So, I have noticed two strange things when it comes to the CDC NISVS and the YEF surveys. In the most recent surveys, there is a massive decline in reported male victims of abuse, especially sexual abuse.

Let’s start with the YEF survey.
In the 2024 survey, boys were more likely to be victims of all forms of violence, and they were also more likely to perpetrate violence, especially in a criminal context. When it comes to partner violence, however, the picture looks very different: boys show higher levels of victimization, while girls show higher levels of perpetration, as can be seen in the graph below.

https://preview.redd.it/20ykg63x5k7g1.png?width=692&format=png&auto=webp&s=c395cd71a212687e23258cbf70441288d804bf94

In the 2025 version of this report, however, the trend has reversed when it comes to partner violence: boys are now reported as less likely to be victims, while girls are reported as more likely to experience victimization, representing a clear shift compared to the 2024 findings.

https://preview.redd.it/vnqloin96k7g1.png?width=681&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7188e8ae42e0fd5fb4f0b96805b3bc993b320df

What is particularly strange, however, is that compared to 2024, the overall amount of detected violence has declined dramatically. Most notably, reported physical violence has been reduced by about half.

https://preview.redd.it/qcblb46u6k7g1.png?width=663&format=png&auto=webp&s=0553d4fd65366af9231c75cc78902ea9d12a9b86

And because boys made up the largest share of victims of physical abuse, most of the violence that appears to have disappeared was violence directed toward boys.

Now we come to the NISVS surveys, where a trend regarding sexual violence has already been visible in the most recent editions. I will focus only on rape and made-to-penetrate (MTP) rates.

During the first three years of the NISVS, there was near parity between MTP and rape cases.

  • In 2010, 1.1% of women reported being raped, and 1.1% of men reported being made to penetrate.
  • In 2011, 1.6% of women reported being raped, compared to 1.7% of men reporting being made to penetrate.
  • In 2012, 1.0% of women reported being raped, while 1.7% of men reported being made to penetrate.

In 2015 and 2017, the numbers began to shift toward higher reported rates of rape among women than MTP among men.

  • In 2015, 1.2% of women reported being raped, compared to 0.7% of men reporting being made to penetrate.
  • In 2017, 2.3% of women reported being raped, while 1.3% of men reported being made to penetrate.

In the most recent edition, made-to-penetrate, along with several other items, was reported as not statistically significant and therefore not included in the published estimates.

https://preview.redd.it/in1zpfrv8k7g1.png?width=1363&format=png&auto=webp&s=0a8eb5f2b3dbd02008e24499f95c3dccfb087144

What I find extremely strange is that when it comes to made to penetrate, the lifetime prevalence in 2017 was 10.9%, while in 2024 it is reported as 3.8%.
That would imply that, over a span of just seven years, more than half of all lifetime made-to-penetrate victims have effectively disappeared.

This raises a serious question:
Have the numbers of male victims—especially of sexual violence perpetrated by women—actually declined to this extent, while the numbers of female victims at the hands of men have remained more or less stable? Or is male victimization increasingly being erased or obscured in these surveys?