Nationally representative studies confirm that LGBTQ individuals are at an elevated risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. While many similarities exist between LGBTQ and ...heterosexual-cisgender intimate partner violence, research has illuminated a variety of unique aspects of LGBTQ intimate partner violence regarding the predictors of perpetration, the specific forms of abuse experienced, barriers to help-seeking for victims, and policy and intervention needs. This is the first book that systematically reviews the literature regarding LGBTQ intimate partner violence, draws key lessons for current practice and policy, and recommends research areas and enhanced methodologies.
With intimate partner violence (IPV) among same-sex couples largely ignored by policy makers and researchers alike, accurately estimating the size of the problem is important in determining whether ...this minimal response is justified. As such, the present study is a secondary data analysis of the National Violence Against Women Survey and represents the first multiple variable regression analysis of U.S. adult same-sex IPV prevalence using a nationally representative sample (N = 14,182). Logistic regressions indicate that, independent of sex, respondents with a history of same-sex relationships are more likely to experience verbal, controlling, physical, and sexual IPV. Behaviorally “bisexual” respondents experience the highest IPV rates and are most likely to be victimized by an opposite-sex partner. Implications for future IPV research regarding sexual orientation and gender are discussed.
Relative to cisgender people, transgender individuals not only are at an elevated risk of experiencing at least one form of physical or sexual violence, but also at an increased risk of ...polyvictimization: that is, exposure to multiple types of violence over the life course. Given that polyvictimization increases vulnerability to adverse mental and physical health sequelae, there is a pressing need to identify which sociodemographic subgroups of transgender people are at greater risk of polyvictimization. Understanding these risk profiles will have important implications for developing transgender-specific models for violence prevention, screening, and intervention. Responding to this need in the literature, the present article offers secondary data analyses of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest study to-date of transgender people in the United States (N = 27,715 transgender adults), with participants selected from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., as well as several U.S. territories and overseas military bases. Multiple variable regressions examine sociodemographic predictors of five distinct forms of violence, as well as how many of these five violence types were experienced. The examined sociodemographic predictors included gender, sexual orientation, race-ethnicity, citizenship status, ever been homeless, has a disability, transgender outness, gender visual conformity, household income, and age. The five assessed violence victimization types included intimate partner violence, nonpartner sexual assault, antitransgender family violence, antitransgender physical violence during Kindergarten through 12th grade, and past-year antitransgender physical violence. With some exceptions, results indicate that more marginalized segments of transgender communities have a greater likelihood of experiencing polyvictimization. Recommendations are discussed for future research and service provision.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) against transgender individuals is highly prevalent and impactful, and thus research is needed to examine the extent to which survivors are able to reach needed ...assistance and safety. To our knowledge, no U.S.-based quantitative studies have explored transgender utilization patterns and perceptions regarding a broad range of help-giving resources (HGRs). The present article fills this gap in the literature by exploring help-seeking attitudes and behaviors of a convenience sample of 92 transgender adults and 325 cisgender sexual minority adults in the United States. Results from an online questionnaire indicate that, among the subsample experiencing IPV (n = 187), help-seeking rates were significantly higher among transgender survivors (84.1%) than cisgender sexual minority survivors (67.1%). In addition, transgender survivors most commonly sought help from friends (76.7%), followed by mental health care providers (39.5%) and family (30.2%), whereas formal HGRs such as police, IPV telephone hotlines, and survivor shelters had low utilization rates. Among all transgender participants, IPV survivors were significantly less likely than nonsurvivors to perceive family, medical doctors, and survivor hotlines as helpful HGRs for other survivors in general. Finally, transgender survivors were significantly less likely than nonsurvivors to self-report a willingness to disclose any future IPV to family. Although replication with larger, probability samples is needed, these findings suggest that friends often represent the primary line of defense for transgender survivors seeking help, and thus bystander intervention trainings and education should be adapted to address not just cisgender but also transgender IPV. Furthermore, because most formal HGR types appear to be underutilized and perceived more negatively by transgender survivors, renewed efforts are needed to tailor services, service advertising, and provider trainings to the needs of transgender communities. Directions for future research are reviewed.
Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is highly prevalent among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, little is known regarding its developmental patterns, risk factors, or ...health-related consequences. We examined IPV victimization in an ethnically diverse community-based convenience sample of 248 LGBT youth (aged 16-20 at study outset) who provided six waves of data across a 5-year period. Results from multilevel models indicated high, stable rates of IPV victimization across this developmental period (ages 16-25 years) that differed between demographic groups. Overall, 45.2% of LGBT youth were physically abused and 16.9% were sexually victimized by a dating partner during the study. Odds of physical victimization were 76% higher for female than for male LGBT youth, 2.46 times higher for transgender than for cisgender youth, and 2 to 4 times higher for racial-ethnic minorities than for White youth. The prevalence of physical IPV declined with age for White youth but remained stable for racial-ethnic minorities. Odds of sexual victimization were 3.42 times higher for transgender than for cisgender youth, 75% higher for bisexual or questioning than for gay or lesbian youth, and increased more with age for male than female participants. Within-person analyses indicated that odds of physical IPV were higher at times when youth reported more sexual partners, more marijuana use, and lower social support; odds of sexual IPV were higher at times when youth reported more sexual partners and more LGBT-related victimization. In prospective analyses, sexual IPV predicted increased psychological distress; both IPV types marginally predicted increased marijuana use.
