ABSTRACT
The victim may well recognise that reporting abuse, especially if the abuser is part of the family group, will bring about tremendous disruption and upheaval. Where the abuser is a family member or a close friend to the victim and the non-abusive aspect of the relationship is valued or is a necessity to the victim, the child in question may well suffer the abuse in silence, continuing to love the abuser. For most boys, male teenagers and men, it is or would be embarrassing to admit, to a family member, friend, lover or spouse, that he has suffered sexually abusive acts such as buggery or has been forced to perform oral sex upon a man. If given the choice, most male victims who have suffered such atrocities, that have since stopped, choose to refrain from reporting the abuse, electing to ‘keep it quiet’.
