Violence Against Men and Boys: Violence Against Boys At School

Three quarters of boys are victims of violence at school and seven our of 10 will tell no-one.

According to the Taking Boys Seriously report by the Centre for Young Men’s Studies in Northern Ireland, around three quarters of boys experience violence in school (peaking at 84% in year 9) and many or most will not tell anyone about the incident (peaking at 69% in Year 11)

Prevalence of:	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11	Year 12
Violent acts committed against them	74.6%	84.4%	80.9%	74.9%	72.3%
Did not talk about violent incident	48.8%	46.9%	44.1%	68.9%	66.8%

SOURCE: TAKING BOYS SERIOUSLY - A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF

ADOLESCENT MALE SCHOOL-LIFE EXPERIENCES IN NORTHERN IRELAND by Dr Ken Harland and Sam McCready Centre for Young Men’s Studies

Violence Against Men and Boys: Physical Abuse Against Boys By Parents

In total, 21% of children experience some degree of physical abuse at the hands of their parents or carers during childhood.

The person responsible for physical violence during childhood was most often the mother (49%) or father (40%)

Source: NSPCC key child protection statistics (2007) referenced in Summary of Home Office and NSPCC Statistics Relating to Violence and Abuse by Paul Renn, Trauma Register

Violence Against Men and Boys: Boys and Homicide

There are approximately 80-100 homicides of children aged between 0 and 16 years each year in the UK.

The homicides of boys outnumber that of girls in all age groups. Male infants also outnumber female infants among children placed on child protection registers for physical abuse.


Boys are more likely to be killed by their parents than girls.

Source: NSPCC inform (2004) referenced in Summary of Home Office and NSPCC Statistics Relating to Violence and Abuse by Paul Renn, Trauma Register

Violence Against Men and Boys: Baby Boys

Baby boys under the age of one years old are three times more likely to physically abused than the average child.

Under 1s are at high risk of all types of abuse. A baby boy under one years old is 2.9 times more likely to be being subject to children protection plan for physical abuse compared to the odds for all children under the age of eighteen.  (data for England only)

SOURCE: All babies count: prevention and protection for vulnerable babies (NSPCC)

Violence Against Men and Boys: Violence In Schools

In Afghanistan, 100% all teachers in boys' schools use violence to discipline the boys

SOURCE: Save The Children Briefing 

Violence Against Men and Boys: Violent Deaths

Men are four times more likely to die a violent death. 

81% of the people in the world who are killed violently are  men and boys.

455,000 men are boys are killed violently every year at a rate of one man dying of violence every minute of every day. 

SOURCE: World Health Organization - The Global Burden of Disease report 

Violence Against Men and Boys: Young Men

Young Men are four times more likely to be victims of violence.

Young men aged between 16 and 24 experienced four times the average

levels of violence (levels in 2009/10 were 13%)

This means 1 in 8 young men are victims of violence every year

SOURCE: British Crime Survey 2009/2010 cited in EHRC Report: How Fair Is Britain

Legal Inequality: Protection Against Genital Surgery Abroad

There is no law in the UK preventing boys from being taken overseas to have medically unnecessary rituals performed on their genitals. It is an offence to take a girl abroad to perform medically unnecessary rituals on her genitals

Legal Inequality: Surgery Without Anaesthetic

It is not illegal in the UK to perform non-consensual medically unnecessary surgery (ie male circumcision) on boys with anaesthetic. 

Legal Inequality: Genital Surgery

It is not illegal in the UK to perform medically unnecessary genital surgery (ie male circumcision) on boys

Suicide: School Exclusion Increases Risk

Boys are more likely to be excluded from school and excluded boys are 19 times more likely to commit suicide

SOURCE: The long term costs of numeracy difficulties - Every Child A Chance Trust

Violence Against Men and Boys: Boys In Care

Boys are more likely to be neglected and abused. They are more likely to be put into foster care and less likely to be adopted once they are in care.

Boys are 22% more likely to end up in foster care.

There were 67,050 children in local authority care in England on 31 March 2012. Of these 36,878 (55%) are boys and 30,172 are girls (45%).

Girls in foster care are more likely (16%) to be adopted.

