Rape of males in Singapore

Male-on-male rape only became a criminal offence in Singapore with effect from 1 January 2020. Perpetrators are charged under Section 375 (1A) of the Penal Code. Victims are not charged.

=Not legally acknowledged before 2019=

Section 375
Prior to 2019, the rape of males was not acknowledged under Singapore criminal law as the offence of rape specified by Section 375 of the Penal Code was strictly and narrowly defined as the penile penetration of a woman's vagina without her consent. This meant that only a woman could be considered a rape victim. Other forms of non-consensual penetrative sexual activity between a man and a woman excluding his penis were dealt with under Section 376(2) (sexual assault by penetration). The maximum punishments prescribed for both offences (namely raping a woman and sexually penetrating a woman) were jail terms of up to 20 years, with caning or a fine.

However, in a groundbreaking development, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Law issued a joint press release on Monday, 11 February 2019 announcing that the government would “expand the definition of rape to include both non-consensual penile-anal and penile-oral penetration.”

The expansion of the definitions of rape and sexual assault to make them more gender-neutral and to accommodate more scenarios came as part of the Criminal Law Reform Bill, introduced in Parliament earlier the same day, which proposed amendments to the Singapore Penal Code so that the latter remained relevant and up-to-date. The Bill was based on reviews conducted by the Penal Code Review Committee (PCRC) which gave recommendations aimed at enhancing protection for vulnerable victims and tackling emerging crime trends, among others.

Section 354
The Bill also sought to expand the definition of sexual assault to include instances where a woman forces a man to penetrate her vagina, anus or mouth with his penis. The law at the time tackled only the situation where a woman forced a man to penetrate her with other body parts, excluding his penis. However, in instances where a male, aged 16 and above, is forced to penetrate a woman’s vagina, mouth or anus with his penis, the PCRC highlighted that case would be prosecuted under Section 354 (outrage of modesty) which states, “Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any person, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage the modesty of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with caning, or with any combination of such punishments.”

In cases where the rapist is female, the PCRC stated that, in principle, “a woman who violates a man’s sexual autonomy by forcing the man to penetrate her vagina, anus, or mouth with his penis, as the case may be, is guilty of sexual assault.” Furthermore, it did not see why the potential scenario of an adult male being forced to penetrate a woman unwillingly with his penis should not be covered by the Penal Code.

In the case of a male who is raped by another male, the PCRC proposed that the definition of rape also be expanded to include non-consensual penile penetration of the anus. The PCRC added that the basis for this was because “forced penile-anal penetration, which, like penile penetration of the vagina, carries with it the dangers of forced transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.”

Section 376
It also highlighted that in jurisdictions that have expanded the scope of rape, no reason was found as to why male or female victims of forced penile penetration should be treated differently. As such, the PCRC proposed that to cover both instances of rape, Section 376(2) be revised to state the following: “Any person (A) who —

(a) sexually penetrates, with a part of A’s body (other than A’s penis, if a man) or anything else, the vagina or anus, as the case may be, of another person (B);

(b) causes a man (B) to penetrate, with B’s penis, the vagina, anus or mouth, as the case may be, of another person including A; or

(c) causes another person (B), to sexually penetrate, with a part of B’s body (other than B’s penis, if a man) or anything else, the vagina or anus, as the case may be, of any person including A or B,

shall be guilty of an offence if B did not consent to the penetration or if B is under 14 years of age, whether B did or did not consent to the penetration.”

The PCRC also proposed that the title of Section 376 be changed from “Sexual assault by penetration” to “Sexual assault involving penetration”, given that in an instance of a female rapist, the assault would not be by penetration.

The government accepted all the PCRC’s recommendations. Additionally, the press statement highlighted that the government also accepted feedback from the social sector to have non-consensual penile-oral penetration similarly covered.

The amendments and additions to Section 375 were enacted as Act 15 of 2019 and came into effect on 1 January 2020.

=Male rape victims who have come out=

Activist Kyle Malinda-White, who is the co-founder and chief executive of the LGBTQ events meetup & support platform Prout, has come out to the general public as a victim of gay male rape. He experienced the trauma in 2012.

