The Empathy Gap – The Book

My book “The Empathy Gap: Male Disadvantages and the Mechanisms of Their Neglect” is now available. It can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk and from Amazon.com, or, in the UK, from Waterstones. Non-UK people may find the bookdepository a cheaper option.

I apologise about the price, but at just short of 700 pages, this is the printers costs, not profit.

I have uploaded a number of readings from the book to my YouTube channel, as a taster…

Selected readings from chapter 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRtI_2qJerE

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Education

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Health and Longevity

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Male Genital Mutilation

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Work, Pay, Tax and Pensions

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Imprisonment

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Violence and Abuse

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in the Family Courts

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Alienation and Fatherlessness

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Men’s Fertility and Paternity Fraud

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Homelessness and Mental Health

From the last chapter, a summary of the empathy gap in Rape, False Allegations, and the Story Less Told about Sexual Assault

Finally, the Closing Section

The back cover of the book…(spot the typos – corrected in the production book, be assured)

Some accolades from the back cover

As an indication of the massive scope of the book, here is the complete Contents…

Preface

1. The Differently Gendered Society

1.1 Purpose of this Book    

1.2 Equality?          

1.3 What is the Origin of the Empathy Gap?           

1.3.1 The Nine Factors Underlying the Empathy Gap

1.3.2 Discussion of the Factors Underlying the Empathy Gap

1.4 Aims and Limitations

2. Education          

2.1 Primary School Attainment       

2.2 Secondary School Attainment Aged 16  

2.3 A Levels           

2.4 University Entry           

2.5 Gender Gap and the Nature of the Award         

2.6 Innate Gender Difference? Adult Competencies

2.7 School Staff and Stereotyping    

2.8 University Staff, STEMM and Athena Swan       

2.9 Gender Skew in Provision         

2.10 Perceptions and Expectations  

2.11 Worldwide      

2.12 Summary: The Education Empathy Gap          

3. Physical Health and Longevity    

3.1 Gender Disparity in Premature and Early Death

3.2 The Leading Causes of Premature Death (<75)  

3.2.1 Cardiovascular Diseases         

3.2.2 Cancers         

3.2.3 HIV-AIDS      93

3.3 The Leading Causes of Early Death (<45)           93

3.4 Occupational Health and Workplace Injuries and Deaths 94

3.4.1 Workplace Deaths in History   94

3.4.2 Workplace Deaths Now          96

3.4.3 Non-Fatal Injuries at Work     96

3.4.4 Occupational Health Issues     96

4. Men’s Access to Healthcare and Health Spending by Sex  99

4.1 Men’s Access to Healthcare        99

4.2 Global Health of Men   106

4.3 Healthcare and Health Research Spending          106

4.3.1 USA Healthcare Spending by Sex        107

4.3.2 USA Health Research Spending by Sex            108

4.4 The Empathy Gap in Men’s Health        109

5. Male Genital Mutilation: History and Harm          114

5.1 Anatomy, Histology and Function of the Foreskin          117

5.1.1 Foreskin Development: Retraction       120

5.2 The History of MGM    121

5.3 MGM Procedures, Practitioners and Risk           125

5.3.1 Risks of the Procedure            127

5.4 Prevalence and Incidence of MGM        128

5.5 The Harmful Effects of MGM   131

5.5.1 Studies of Sensitivity    131

5.5.2 Studies of Men’s Sexual Experience after Circumcision 134

5.5.3 Survey Evidence: Men’s Subjective Experience of Circumcision            138

6. MGM: Claimed Benefits and Legality       141

6.1 Background to the 2017 review of Morris et al    141

6.2 Critique of the claims of Morris et al, 2017.         143

6.2.1 Urinary Tract Infections          143

6.2.2 Phimosis        145

6.2.3 Balanitis / Candidiasis 146

6.2.4 Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)            146

6.2.5 Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)           146

6.2.6 Other Diseases           150

6.3 The Opinion of Medical Bodies Worldwide        152

6.4 Legal Issues       155

6.4.1 The Illegality of MGM in the UK        155

6.4.2 Attempts to Make MGM Illegal in Other Countries      158

6.5 The Male Genital Mutilation Empathy Gap        161