1,760 boys (that’s 4.8% of boys in care) were adopted in 2011-2012 compared to1,690 girls (that’s 5.6% of girls in care).

SOURCE: Adoption UK – Adoption Facts & Figures

Educational Inequality: Primary School Results

Boys are nearly twice as likely to leave primary school without reaching the expected level of attainment in English, Reading and Writing.

Boys account for about two thirds of children not reaching level 4 in English (62%), Reading (60%) and Writing (63%)

The proportion of 11 year old boys not reaching the expected level of attainment is:

• One in four boys don't reach the expected level in English (23% compared with 14% of girls)
• One in five boys don't reach the expected level in Reading (20% compared with 13% of girls)
• One in three boys don't reach the expected level in Writing (32% compared 19% of girls) 
• One in five boys don't reach the expected level in Maths (20%, the same as girls) 

11 year old Boys are are also 75% more likely to be below level 2 for English, which is the standard expected for 7 year olds (7% of boys compared with 4% of girls)

SOURCE: Guardian Data Blog, SATs, Key Stage 2, 2011

See Also: Sats 2011: all the KS2 results listed and mapped (Guardian)

Male Role Models: Men In Education

One in four boys goes to a primary school with no male teacher.

Across all state schools one in eight (12%) of primary school teachers are male and 38% of secondary school teachers are male.

In state schools nurseries there are less than 50 male nursery teachers (48 in 2011)

SOURCE: The General Teaching Council (GTC) for England Annual Digest of Statistics, collating the profiles of registered teachers in England published in in September 2011

See Also: One in four primary schools still has no male teacher (BBC)

See Also: Are there more that 4,250 schools in Britain without a male teacher? (www.fullfact.org)

Male Role Models: One Million Fatherless Boys

Boys are 11 to 12 times more likely to be separated from their fathers than girls are to be separated from their mothers

There are around 2 million children living in lone parent families an 92% are headed by mothers. This means there are just under 1 million boys living apart from their fathers compared with around 80,000 girls living apart from their mothers.

SOURCE: Single Parent Families Reach 2 Million (Daily Telegraph) referencing ONS figures.

Educational Inequality: Only 1 in 4 Poor White Boys Do Well

Boys from poor backgrounds are less likely to perform well at school with 25%  of White British boys of Free School meals achieved a good level of development in 2008/09, compared to 42% of White British girls 

SOURCE: How Fair Is Britain Report, Equalities & Human Rights Commission, 

Educational Inequality: Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development

By the age of five, girls’ development is more advanced in 11 of 13

assessment scales on the Early Years Foundation Stage profile in

social and emotional as well as cognitive areas of development. 

One quarter (25%) of boys are classified as being the lowest achieving 20% of

pupils compared to 15% for girls.

SOURCE: How Fair Is Britain Report, Equalities & Human Rights Commission

Criminal Justice: Youth Imprisonment

Boys under 18 are three and a half times more likely to be charged with a criminal offence and 19 times more likely to be imprisoned accounting 2089 of the 2209 young offenders imprisoned in 2010.

SOURCE: Youth Crime In England & Wales (Civitas)

Educational Inequality: Behavioural Difficulties

Boys are 6 times more likely to be diagnosed with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties or autism than girls. In total, 26,170 boys with Special Educational Needs have behavioural, emotional and social difficulties compared with 3,590 girls.

SOURCE:  Special needs more likely for boys, study finds (BBC), referencing 2010 Ofsted Report

Educational Inequality: Boys WIth Special Needs

Boys are more than two and a half times more likely than girls to have a statement of special education need.  In 2009, 2.4 per cent of boys (90,000 pupils) had statements compared to 0.9 per cent of girls (33,000 pupils).

There were also more boys with special educational needs without statements. In 2009, 23.0 per cent of boys (859,000 pupils) were at School Action and at School Action Plus compared to 14.0 per cent of girls (507,000).

Source: DCSF: Children with Special Educational Needs 2009: an analysis Chapter 1 Prevalence of pupils with special educational needs

See Also: Special Needs More Likely For Boys (BBC) and Boys Twice As Likely To Have Special Needs (Telegraph)