Prior to this, gay and bisexual men had come out as victims of male rape privately to small groups of people in closed topical discussions organised by the LGBT-affirmative counselling organisation, Oogachaga. One individual described his ordeal in which he adopted the strategy of not resisting and remaining as still as possible while the perpetrator forced himself on him from behind. He reckoned that this would result in the episode ending sooner than if he were to struggle. Fortunately for this resilient victim, he disclosed that he was psychologically relatively unscathed by the attack.

=Counselling=

Oogachaga and the Association of Women for Action and Research's (AWARE) Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) provide counselling services for victims of male rape.

=Increasing incidence of male molestation and rape=

More males are reporting being molested in Singapore, continuing a rising trend throughout the 2010s. However, experts pointed out that under-reporting remained an issue for sexual crimes, in part because of legal barriers. In 80% of molestation cases, the perpetrators are men. This is consistent with international statistics. Of the 975 people arrested in 2017 for molestation in Singapore, all but 11 were men. In 2017, 116 males were victims of molestation, about 1.5 times the 74 cases reported in 2010. Almost 80% of male victims in 2017 were aged 21 years and below. This comes as the total number of victims of molestation rose to 1,672 in 2017, from 1,511 in 2010. In the first half of 2018 alone, there were 12 cases, compared with 15 for the whole of 2017 and 13 in 2016.

Institute of Mental Health senior clinical psychologist Kenny Liew pointed out that under-reporting remained a major issue. This was partially due to legal barriers, said Anisha Joseph who heads the Association of Women for Action and Research's (AWARE) Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC). "Rape is narrowly defined under the current Penal Code where only women can be victims," she said. "We hope that this will soon change with the Penal Code Review Committee's recent recommendation to make (it) a gender-neutral offence." The SACC itself has seen a rising number of sexual assault cases involving male victims. Where the details were known to the SACC, almost nine in 10 of the male victims knew the perpetrators, who included relatives and intimate partners.

One case was described in 29 October 2018 edition of The New Paper in which the molest victim chose to remain anonymous:

"At the age of 16, Christopher (not his real name) got to know an older man online who claimed to be around his age and studying in a good school. The man initiated conversation with him on a website known to the gay community here and they started chatting. But soon, the man told Christopher he was working "undercover" for the authorities to track down homosexual men and threatened legal action unless the teenager agreed to a "probation programme".

When they met in the man's "office" - an HDB flat - for a session, the man blindfolded him as part of the "sexual therapy" that he had to undergo, and violated him sexually. "I would tremble whenever I saw his name or saw someone that looked similar to him. But I had no one I could share this issue with because of the sensitive information it involved," Christopher, 24 years of age in 2018, added, referring to his sexual orientation and strong sense of guilt. Having trouble coping, Christopher said in an e-mail interview that he sought help from a psychiatrist and later, the SACC."

=Effect of Reynhard Sinaga saga=

=See also=
 * Rape of males
 * Section 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore)
 * Section 375 of the Penal Code (Singapore)
 * Section 354 of the Penal Code (Singapore)

=References=
 * Tan Tam Mei, "Parliament: Proposed changes to Penal Code allow men to be considered rape victims, tackle revenge porn", The Straits Times, 11 February 2019. Reddit discussion:.
 * Kevin Kwang, "Marital immunity for rape set to be repealed as part of changes to Singapore’s Penal Code", Channel NewsAsia, 11 February 2019.
 * Jewel Stolarchuk, "Changes to Singapore Penal Code include repeal of marital immunity for rape and decriminalisation of attempted suicide", The Independent, 11 February 2019.
 * Matthias Ang, "Definition of rape to include female perpetrators & male victims under Criminal Law Reform Bill", Mothership, 12 February 2019.
 * Shailey Hingorani, "Commentary: Male victims of rape deserve support and understanding, not ridicule and disbelief", Channel NewsAsia, 9 January 2020.
 * Seow Bei Yi, "More males report being molested in recent years", The Straits Times, 29 October 2018.
 * Seow Bei Yi, "More men are reporting being molested", The New Paper, 29 October 2018.
 * Theresa Tan & Tan Tam Mei, "More men, boys getting molested", The New Paper, 18 December 2017.
 * Steve Lai, "The one about male rape and abandoned babies", Difficult but important discussions, Good List/Bad List with Steve Lai, Spotify, 10 January 2019.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.