7. Work, Pay, Tax, Spending and Pensions   164

7.1 UK Unemployment Data           165

7.2 UK Economic Inactivity             167

7.3 Gendered Occupations  169

7.3.1 The Public Sector        171

7.3.2 Armed Forces 172

7.3.3 Apprenticeships          172

7.3.4 The Gender Equality “Paradox”          173

7.3.5 Diversity?       177

7.4 The UK Gender Pay Gap          179

7.5 Gender Pay Gap Reporting: Company Submissions        183

7.6 Working Hours: The Gender Pay Gap is a Work Gap     185

7.7 Spending and Wealth by Sex      189

7.7.1 UK in Year 1993/4     190

7.7.2 Wealth and Spending, UK and USA, 2008 to 2018       192

7.8 Income Taxes    194

7.9 Pensions           196

7.9.1 Occupational and Personal Pensions; the Private and Public Sectors      196

7.9.2 The State Pension       201

7.9.3 Numbers of Payees and Recipients       203

7.9.4 Gender Pension Inequality?     206

7.10 Housework and Unpaid Caring 207

7.10.1 Men and Housework 207

7.10.2 Men as Unpaid Carers           209

7.11 The Empathy Gap in Work, Pay, Wealth, Spending and Taxes   209

8. Imprisonment     213

8.1 Harsher Treatment for Men       213

8.1.1 Harsher Treatment Over Time            213

8.1.2 Harsher Treatment by Sex       215

8.2 Pop Goes the Woozle    233

8.3 Characteristics of Prisoners        235

8.3.1 Children in Prison       236

8.3.2 Prisoners’ IQ  238

8.4 Male Prisoners and Their Families          239

8.5 Self-Harming in Prison  239

8.6 Deaths in Prison            241

8.6.1 Suicide in Prison         241

8.6.2 Deaths in Prison from ‘Natural’ Causes           241

8.7 The Empathy Gap in Imprisonment       243

9. Violence and Abuse         245

9.1 All Violence       245

9.1.1 Victims           245

9.1.2 Perpetrators    251

9.2 Violence and Abuse Within the Home: Men as Victims   253

9.2.1 Incidence of Male Victims: Survey Data           255

9.2.2 Severe Force   258

9.2.3 Demographic Dependence of DA       258

9.2.4 Domestic Violence and Marital Status  259

9.2.5. Repeated Domestic Abuse      260

9.2.6 Reports to Police, Prosecutions and Convictions          260

9.2.7 Domestic Homicides   261

9.2.8 International Studies of Domestic Abuse         268

9.2.9 Dads as Victims of Domestic Violence 270

9.2.10 Domestic Abuse Services: The Sexes Compared         271

9.2.11 Perpetrator Programmes       272

9.3 The Empathy Gap for Men as Victims of Violence         275

10. Family Court Statistics    280

10.1 Family Court Statistics (England and Wales)      280

10.2 The Paramountcy Principle and the Perception of Risk  281

10.3 Legal Aid, LASPO and the Role of False Allegations     282

10.3.1 Legal Aid and LASPO           282

10.3.2 The Domestic Violence Legal Aid Gateway    283

10.3.3 Prevalence of Allegations of Domestic Abuse 285

10.3.4 Which Sex Gets Legal Aid in the Family Courts?        286

10.3.5 Routes through the Gateway  289

10.3.6 Statistics of Domestic Violence Remedy Orders         290

10.4 Lobbying and Serious Case Reviews      292

10.5 The Empathy Gap Against Fathers in the Family Courts           294

11. Are the Family Courts Biased Against Fathers?   296

11.1. Introduction   296

11.2 The 2008 Study of Hunt & MacLeod    297

11.3 Lawyers’, Judges’ and Court Officers’ Opinions 303

11.4 The 2015 Study of Harding and Newnham       304

11.5 Enforcement   308

11.6 What Proportion of Separating Couples Apply to Court?           312

11.7 Actual Contact Outcomes        313

11.8 Financial Issues           317

11.9 The Empathy Gap Against Non-Resident Fathers         318

12. Parental Alienation, ACEs and the Woozling of Shared Parenting            322

12.1 What is Parental Alienation?     322

12.1.1 Prevalence of Alienation        326

12.2 Adverse Childhood Experiences           329

12.2.1 Behaviour and Health Outcomes of ACEs     330

12.2.2 ACEs and Parental Involvement        332

12.3 Woozling Shared Parenting      333

12.4 Parental Conflict and the Benefit of Contact     341

12.5 Empathy Gap in Alienation and Shared Care    342

13. The Drivers of Fatherlessness    343

13.1 Marriage, Divorce, Cohabitation and Single Living: the Data      344

13.2 Statistics on Children’s Living Arrangements     349

13.3 The Decline of Marriage Drives Fatherlessness 351

13.4 The Socioeconomics of Marriage: The Marriage Gap    353

13.5 Summary of the Drivers of Fatherlessness         356

14. The Effect of Fatherlessness on Outcomes for Children 358

14.1 The Differing Perspectives on Fatherhood        359

14.2 Families Without Fatherhood, Dennis & Erdos, 1992    360

14.3 The Big Picture – A Selection of Studies            363

14.4 The Study of Radl, Salazar and Cebolla-Boado, 2017     368

