Last year, about 370 cases of sexual assault on men or boys were reported across Sweden, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. The number of "hidden victims," or those ashamed to seek help, Jonlund said, is probably much higher.
"The news seems to be much more interesting abroad," he said.
A radio producer called from Ireland. An editor in Stockholm told him the local story climbed to the top of Reddit, drawing millions of readers from around the world. By mid-afternoon, the post displayed more than 4,000 comments. Some reflected confusion: Can men be raped? Others showed gratitude about the heightened awareness around a sensitive issue.
Wrote one user: "Good. I have a male friend who is the victim of female rape. It's absolutely disgusting that there is nowhere for him to go for help."
Added another: "Yep, hopefully the rest of the West catches on soon."
The share of men who report incidents in the United States has recently surged.
In 2013, the Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed 40,000 American households about rape and sexual violence and found that men reported 38 per cent of such crimes -- a dramatic leap from 14 per cent in the recent past.
Experts wondered if the Jerry Sandusky trial, which coincided with the reporting spike, prompted more men to speak up. Or a simple change to the definition of rape might have given some respondents their first opportunity to report a sexual crime.
In 2012, the FBI redefined rape more broadly in ways that included violations "without the consent of the victim." The previous definition ("the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will") hadn't been modified in nearly nine decades. Advocates say that alienated many male victims and left them without vocabulary to describe their trauma.
An estimated 19 per cent of women and 1.7 per cent of men say they've been raped, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This definition, however, excludes female attackers.
When the CDC broadened the meaning of sexual assault, a different picture emerged: Forty-four per cent of women and 23.4 per cent of men said they'd experienced other forms of sexual violence in their lifetimes, including unwanted contact.
And 7 per cent of men reported that they had been "made to penetrate" another person. That could mean vaginal intercourse or receiving oral sex against their will.
Nearly half of men who reported a sexual assault said their assailant was a woman.
"Gender and heterosexist stereotypes, such as the idea that all men are sexually insatiable or that gay male victims 'asked for it,' can perpetuate dismissive attitudes toward male victims," Lara Stemple, a law professor at UCLA, wrote last year. "Yet such dismissal runs counter to evidence that men who experience sexual victimization report depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and more."CONTINUE READING
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