Research finds that transgender survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) often face transphobia-related barriers to reaching help. Due partially to a dearth of larger datasets supporting ...multivariate analyses, it is unclear whether sociodemographic factors can further hinder transgender help-seeking. Addressing these gaps, logistic regression secondary data analyses were conducted with 15,198 transgender IPV survivors from the nationally-representative 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Odds of seeking help from survivor agencies were significantly greater for survivors who are trans men, assigned-female-at-birth genderqueer, Alaska Native or American Indian, poorer, transphobia victims, and victims of any IPV type, especially controlling IPV. In addition, odds of not seeking help due fearing transphobic responses were significantly greater for survivors who are trans women, asexual or bisexual, poorer, younger, undocumented, childless, ever homeless, transphobia victims, or victims of any IPV type, particularly sexual IPV. Implications for future research and population-specific service provision are discussed.
While research repeatedly finds that intimate partner violence (IPV) rates are elevated in same-gender relationships (SG-IPV) and in the relationships of sexual minorities (SM-IPV), it is less clear ...whether this abuse tends to be “unidirectional,” with one perpetrator, or “bidirectional,” with two perpetrators. This article offers a systematic review of the SG-IPV and SM-IPV (SGSM-IPV) directionality literature, including calculating weighted and unweighted prevalence rate estimates, as well as a critical assessment of methodological limitation and IPV motivation research. Findings indicate that, while approximately half of those who experience an SGSM-IPV relationship have both used and received abusive tactics—similar to findings in the literature on different-gender IPV and IPV in the relationships of heterosexuals—labeling this as “mutual abuse” may mask complexities in the data, including, but not limited to a dearth of relationship-level analysis, a lack of standardization in how SGSM-IPV is operationalized, and newly emerging research on the prevalence of self-defense as a motive in bidirectional SGSM-IPV. Directions for future research are discussed.
Measures of intimate partner violence (IPV) have largely been developed and validated in heterosexual, cisgender samples, with little attention to whether these measures are culturally appropriate ...for sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. However, rates of IPV are two to three times higher among SGM than heterosexual populations, highlighting the importance of culturally appropriate measures of IPV for SGM populations. In this article, after reviewing key problems with the use of existing IPV measures with SGM samples, we describe the development of a toolkit of new and adapted measures of IPV for use with SGM assigned female at birth (SGM-AFAB) populations, including an adapted version of the Conflict Tactics Scale–Revised, an adapted measure of coercive control, and the newly developed SGM-Specific IPV Tactics Measure. Using data from a sample of 352 SGM-AFAB individuals, we then test the psychometric properties of these three measures, including their factor structures, internal reliability, and convergent/divergent validity. Results provide initial evidence of the reliability and validity of each measure. Together, these three measures comprise a culturally appropriate and psychometrically validated measurement toolkit for studying a broad range of IPV tactics among SGM-AFAB that will help build a foundation for more in-depth research into IPV in SGM populations.
There is a paucity of research comparing perceptions of technology-facilitated partner monitoring or stalking between same-gender and different-gender relationships. As such, a randomized vignette ...study was conducted with 738 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university, who read one of four stories of intimate partner cyber-monitoring (IPCM): same-gender IPCM with physical violence, same-gender IPCM without physical violence, different-gender IPCM with physical violence, and different-gender IPCM without physical violence. Results show that participants were significantly less likely to recommend the survivor break up with the abuser if the story described a same-gender relationship. If the story involved IPCM alone rather than also physical violence, participants were significantly less likely to label the abuse as “domestic violence,” more likely to recommend doing nothing, and less likely to recommend most of the assessed protective actions—including being less likely to recommend asking the survivor to break up with the abuser, seeking help from friends and family, calling a domestic violence hotline, or calling the police. Results also indicate that IPCM is largely perceived to be less serious and less deserving of survivor support than physical intimate partner violence (IPV), for both same-gender and different-gender relationships. Implications for prevention education programming as well as research are discussed.
Limited research on female-assigned-at-birth sexual and gender minorities (FAB SGM) suggests that their risk of psychological, physical, and sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and ...perpetration may be linked to childhood violence exposure (CVE), such as experiencing child abuse, or witnessing sibling or interparental abuse. That said, there is a dearth of research in this population examining whether there is typically a violence type match between CVE and IPV (e.g., physical CVE predicting physical IPV), a gender match between those involved in CVE and later IPV (e.g., witnessing the abuse of female parents predicting IPV among women), or an increase in IPV risk commensurate with the number of different CVE types experienced. Addressing these gaps, this article draws on the baseline survey data of FAB400, a merged cohort accelerated longitudinal study of 488 FAB SGM adolescents and young adults. Analyses focused on the subsample of 457 participants with prior intimate relationship experience. Findings revealed that each assessed form of CVE—parental verbal abuse victimization, parental physical maltreatment victimization, childhood sexual abuse victimization, witnessing sibling abuse, and witnessing interparental violence—predicted risk of IPV perpetration and victimization, without evidence of violence type match. Witnessing interparental violence was associated with IPV irrespective of the abused parent’s gender. In addition, exposure to a greater number of forms of CVE was associated with an increased risk of all types of IPV victimization and perpetration. Results offer preliminary evidence that the intergenerational transmission of violence is an applicable framework for FAB SGM, and as such this should be considered when screening and intervening for childhood, family, and partner violence in this population. Suggestions for future directions are discussed.
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