14.5 The Study of McLanahan, Tach and Schneider, 2013     371

14.6 The Indirect Empathy Gap for Fatherless Children       373

15. Paternity and Its Enemies          375

15.1 Men’s Control Over Their Own Fertility            376

15.1.1 Male Contraception   376

15.1.2 Option Denied?        378

15.1.3 Men’s Fertility            380

15.2 Mispaternity and Paternity Fraud          384

15.2.1 Terminology and Perception  384

15.2.2 The Prevalence of Mispaternity          385

15.2.3 Men are Not Legally Entitled to Know if a Child is Theirs (UK)         391

15.2.4 A “Thin View” of Fatherhood?         395

15.3 The Empathy Gap Against Paternity and Male Fertility  402

16. Homelessness and Loneliness    403

16.1 Statutory Homelessness and “Single” Homelessness      403

16.1.1 Statutory Homelessness in England   406

16.1.2 Statutory Homelessness in Scotland   408

16.1.3 Statutory Homelessness in Wales       409

16.1.4 Statutory Homelessness in Northern Ireland   410

16.1.5 Statutory Homelessness: The Big Picture on Gender  410

16.2 Rough Sleepers            411

16.2.1 Rough Sleeper Counts in England     411

16.2.2 CHAIN Data for London     413

16.2.3 Rough Sleeper Counts in Wales         416

16.3 Deaths of Rough Sleepers        417

16.3.1 Bethany Thomas 2012 Data   417

16.3.2 ONS Data    417

16.3.3 Data from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism       419

16.4 Loneliness       421

16.4.1 Loneliness Survey in England            422

16.4.2 Loneliness Survey in Wales    424

16.5 The Empathy Gap in Homelessness and Loneliness      427

17. Mental Ill-Health and Substance Abuse  429

17.1 Mental Ill Health in Adults       430

17.1.1 Common Mental Disorders   430

17.1.2 Personality Disorders 432

17.1.3 Autism Spectrum Disorders  434

17.1.4 Psychotic Disorders  436

17.1.5 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)     437

17.1.6 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)         438

17.1.7 Bipolar Disorder       439

17.1.8 Mental Disorders and Employment    440

17.1.9 Access to Treatment by Demographic            440

17.2 Mental Ill Health in Children and Young Adults            441

17.2.1 All Disorders 441

17.2.2 Emotional Disorders 443

17.2.3 Behavioural Disorders           444

17.2.4 Hyperactivity Disorders        445

17.2.5 Autism, Eating Disorders and Less Common Disorders         446

17.2.6 Mental Health Medication of Children           447

17.2.7 Demographic, Lifestyle and Sexuality Factors 448

17.2.8 Teenagers and Students in the USA   449

17.3 Substance Abuse          450

17.3.1 Alcohol Abuse          451

17.3.2 Drug Abuse  451

17.4 People Detained under the Mental Health Act   452

17.5 APA and BPS Guidelines for the Psychological Practice with Boys and Men      453

17.5.1 APA Versus Data      461

17.6 The Empathy Gap in Mental Health Perceptions           463

18. Suicide, Suicidality and Self-Harm           466

18.1 Self-Harm, Suicidality and Suicide Attempts (England)  466

18.2 Suicide 470

18.2.1 UK Suicide Statistics and Trends       470

18.2.2 The Suicide Paradox  476

18.2.3 Reasons for the High Male Suicide Rate         476

18.2.4 Methods of Suicide and Suicide Attempts       489

18.3 Male Suicide: Narratives, Rationalisations and Blaming  491

18.4 The Empathy Gap in Suicide    496

19. Rape and False Allegations         501

19.1 Definition of Sexual Offences  502

19.2 Prevalence of Rape and Police Reports 506

19.3 Conviction Statistics for Rape   510

19.3.1 Sex of Rape Victims and Defendants 516

19.4 Attrition          517

19.5 Rape Trials and Juries   521

19.5.1 Video Evidence by Complainants      522

19.5.2 “Training” Rape Trial Juries   522

19.5.3 Rape Trials Without Juries?   523

19.6 False Allegations of Rape         524

19.6.1 The Harm Done by False Allegations 531

19.7 Disclosure       533

19.8 The Empathy Gap in Accusations of Sexual Assault      540

20. Sexual Assault: The Story Less Told       543

20.1 Sex Offender Prisoner Statistics (UK)   544

20.2 Examples of Women’s Sexual Abuse of Minors 546

20.3 The Prevalence of Female Sexual Abuse of Minors (UK)           550

20.4 Male Offenders’ History of Childhood Sexual Abuse     552

20.5 Perceptions of Female Perpetration and the Damage Done       556

20.6 The Sex of the Victim  558

20.7 Female Offender Sentencing    559

20.8 Female Sexual Offending in Correctional Facilities in the USA  560

20.9 Sexual Assault of Adult Men by Women           563

20.10 Adult Prison Sexual Assault    568

20.11 War Rape      570

20.12 The Empathy Gap in Sexual Assault   572

21. Reprise: The Case for the Empathy Gap 575

21.1 Education        578

21.2 Health and Longevity   579

