Barriers to Help Seeking for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive and devastating social problem that is estimated to occur in one of every four opposite-sex relationships and at least one of every five same-sex romantic relationships. These estimates may not represent violence against those who identify as transgender or genderqueer, and very little comprehensive research has been conducted on IPV within these populations. One statewide study on IPV found rates of IPV were as high as one of every two transgender individuals. In order to cope with the effects of abuse or leave an abusive partner, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and genderqueer (LGBTQ) IPV survivors seek support from others. However, LGBTQ IPV survivors may experience unique difficulties related to their sexual orientation and gender identity when seeking assistance. This article reviews the literature on LGBTQ IPV and suggests three major barriers to help-seeking exist for LGBTQ IPV survivors: a limited understanding of the problem of LGBTQ IPV, stigma, and systemic inequities. The significance and consequences of each barrier are discussed, and suggestions for future research, policy, and practice are provided.

Download Full-text

The Impact of Mandatory Reporting Laws on Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence: Intersectionality, Help-Seeking and the Need for Change

Journal of Family Violence ◽

10.1007/s10896-019-00103-w ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 255-267 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Carrie Lippy ◽

Selima N. Jumarali ◽

Nkiru A. Nnawulezi ◽

Emma Peyton Williams ◽

Connie Burk

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Mandatory Reporting ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Sources Of Support ◽

And Gender ◽

Reporting Laws ◽

The Impact

AbstractResearch illustrates the importance of help-seeking for intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. However, mandatory reporting (MR) laws can affect help-seeking by requiring some sources of support to report survivors to formal systems. This convergent mixed methods study of 2462 survivors surveyed through the National Domestic Violence Hotline explores how MR laws impact survivors’ help-seeking, the outcomes of their help-seeking, and whether their race, gender, and/or sexual orientation influenced their experiences. Findings indicated that MR laws reduce help-seeking for over a third of survivors, provider warnings about MR often reduce survivors’ ability to receive the support they seek, and reports when triggered make the situation worse for most survivors. Significant differences emerged by gender identity and race/ethnicity, emphasizing unique contexts for trans and gender non-conforming survivors and survivors of color. We provide policy and practice implications given these unintended harms of MR laws for IPV survivors.

Download Full-text

Migrant Women’s Help-Seeking Decisions and Use of Support Resources for Intimate Partner Violence in China

Violence Against Women ◽

10.1177/10778012211000133 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 107780122110001

Author(s):

Ran Hu ◽

Jia Xue ◽

Xiying Wang

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽

Poisson Model ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Future Research ◽

Related Factors ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Sources Of Support

In China, women who domestically relocate from rural or less developed regions to major cities are at a higher risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) than their non-migrant counterparts. Few studies have focused on Chinese domestic migrant women’s help-seeking for IPV and their use of different sources of support. The present study aimed to identify factors that influence migrant women’s help-seeking decisions. In addition, we also examined factors that contribute to migrant women’s use of diverse sources of support for IPV. A sample of 280 migrant women victimized by IPV in the past year at the time of the survey was drawn from a larger cross-sectional study conducted in four major urban cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Using a multinomial logistic regression model and a zero-inflated Poisson model, we found that factors influencing migrant women’s help-seeking decisions and their use of diverse sources of support included socioeconomic factors, IPV type, relationship-related factors, knowledge of China’s first anti-Domestic Violence Law, and perception of the effectiveness of current policies. We discuss implications for future research and interventions.

Download Full-text

Social support needs and help seeking behaviours among Spanish-speaking Canadian immigrant women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV)

10.32920/ryerson.14666898.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Angela Cerdena D’Unian

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Immigrant Women ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Future Research ◽

Spanish Speaking ◽

Greater Toronto Area ◽

Sources Of Support

There is considerable research about women who have experienced Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the Canadian literature. However, most of these studies have focused on IPV among Canadian-born women. Immigrant women who make the decision to seek help for IPV have received less attention in the research-based literature in Canada. This qualitative study examined the IPV experiences of 10 Spanish-speaking immigrant women in Canada, all from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The main focus was to examine the intersectionality between social support and help seeking behaviours for IPV. Results indicated that Spanish-speaking immigrants in Canada utilized both formal and informal sources of support for IPV. The importance of continuous support as a factor preventing women from returning to an abusive relationship was consistently reported by participants. Implications of the study findings and directions for future research are further discussed in this manuscript.

