The Student Room Group

Domestic Abuse Higher in Gay and Lesbian Couples

I have been thinking about this recently and I can't get my head around it. Men is typically more aggressive than females. This is a fact, that I think we can all accept. But what doesn't make sense to me is that domestic violence in lesbian couples in particular is so much higher than heterosexual couples.

It is estimated that 17% of women in lesbian relationships receive some kind of domestic abuse from their partner, where as the statistic for men is 9%.

Now these stats are exceedingly high yet there is so little awareness that this is happening. It only came to my attention on the Guardian in a lesser seen comments section.

But why is this not reported on and why is domestic abuse so much higher in lesbian couples?

(Source: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb0110.pdf)
Well, as mentioned in the report:

The higher level of domestic abuse amongst lesbians/gays or bisexuals may be due, at least
in part, to the younger age profile of individuals identifying themselves as in this group. Nearly
two-fifths (37%) of those reporting to be lesbian/gay or bisexual were aged 16 to 24 compared
to just over one-fifth (21%) who identified as heterosexual/straight (data not shown). Previous
analysis has shown that risk of intimate violence is higher amongst 16 to 24 year olds
compared with older age groups (Povey et al., 2009).


It is an interesting point you made, but I think it would be rash to judge off of one report, especially given the relatively small sample size.
Reply 2
Original post by shadowdweller
Well, as mentioned in the report:



It is an interesting point you made, but I think it would be rash to judge off of one report, especially given the relatively small sample size.


I think this is quite related to the OP issue :


Lesbian couples are nearly twice as likely as gay men to end a civil partnership, according to the latest government figures.



Gunnar Andersson, professor of demography at Stockholm University, has found in successive studies that women in Norway, Sweden and Denmark are twice as likely to dissolve their civil partnerships than men. He said: “This reflects trends in a heterosexual marriage because women are more prone to say they want to marry - but they’re also more likely to initiate a divorce. Women usually have higher demands on relationship quality, that’s often been said in studies. Even if you control for age there is still a trend of more women ending partnerships than men.”


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lesbian-couples-twice-as-likely-as-gay-men-to-end-civil-partnership-as-divorces-up-by-20-8866454.html

What's your explanation as an insider?


Well, given that 66% of divorces are initiated by women, it's not exceptionally surprising that more lesbian couples divorce than gay couples, surely?
Reply 4
Original post by shadowdweller
Well, given that 66% of divorces are initiated by women, it's not exceptionally surprising that more lesbian couples divorce than gay couples, surely?


Obviously. But why?
Original post by StevieA
Obviously. But why?


Why do women more frequently initiate divorce? That's not really an issue for this thread...
I think first and foremost it should be noted that gay and lesbian people are more likely to be victims of abuse themselves.
Reply 7
Original post by shadowdweller
Why do women more frequently initiate divorce? That's not really an issue for this thread...


It shows the more women in a relationship, the more instability there is. So, ignoring the divorce stats, why are lesbians twice as violent as gay men in your opinion?
Original post by DiddyDec
I have been thinking about this recently and I can't get my head around it. Men is typically more aggressive than females. This is a fact, that I think we can all accept. But what doesn't make sense to me is that domestic violence in lesbian couples in particular is so much higher than heterosexual couples.

It is estimated that 17% of women in lesbian relationships receive some kind of domestic abuse from their partner, where as the statistic for men is 9%.

Now these stats are exceedingly high yet there is so little awareness that this is happening. It only came to my attention on the Guardian in a lesser seen comments section.

But why is this not reported on and why is domestic abuse so much higher in lesbian couples?

(Source: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb0110.pdf)


What causes someone to be abusive doesn't have to be aggression. You can and so find that many female abusers are often quite cruel but not aggressive. It COULD be the case that women are possibly more willing than men to cause pain. I have no real evidence for this claim but I'm just saying that there is more to abuse than aggression and perhaps things aren't as straight forward as they seem.
Original post by StevieA
It shows the more women in a relationship, the more instability there is. So, ignoring the divorce stats, why are lesbians twice as violent as gay men in your opinion?


Personally I'm not sure why that would be the case, but it's certainly interesting. There's an article here which has some points on the topic.
Reply 10
Original post by shadowdweller
Personally I'm not sure why that would be the case, but it's certainly interesting. There's an article here which has some points on the topic.



Would you say that women, in general, are more emotional, more likely to act impulsively or to expect more from a relationship than men?
Generalization but women tend to more often act on emotion in a relationship than males and as the poster above me said, seem to expect more from their partner than vice versa. So I suppose two women may be more likely to lash out in a rage either psychologically or physically, thus domestic abuse being higher in women. I'd be interested to know how much is psychological abuse.

Men I'd assume would have more physic abuse. We do have the social rule of "don't hit a woman" ingrained into us, clearly some ignore this, but for two men in a relationship, there may be a higher chance that one or both wouldn't seem a physical confrontation with their partner as such a big deal than if one were female.

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