ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the representation of men and boys in UN discourse from the emergence of violence against women as an international public problem during the UN Decade for Women, to recent shifts in the conceptualisation of gender violence. It argues that public health and criminal justice perspectives, which pervade in discourses on violence against women (VAW), have tended to individualise the problem by focusing on the impact that multiple social and environmental factors have on victims and perpetrators and downplaying the influence of gendered power structures. The chapter also argues that despite the factors which led to the frame’s emergence, its use in awareness-raising campaigns reflects a much more limited problem representation. It discusses the factors which influenced the recognition that sexual violence can be directed at men or boys, and how this recent expansion has the potential to further research on violence and masculinity.
