About the initiative
Injustice happened here is a social change project working to address the prevalent of issue of male-on-male rape through honest and disruptive art.
Founded in 2025 by a male survivor of rape who did not receive justice from the UK’s criminal-justice system, he is also a graduate fine art student at the Royal College of Art.
The project aims to create a social movement for visibility, advocacy and change. Fostering opportunities for artistic-professional and survivor-community collaborations is the primary focus, but this scope may expand in future.
The project’s inspiration
Lived experience
The artist who founded Injustice happened here was raped by another man and reported it to the police.
The police investigation was slow and it took more than six months for them to arrest the rapist.
Despite a Forensic Medical Examination, a police interview, and extensive evidence from the victim and medical professionals, the rapist was not charged by the police.
Following complaints by the victim, the police force’s Professional Standards Unit’s internal review concluded that they “did not provide a satisfactory service” with multiple police failings in the investigation. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is currently running an investigation into the police case and its possible failings.
With no justice from the police and legal system, the victim had to take closure on what had happened into his own hands - through a personal focus on psychological healing, and creating his own social justice by making associated artworks.
This self-made social justice through art was incredibly beneficial, and it is from these artworks that the early ideas of the Injustice happened here initiative was formed.
Artistic speculation
Commemorative signage highlights and frames histories in ways which inform our societal present, such as London’s Blue Plaque Scheme.
These publicly facing vehicles of story telling could alternatively be used to lay bare well-known but little-discussed contemporary injustices and power disparities which exist within our society (i.e. ‘taboos’).
The artist wanted to imagine a world in which these plaques are erected on residential and commercial addresses where these injustices have happened in reality, such as reported rapes. He specifically want to take this imagined concept and look at it through the social paradigm of male-on-male rape, inviting in wider engagement with (often under-heard) discourse.
The result was the Raped here plaque, which you can see here.
After this artwork, he started to reflect more broadly on how he could use art to empower survivors to regain ownership of their personal narratives - whilst maintaining their anonymity if they wish to do so by using an initiative’s designs or name as their personal vehicle.
From these reflections, Injustice happened here was born.
Why it matters
Rape and sexual violence hugely and disproportionately affect women and girls. This is an outrageous injustice, and the Injustice happened here project doesn’t intend to overlook this fact through its focus on male victims of sexual violence. Instead, this initiative hopes to open up the often overlooked discourse around male-on-male rape and sexual assault, the prevalence and impact of which is far greater than many people expect.
Every year, over 84,000 men, boys and non-binary people are raped, sexually abused or assaulted. Of those, only 4% manage to tell somebody about this abuse during their lifetime - and of that tiny percentage, it takes an average of 26 years for the victim to tell that one trusted person. We know this thanks to the work and statistics of Survivors UK, a charity which works solely with male victims of sexual violence.
This means that 1 in 18 men are estimated to have been raped or sexually assaulted since the age of 16. Even more shockingly, 1 in 6 children (including all genders) are estimated to have been sexually abused by the time they turn 16 years old.
For many reasons, lots of instances of sexual violence are not reported to the police by victims. In 2024, 71,227 rapes were reported to the police, although this is likely an underestimate of the actual number of rapes which occurred. Problematically, by the end of 2024, charges had been brought against the alleged rapist in just 2.7% of these cases. (To clarify, a charge is when they police state that they believe a person to have committed a crime and refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, for the alleged perpetrator to then be taken to court for trial.) Yet despite this small percentage, due to long waiting times for trails on the UK because of an over-burdened legal system, adult rape cases take an average of 2 years to complete in court - with many cases taking longer. We know all this thanks to the work and statistics of Rape Crisis England & Wales, a leading sexual violence charity.
We hope that raising awareness about sexual violence which affects one group of people should come to benefit all victims - irrespective of gender and characteristics - in the long term, by promoting better informed, nuanced and action-oriented conversations at all levels of our society.
What we hope to achieve
Vision
Utilise the arts to contribute to a changed future of Britain in which our society - especially criminal-justice system and political decision makers - give male-on-male sexual violence the focus and levels of justice which all victims deserve.
Mission
Highlight the issue, prevalence and impact of male-on-male sexual violence - in collaboration with survivors - by using the arts as a vehicle for affecting socio-political visibility, discourse and realities.
Realisation
Enable male-on-male sexual violence survivors who have not experienced legal justice to regain autonomy of their personal narratives and create some level of social justice for themselves through artistic engagement.
For example:
Art workshops with male-on-male sexual violence survivors, ideally in collaborating with sexual violence, mental health and arts charities.
Creation of freely downloadable print-outs and stickers which can be adapted and used independently and autonomously by male-on-male sexual violence survivors as disruptive artworks.
Magnify the impact of the Injustice happened here initiative through strategic partnerships.
For example:
Political actors.
Legal system actors.
Charitable sector sexual violence organisations.
Established artists.
Curators.
Art galleries.
Art journalists.
How to get involved
Sexual violence survivor wanting to find out more?
Art professional looking to collaborate?
Social impact group interested in working together?
This initiative is early on in its development and we are keen to work with others who are passionate about prevention of male-on-male sexual violence crimes and justice for the victims.
If this sounds like you, whoever you might be, feel free to fill out some info below to let us know more. We will be in touch shortly.
Get in touch
None of the fields on our contact forms are compulsory, so please feel free to share as much or as little of your name and contact details as you feel comfortable.