Download Full-text

Understanding Formal Responses to Intimate Partner Violence and Women’s Resistance Processes: A Scoping Review

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838020967348 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 152483802096734

Author(s):

Meg Osborn ◽

Valli Rajah

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

English Language ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Individual Level ◽

Institutional Responses ◽

Everyday Resistance

Intimate partner violence (IPV) literature addresses the ways in which women oppose violent male partners through acts of “everyday resistance.” There is a limited understanding, however, of the relationship between women’s resistance and their formal help-seeking in the context of IPV. Our scoping review, which includes 74 articles published in English-language journals between 1994 and 2017, attempts to help fill this gap by developing systematic knowledge regarding the following research questions: (1) How are formal institutional responses discussed within the literature on resistance to IPV? (2) How does institutional help-seeking facilitate or obstruct IPV survivors’ personal efforts to resist violence? We find that institutions and organizations succeed in facilitating resistance processes when they counter victim-blaming ideas and provide IPV survivors with shared community and a sense of control over their futures. However, they fall short in terms of helping survivors by expecting survivors to adhere to a rigid narrative about appropriate responses to violence, devoting insufficient attention to individual-level factors impacting survivors’ vulnerability and ability to access help, and replicating abuse dynamics when interacting with survivors. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

Download Full-text

Investigating Trans People’s Vulnerabilities to Intimate Partner Violence/Abuse

Partner Abuse ◽

10.1891/1946-6560.6.1.107 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 107-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Julia K. Walker

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Public Relations ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Research Literature ◽

Future Research ◽

Law Enforcement Agencies ◽

Trans People ◽

And Bisexual

Traditionally recognized as “violence against women,” the research literature on intimate partner violence/abuse (IPV/A; also known as domestic violence) continually neglects to incorporate subculture populations that do not fit societal understanding of typical victim/offender roles. More than 4 decades of research has expanded our knowledge of IPV/A in Western and developing countries across race, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. However, identifying the prevalence of IPV/A across all manner of relationships has been difficult. In particular, IPV/A within the transgender population has remained practically invisible. Although frequently recognized as an appendage of lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations, trans people are often overlooked in research because of their invisibility within society. Research that does exist is rarely generalizable because of sample size and selection. Therefore, research is required to assess how trans people are affected by IPV/A, what they understand IPV/A to be, what needs are trans-specific, and what help-seeking barriers exist.An analysis of the literature pertaining to trans people regarding IPV/A and other violence, health, and public relations as well as experiences with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and judiciary in an attempt to identify any issues that could be relevant to trans people experiencing IPV/A is presented. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Download Full-text

Exploring Intimate Partner Violence in Polynesia: A Scoping Review

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838018795504 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 769-778 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Emma Heard ◽

Lisa Fitzgerald ◽

Maxine Whittaker ◽

Sina Va’ai ◽

Allyson Mutch

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Research Policy ◽

Small Body ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Health Concern ◽

Future Research ◽

Global Public Health ◽

Formal Leadership

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major, global public health concern with significant impacts, particularly for women, worldwide. There is an immediate need to develop comprehensive understandings of the complex drivers of this multifaceted issue in diverse cultural and social contexts. This scoping review used a systematic approach to gather a broad scope of peer-reviewed, publisher-controlled, and gray literature investigating IPV in Polynesia, a region of the Pacific experiencing high rates of IPV. A total of 181 articles were identified through a comprehensive search that included five cross-disciplinary databases; government, intergovernmental, and nongovernment websites; and consultation with community organizations. Thirty-three articles met the inclusion criteria related to IPV in a Polynesian country or community abroad and were included in this review. Narrative synthesis, which included summarizing and sorting key findings into common themes, was conducted to provide an overview of what is currently known about IPV in Polynesia and Polynesian communities living aboard. Key themes, which arose from the data analysis included: high prevalence of IPV, attitudes supporting IPV, urbanization and migration, traditional protective factors, and formal leadership and laws. The paucity of rigorous literature highlights an immediate need for IPV prevention research and intervention within Polynesian communities. This review includes a discussion of the limitations of this small body of literature and makes recommendations for future research, policy, and program development to include intersectionality in order to deepen understandings and enhance inclusive and meaningful intervention and policy implementation.

