Intimate Partner Abuse among African American Lesbians: Prevalence, Risk Factors, Theory, and Resilience

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an intersectionality-based model for conceptualizing the risk factors associated with intimate partner abuse (IPA) among African American lesbians. The available literature on prevalence and risk factors associated with IPA suggests that: (a) estimates of prevalence rates for African American lesbian IPA could range from 25 % to 40 %, with the higher end of the range representing the inclusion of nonphysical forms of abuse (i.e., verbal abuse, intimidation, and coercion); and (b) the risk factors most likely to be associated with IPA for this population include poverty, history of trauma and mental health symptoms (including substance abuse), in addition to distress caused by multiple and intersecting forms of oppression (i.e., racialized, classist sexism and heterosexism). The model demonstrates the manner in which all of these risk factors intersect to create disproportionately high risk for this underresearched and underserved population. A psychodynamically based model is also presented that illustrates the cycle of abuse within an African American lesbian relationship. Finally, a model depicting the most likely protective factors segues into a brief concluding discussion about the implications for intervention, prevention, policy, education, and future research.

Understanding the Relation Between Neighborhoods and Intimate Partner Violence: An Integrative Review

“…IPV includes physical violence (i.e., hurting/trying to hurt another person by physical force), sexual violence (i.e., forcing a partner to participate in a sex act without her or his consent), and/or psychological violence (i.e., threatening a partner, his or her possessions or loved ones, or harming a partner’s sense of self-worth) that occur between two current or former intimate partners (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). Partner violence can occur between same- and opposite-sex couples (Hill, Woodson, Ferguson, & Parks, 2012) and with either partner as the perpetrator and/or victim (gender symmetry; Foshee, Bauman, & Linder, 1999; Straus, 2008). Some studies have shown that women perpetrate violence as much or more often than men (Caetano, Schaefer, & Cunradi, 2001).…”

“The ecological fallacy” (Dutton 1994) revised

“…Other studies found at least an equal amount of domestic violence in heterosexual and lesbian intimate partnerships, with IPV in lesbian partnerships being quite common (e.g. Bologna et al, 1987;Lie et al, 1991;Renzetti, 1992;Renzetti and Miley, 1996;Waldner-Haugrud et al, 1997;Barnes, 1998;West, 2002;Peterman and Dixon, 2003;more current: Duke and Davidson, 2009;Walters, 2009;Hughes et al, 2010;Hill et al, 2012;West, 2012).…”

“…For example, in their study on intimate partner abuse among African-American lesbians Hill et al (2012) found that intimate partner abuse prevalence among African-American lesbians, in addition to the findings of prevalence rates among the general lesbian population, may fall between 25 and 40 percent (p. 403). This is in accordance with the results of The Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project (for an introduction see Hamel et al, 2012).…”

A systematic review on LGBTIQ Intimate Partner Violence from a Western perspective

“…There are many negative societal attitudes towards LGBTIQ people as reported in the included literature, including transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, and detrimental attitudes to LGBTIQ masculinity and femininity. In several studies, the role of these attitudes on current understandings of LGBTIQ IPV impeded societal recognition of the diverse experiences of LGBTIQ people (Rose, 2003;Hill, Woodson, Ferguson, & Parks, 2012;Frankland & Brown, 2014;Calton et al, 2016). Importantly, the noted societal attitudes create a gender and sexuality hierarchy which promotes heteronormativity within IPV public discourse.…”