Conclusions

This concluding chapter reviews key findings from this book, from the astounding prevalence of LGBTQ IPV and its damaging outcomes to the myths and pressures that have rendered LGBTQ IPV largely invisible throughout the world and to the heavy price that victims pay for this invisibility. Ultimately, a call to action is made for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, survivors, and their allies. By building on the lessons offered in this book, it is hoped that one day we can make the invisible visible and end LGBTQ IPV.

Introduction

This chapter invites readers into the hidden world of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and queer (LGBTQ) people. It begins by debunking common myths of LGBTQ IPV, myths that have been shaped in part by homophobia, transphobia, and a historic emphasis on heterosexual-cisgender (HC) relationships in the global IPV-prevention movement. Unfortunately, even today, these myths contribute to systemic failings in how LGBTQ IPV is addressed throughout the world. Collectively, these myths and the lack of concrete support for LGBTQ victims have rendered LGBTQ IPV largely invisible. This chapter—and, indeed, the book—contends that many answers to this problem actually already exist in research, if only they could be extracted. With this in mind, the goal of this book is to comprehensively review the past forty years of LGBTQ IPV English-language research from throughout the world—the first book to do so. Just as significantly, the book mines this literature for evidence-based tips regarding future policy, practice, and research, tips that are shared at the close of each chapter. This introductory chapter concludes with a brief guide to the upcoming chapters and the terminology used throughout the book.

How Can we Improve Government Responses?

This chapter explores government-based responses to LGBTQ IPV. The chapter begins by discussing the impact of laws on the abilities of LGBTQ IPV victims to seek help, such as laws governing the right to be LGBTQ, the right to marry, and the right to adopt children. With this as context, the chapter turns to two key government-based help-giving resources (HGRs)—law enforcement and courts—detailing specific strengths and shortcomings in how each of them addresses LGBTQ IPV. The chapter then looks at prevention and intervention efforts regarding LGBTQ IPV, with a particular eye toward challenges in applying resources designed for heterosexual-cisgender people to LGBTQ populations. The chapter concludes with implications for future policy, practice, and research.

How Can we Improve Nongovernmental Responses?

Chapters 5 and 6 shine a spotlight on the help-giving resources (HGRs) used by LGBTQ IPV victims, which can provide much-needed assistance in coping with and escaping abuse. This chapter focuses in particular on those HGRs that are not exclusively employees of or departments within governments: friends, family, neighbors, religious organizations, support groups, mental and medical healthcare providers, and IPV victim organizations (such as telephone hotlines, shelters, and multiservice IPV agencies). This chapter examines which of these HGR types are most likely to be sought out for help by LGBTQ IPV victims, as well as how helpful they are perceived to be. From there, the chapter delves into detailed research on each nongovernmental HGR type, highlighting both successes and challenges resulting from serving LGBTQ IPV victims. Recurring themes include the potential damage inflicted on victims by HGRs that do not show respect for victimization experiences and LGBTQ identities, as well as the consequences of asking LGBTQ victims to utilize resources originally designed for HC IPV victims (with service advertising, victim screening, service content, provider training, and victim referrals at times erroneously treating IPV as a one-size-fits-all phenomenon). The chapter concludes with implications for future policy, practice, and research.

What is LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)?

This chapter synthesizes research on the nature of LGBTQ IPV, including the tactics comprising and the prevalence of each form of IPV (psychological, physical, and sexual IPV, along with intimate-partner homicide), its directionality (i.e., how common it is that one or both partners in a relationship uses IPV tactics, as well as how motivations like self-defense color the so-called mutual-battering debate), where and when it occurs, and outcomes for victims. Where possible, estimates within LGBTQ populations are broken down by sexual orientation, gender identity, trans*-cisgender identity, race and ethnicity, age, and nationality. Comparisons are likewise drawn between sexual minority and heterosexual victims as well as between trans* and cisgender victims. Given that methodological differences have the potential to substantially impact results, an effort is made to largely make apples-to-apples comparisons between similar studies (such as by comparing studies using the same IPV lifetime victimization time frame), and IPV frequency findings are divided into those emerging from probability versus non-probability sampled studies. Quantitative data in this chapter, as well as throughout the book, is leaned on for population estimates, which is then repeatedly contextualized with high-detail qualitative data. The chapter concludes with implications for future policy, practice, and research.

Why does LGBTQ IPV Happen?

This chapter examines theories of LGBTQ IPV perpetration and the degree to which they are supported by evidence. These theories are divided into several categories: perpetration theories that are shared between HC and LGBTQ IPV (including theories focused on socialization, power imbalances, dependency, self-justifications, and psychological traits), contested perpetration theories regarding gender (including evidence supporting competing views in the literature that gender is a relevant factor for neither HC nor LGBTQ IPV, only HC but not LGBTQ IPV, or both HC and LGBTQ IPV), and perpetration theories unique to LGBTQ IPV (including theories regarding experiencing discrimination, internalizing discriminatory attitudes, and degree of outness). Relatedly, this chapter also examines barriers to escape for victims (including not recognizing IPV, dependency, fear, and hurdles in reaching out for help). Finally, this chapter exposes barriers that are making it more difficult to see the big picture of why LGBTQ IPV happens (including fears of excusing abusers and blaming victims, challenges in distinguishing causes from outcomes, and doubts over whether there are one or multiple explanations of IPV). Ultimately, this chapter emphasizes the complexity of IPV and calls for more population-specific theorizing. The chapter concludes with implications for future policy, practice, and research.

How do we Know What we Know?

This chapter details the challenges in studying LGBTQ IPV and tips for improving future research. It begins by examining differing epistemologies (i.e., beliefs about what research is and is not capable of learning) and how this has informed the types of research scholars have been willing to conduct. Given that the vast majority of LGBTQ IPV research thus far has involved survey methodologies—be it qualitative or quantitative, entailing interviews or questionnaires—the chapter then moves into two of the key hurdles in conducting surveys on this topic. First, IPV measurement issues are addressed, including differentiating IPV from other types of interpersonal crimes, sensitivity versus specificity in IPV survey measurement, not omitting or merging distinct types of IPV, choosing an appropriate time frame in which IPV may have occurred, adequately distinguishing victimization from perpetration, and adequately designing IPV measures for LGBTQ populations. Second, population issues are unpackaged, including how to define the LGBTQ population, challenges in probability and non-probability sampling, and a series of additional sampling issues. The chapter concludes with implications for future policy, practice, and research.