21.3 Male Genital Mutilation            581

21.4 Work, Pay, Tax and Pensions   582

21.5 Imprisonment 584

21.6 Violence and Abuse     585

21.7 Family Courts  588

21.8 Alienation, ACES and Shared Care       590

21.9 Drivers of Fatherlessness         591

21.10 Effects of Fatherlessness on Children 591

21.11 Men’s Fertility and Paternity Fraud     592

21.12 Homelessness and Loneliness 593

21.13 Mental Health            594

21.14 Suicide           595

21.15 Rape and False Allegations     598

21.16 Sexual Assault: The Story Less Told    599

21.17 In Conclusion            601

Acronyms   603

References  607

Index         671

24 thoughts on “The Empathy Gap – The Book

    1. William Collins Post author

      Thanks – but it seems to be marked “solved” now. I was impressed by the trouble he was willing to go to to get hold of my book.

      Reply
  1. Nick Langford

    I hadn’t quite grasped the huge scale of this tome (until it was hauled out of the Antonov An-225 that had to deliver it). At £19.95 it’s an absolute bargain. The labour, the research, the erudition are truly impressive.
    My concern, however, is that most if not all of its readers will be the already converted, and it will have limited impact beyond.

    Reply
    1. William Collins Post author

      I agree with your misgiving. For that reason I never really intended to write a book. It’s genesis is another story.

      Reply
  2. Nick Langford

    Order placed! I am quite excited about reading this remarkable opus; I hope it will reach a wider readership than the already-converted.

    Reply
  3. George

    Just an FYI, ordered the book from Amazon.co.uk on the 17th July. Just got an email from them that, “Our supplier has informed us that this item is no longer available” and they cancelled the order. Will try Waterstones I suppose :/

    Reply
  4. Brad Walton

    Amazon has just made “The Empathy Gap” available in Canada. I have ordered my copy. Thank you for all your very hard work!

    Reply
  5. Alice Williams

    My father was bullied by my mother for most of their married life and occasionally things slipped over into physical violence on her part. I will order your book from our local Waterstones.

    Reply
  6. Philip Griffiths

    I will buy two copies. One for myself and one to send to the Guardian. I don’t imagine they will review it but you never know.

    Reply
      1. John

        Thanks for this comprehensive look at the elephant in the room. I will refer my medical director and my doctor to it in a few days. It’s wonderful to have something so solid to use when discussing the one topic that lots of professionals love to deny, mock, and discount.

        As an aside, I wondered whether you covered female-male rape/child-rape in the book somewhere given that the latest research shows that they occur at near-parity with male-female forms of rape/child rape.

        Reply
  7. Frank

    Hello, thanks for the great website and the great book.
    Please release the book as a Kindle e-book or a PDF e-book. Thank you.

    Reply
    1. William Collins Post author

      I have given an ebook some thought but have no plans at present to produce one. The reason is that the bulk of the book is heavy with data, including 179 Figures, mostly graphs, and my experience with Kindle is that this material just does not come across adequately in that format. pdf is potentially more workable. Will give it more thought.

      Reply
      1. Frank

        Thank you, William. You are right that charts, maps and the like often come out poorly in the Kindle format, but come out fairly well in PDF format. Please do release the book as a PDF when you can. Thank you.

        Reply
      2. andrew

        Dear William,

        I understand your worries about how data is deal with on Kindle. I would still ask you to consider it as for those of us who are dyslexic the kindle’s ability to change the look of the text can be the difference between being able to read it or not.

        Also, I wondered if an audiobook might be in the works?

        Reply
        1. William Collins Post author

          OK, I hear you re ebook/Kindle. Re: audio book, it would not work with audio only as the bulk of the book is thick with graphs & tables. However, video with spoken word & graphics on screen is entirely do-able – it’s a matter of finding the time.

          Reply
    1. William Collins Post author

      Sorry, but I suspect it probably is. The management accepts no responsibility for depressing content on the grounds that this could only reasonably have been expected!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *