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	Men More Likely Than Women to Hide Past Victimization By Debbie Parkes The Gazette [Canada] January 15, 2007 http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/montreal/story.html?id= 2ffa81a6-dc0c-4293-bc2a-d99026fd67b9&k=32143 Findings from a survey commissioned by a Quebec organization working to prevent child abuse indicate Quebec men who were sexually abused as children are twice as likely as their female counterparts to keep their victimization a secret. Nearly one in 10 male respondents reported having been sexually abused in childhood. Of those, about 34 per cent said they had never told anyone prior to being interviewed for the survey. By comparison, between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of female respondents said they had been sexually abused as a child. Of those, nearly 16 per cent said they had never told anyone other than the surveyor. In about 60 per cent of cases, the victimization began when the child was under age 12. Results of the survey, carried out last spring for the Fondation Marie Vincent, are being analyzed by researchers at the Fondation-backed Centre d'expertise en agression sexuelle Marie Vincent. Victimization rates - determined from interviews with 393 men and 411 women - are in line with those reported by other North American studies, said Universite du Quebec a Montreal psychologist Martine Hebert, one of three university researchers working with the Centre d'expertise. However, few prior studies have examined the disclosure rates of males, she said. Preliminary findings suggest victims who told someone about the abuse suffered less emotional distress than those who kept it secret, Hebert said. It's unclear whether failing to disclose is what leads to the worse outcome, or whether those who fail to disclose tend to have fewer people they can trust in their environment, she said. Future surveys will include questions aimed at answering such questions, she said.
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