 31-37). From the first page:

People struggle to recognize women as perpetrators of sexual and non-sexual violence, in spite of the weight of evidence showing them to be frequent perpetrators of both. This is because we live in a culture which regards men as ‘actors’ and women as ‘acted upon’. The public has become conditioned to viewing men as perpetrators, and women as victims. Alison Tieman, a Canadian men’s human rights advocate, produced an insightful short video on this matter. This culture leads to inequalities. Few women are held accountable for sex offences, including those women who sexually abuse children. It’s known from a major American survey (details below) that slightly over 25% of sex offences are committed by women against men (with no male accomplices). We would therefore expect the male/female ratio of people charged with sex offences to be a little under 3:1. In the UK, in 2013, the ratio was 146:1.

I have the occasional exchange of letters with a man who’s in prison for reasons which are not relevant to this post. With his permission, I’m reproducing part of the original letter he sent me:

When I was a boy, in the 1970s, I was regularly raped by my father and step-mother. Not one night, not one week, not one month, not even one year. These ‘threesomes’ went on for six years, when I was between eight and fourteen years old. I was raped, molested, battered, imprisoned and almost murdered (strangulation). My father was convicted of eight counts of sexual offences with children, and given a prison sentence of seven years. My stepmother groomed me with porno mags. She admitted some of her abuse to the police and social services, and gave an official statement to the police. She wasn’t charged with a single offence!!! Is that justice? Is that right? So I was raped of justice and truth. Does equality in/of the law exist in the UK? Can you imagine what this has done to me as a person?

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