On Wednesday, the GLA Conservative Group issued a thorough study that highlighted the gulf between adult male sexual assaults and the amount that get reported to the police.

Titled “Silent Suffering – Supporting the Male Survivors of Sexual Assault”, the paper highlighted the fact that between 2010 and 2014 there were 26,483 recorded incidents of males being victims of sexual assault or rape. This is contrasted with research conducted by SurvivorsUK, the largest and longest established specialist male sexual violence support charity in the UK, which evaluated five years of self-referral data (more than 600 individual entries) to establish that less than 4pc of the sample had reported their experience of adult sexual assault to the police.

In short, it is believed that the actual number of offences in that four year period exceeds 670,000.

That figure may seem overwhelming, but to those of us who work with these survivors, it comes as little surprise.

The report goes on to discuss some very sensible interim measures to increase engagement with criminal justice services, but the larger question – what actually stops these men from coming forward, not just to the police but for any help at all – demands closer consideration.

Men often bottle up their experience of sexual abuse Credit: Alamy

Rape and sexual abuse are devastating experiences. Anyone who has experienced them, regardless of their sex, sexual identity or gender will face many of the same challenges and barriers. For example, recent research points to all (male and female) sexual assault/abuse victims experiencing a modified form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder similar to that experienced by some combat veterans. Shame, guilt and trauma are also inevitably thrown into the mix and shame.

However, male survivors experience some unique challenges that act as additional barriers to engagement and help-seeking.

"Until recently, all governmental public sexual violence strategy and policy announcements were framed in terms of violence against women and girls" Michael May

One of the biggest challenges faced by male survivors is society’s projection that men should be able to withstand and endure terrible circumstances. From infancy, males are told that they should strive to be masculine, ie resilient, self-sufficient, dominant in sexual interactions and able to defend both themselves and those relying on them for protection. An experience of rape or sexual abuse contravenes all of these expectations. In essence, it leaves the survivor feeling ‘less than a man'.

A significant additional barrier is the idea of “gayness” that is inextricably bound up in society’s perceptions of these crimes. Baroness Stern in her 2012 Rape Report talked about men fearing that their involvement in a male on male sexual assault would automatically lead people to assume that they were in fact not heterosexual. In a society that continues to regard “gayness” as feminine or synonymous with weakness, we cannot underestimate the impact of that assumption - whether the survivor identifies as heterosexual or not.

Almost unanimously, clients coming to SurvivorsUK counseling and emotional support services talk about the impact of what happened to them in terms of their own sexuality. They questions what the assailant must have seen in them that allowed them to be “chosen”. Did the perpetrator think that they were gay and, if so, was that because of something they said or did or has some unknown part of their sexual self lead to the assault?

"One of the biggest challenges faced by male survivors is society’s projection that men should be able to withstand and endure terrible circumstances" Michael May

These questions are inevitably complicated if the survivor had a physical reaction to the assault. Perpetrators of male rape are increasingly striving to ensure that the survivor achieves an erection or ejaculation, in order to confuse the situation and potentially erase blame (it's worth stating that arousal in the victim does neither of these in the court of law). For men who struggle under the weight of masculine expectation, such an experience can lead to unbearable, unmanageable thoughts.

Men who suffer at the hands of a female perpetrator encounter their own set of complicated issues. Our current legislation does not allow for a female to commit rape, as the crime is dependent on penetration with a biologically attached penis - but the issue is clearly more complex.

Take the boy who is introduced to sex by a more experienced, older woman. Culturally, we celebrate that boy - he's fortunate to go through such a rite of passage - but that if the sexual act was unwanted, the boy is left feeling that what happened was in fact something that he should have enjoyed and has no right to complain about. He's left adrift by society, unable to seek help and advice.

Rape is a gendered crime – it can legally only be perpetrated by males and the majority of victims are female. But male victims feel further ostracised when discussions of these crimes pay them no heed at all. Until recently, all governmental public sexual violence strategy and policy announcements were framed in terms of violence against women and girls, even when the information clearly included men and boys.

Michael May is the Director of SurvivorsUK

The recent CPS report on rape prosecutions under the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy included more than 16,000 prosecutions where males were the victim but the report identified them as female, deeming them an insignificant minority. This was the same in the recent Rotherham and Oxfordshire child protection investigations, where there were more than 15pc male victims in each case but the media reported assaults against girls exclusively. Not recognizing and talking about these survivors confirms their belief that what happened to them is unimportant and that it would be pointless to seek support.

The rape and sexual abuse of men and boys continue to be difficult and under-discussed phenomena. Until we are able to embrace this difficult conversation on a public level and to shatter some of the myths that surround these crimes, that is unlikely to change. It’s the work of a lifetime but for the 670,000 male survivors cited in this report and the estimated 3 million plus male victims of child sexual abuse in the UK, it’s work that we all have to start right now.