Specifically, we find no published studies that examine gay and bisexual men's perceptions of the commonness, severity, and helpfulness of a police response to IPV within their communities – areas that have been examined in great detail for male-perpetrator/female-victim IPV. There is also a lack of studies as to the perceptions of gay, bisexual, and other MSM regarding the extent of IPV in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. 7 The literature is comparatively silent, qualitatively and quantitatively, as to the experiences of survivors of same-sex IPV.
Published studies have, in general, sought to determine IPV prevalences, typologies, demographic correlates, and health sequela. 7, 8Īs the extent of same-sex IPV among gay, bisexual, and other MSM is beginning to be documented in the literature, many facets of IPV among MSM remain unaddressed.
1, 2, 4–6 Despite a nascent increase in IPV studies among MSM, same-sex IPV continues to be markedly under-researched, particularly when compared to the vast body of literature regarding male-perpetrator/female-victim IPV. 1–3 Current estimates indicate that approximately 25–50% of United States gay and bisexual men report experiencing physical IPV and 12–30% report experiencing sexual IPV. Recent studies suggest that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) experience intimate partner violence (IPV) at rates comparable to or higher than those documented among women. As the response to same-sex IPV grows, legal and health practitioners should ensure that laws and policies afford all protections to GBM IPV victims that are afforded to female IPV victims, and should consider methods to minimize the negative impact that homophobic stigma has upon GBM's access of police assistance. While IPV was viewed as both common and problematic among GBM, their previous experiences of homophobia were correlated with a learned anticipation of rejection and stigma from law enforcement. In regression, respondents who reported more lifetime experiences of homophobic discrimination were more likely to have this comparatively negative perception (odds ratio: 1.11, 95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.17).Ĭonclusion: The results support a minority stress hypothesis to understand GBM's perceptions of police helpfulness in response to IPV. While most respondents had identical perceptions of the commonness (82.7%) and severity (84.1%) of IPV in GBM compared to heterosexual women, the majority of the sample (59.1%) reported perceiving that contacting the police would be less helpful for a GBM IPV victim than for a heterosexual female IPV victim. Results: The majority of respondents viewed IPV among GBM as common (54.9%) and problematic (63.8%). The regression model controlled for age, race/ethnicity, education, sexual orientation, employment status, and recent receipt of physical, emotional, and sexual IPV, with key covariates being internalized homophobia and experiences of homophobic discrimination.
We fitted a logistic model for the outcome of viewing the police response to a gay/bisexual IPV victim as less helpful than for a female heterosexual IPV victim. Respondents were asked to describe the commonness of IPV, severity of IPV, and helpfulness of a hypothetical police response to IPV among GBM and among heterosexual women.
Methods: We drew data from a 2011 survey of venue-recruited GBM (n=989). We examine GBM's perceptions of same-sex IPV: its commonness, its severity, and the helpfulness of a hypothetical police response to a GBM experiencing IPV. Introduction Despite several recent studies documenting high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) among gay and bisexual men (GBM), the literature is silent regarding GBM's perceptions of IPV within their community.