Download Full-text

Understanding the Body and Embodiment in the Context of Women’s Resistance to Intimate Partner Violence: A Scoping Review

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838021995941 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152483802199594

Author(s):

Valli Rajah ◽

Meg Osborn

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Scoping Review ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

English Language ◽

Social Systems ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

The Body ◽

Emotional States ◽

Policy And Practice

Scholars acknowledge that women oppose male intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet there is limited comprehensive knowledge regarding how women’s bodies and embodiment, that is, their physical and emotional practices and the cultural and social systems that influence them, figure in this process. Our scoping review helps fill this gap by analyzing and synthesizing 74 research articles published in English-language scholarly journals between 1994 and 2017 to address three research questions: (1) How does existing IPV research conceptualize resistance? (2) To what extent do the body and embodiment appear in this research? and (3) What common themes emerge from investigation of the role of embodiment and the body in the context of IPV? The articles identify several subtypes of resistance strategies including avoidance, help-seeking, violent action, and leaving a violent relationship. The reviewed research also regularly describes women’s physical and emotional states in the context of IPV. Only a small number of these texts, however, define or conceptualize embodiment. Our analysis of the manner in which the body figures in women’s resistance to IPV yielded four themes: (1) the active body, (2) the injured/constrained body, (3) the interactive body, and (4) the transformative body. We conclude with a discussion of policy and practice implications, such as the need to increase awareness about how institutions enforce embodied norms among victims and use the body to assign blame and/or proffer assistance in the context of IPV.

Download Full-text

Transgressed

10.18574/nyu/9781479832941.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Xavier L. Guadalupe-Diaz

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Identity Work ◽

Gender Transition ◽

Making Sense ◽

And Gender ◽

Generic Strategies ◽

Patterns Of Abuse

This book focuses on the stories of eighteen transgender survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and how their accounts challenge conventional understandings of this form of abuse. By examining the contexts in which abuse occurs, the book anchors transgender experiences with IPV within a largely trans-antagonistic culture. The dynamics of abuse, as told by survivors, are largely informed by an existing transphobic and genderist society. The prevalent themes in the accounts describe how transphobic and genderist attacks manifested as distinct patterns of abuse. When reflecting and making sense of their reality, survivors saw many of their experiences with abuse as attempts by abusers to control their gender transition and define them on the abusers’ own terms. The book discusses a prominent dynamic of the abuse as controlling transition, in which victims felt that abusers wanted to regulate their identities. This control occurs through two generic strategies: (1) discrediting identity work, redefining the situation to focus on participant-defined insecurities, a form of altercasting; and (2) targeting sign vehicles, including regulating gender transition treatments and controlling through props. Finally, survivors described what is referred to as walking the gender tightrope in which respondents used gendered language in the processing of their victim identity. Additionally, they discussed various help-seeking strategies and how they navigated genderist boundaries and barriers to these resources. The book works toward characterizing the distinct experiences of transgender survivors of IPV while also identifying differences across the intersections of race, class, and gender identities.

Download Full-text

Korean Immigrant Women and Intimate Partner Violence: A Review of the Literature

Journal of Asian Research ◽

10.22158/jar.v2n4p153 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 153

Author(s):

Suyeon Park

Keyword(s):

Intimate Partner Violence ◽

Partner Violence ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Immigrant Women ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Intimate Partner ◽

Future Research ◽

Korean Immigrant ◽

Korean Immigrant Women ◽

Seeking Behavior

This articles reviews and synthesizes the existing empirical studies on intimate partner violence among Korean immigrant women. A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted for the period of 1997 to 2017. From 9 eligible studies that met the inclusion criteria, prevalence rates and risk factors of intimate partner violence and help seeking behavior among Korean immigrant women are discussed. Based on the findings of this review, suggestions for future research are presented.

Download Full-text