On agents of power and support:
Case studies regarding NGO and State institution discourses on intimate partner violence in the context of LGBT identities
Thomas Wilkinson
Department of Cultural Sciences
Master’s Thesis in Gendering Practices (30 hec)
Spring 2017
Supervisor: Olga Sasunkevich
Faculty of Arts
University of Gothenburg
Abstract
The topic of intimate partner violence in contemporary discourse offers theoretical discussions, suggestions for policy reform, and movements for activism across many fields in the current context. However, it appears that LGBT perspectives are often ignored in such discussions. Moving outside of the normative frameworks of which to approach violence in close relationships, this study aims to investigate how perceptions on cases of intimate partner violence experienced by LGBT individuals are situated across the discourse of NGO and police institutions, with the further intent to outline the implications that such findings have on the level and nature of support for LGBT individuals who experience such realities.
Adopting the framework of an intersectional ‘Queer reading’, this study shall engage with the ignored area of LGBT specific issues within the area of intimate partner violence through two separate case studies concerning an LGBT rights organisation and a municipal police division, with the intent to investigate and identify approaches towards bodies’ conceptualisation, processing, and support mechanisms of vulnerable individuals that experience violence in close relationships.
Key words: LGBT, intimate partner violence, queer methodology, normativity
Table of contents
List of abbreviations (i)
Introduction 01
Study focus and research questions 02
Disposition 04
Chapter I:
Perpetration, masculinities, bio-power –
Existing theoretical discourses on LGBT intimate violence
Existing literature
Intimate partner violence 05
Previous understandings 06
Alternative understandings of IPV 07
Chosen definition for this study 08
Sexual health as an LGBT-aligned issue 09
HIV: Stigmatisation, assimilation and violence 10
Summary 11
Theoretical frameworks
Gender, intersectionality, and ‘queer reading’ as frameworks of non-
normativity 13
Power/knowledge, bio-power and discourse 16
Pathology and medicalisation 17
Subject formation, subjectification and marginalisation 18
Masculinity studies
“A violent man”: Masculinities and shame 19
Internalised homophobia and heterosexism 20
Heteronormativity and sexual health 21
Perpetration and victimhood 22
Summary 24
Chapter II:
Presentation of results from the larger qualitative study
Method and approach 25
Data selection and theoretical sampling 26
Qualitative interviews as data collection 28
Interview process and data analysis 29
Case Study (i): Police institution case on LGBT perspectives to IPV 30
Interview background 30
Definitions of IPV 32
Social and cultural perspectives regarding IPV 33
Masculinities 34
Shame: ‘In patriarchy, there is no shame’ 35
Vulnerability 36
LGBT identities as vulnerable cases 37
Police’s perception on approaches to LGBT cases of IPV 39
Summary 40
Case Study (ii): NGO and practitioner case on LGBT perspectives to IPV 41
Interview background 42
Definition of IPV and forms of violence 43
Neglect 44
Non-binary children and the right to identification 44
Mis/identification of LGBT individuals by support professionals 45
Gender identification within partner relationships 47
Pathologisation and assimilation of LGBT identities with HIV 48
Resistance to pathologised discourse 49
Institutional blindness of LGBT issues 50
“If they leave, they have nothing”: support for refugee and migrants 51
“Shame”: Internalised homophobia in refugee and migrant encounters 51
Summary 52
Larger remarks on the overall research 53
Chapter III:
Reflections on the overall study
Reflective discussion
On the researcher as ‘knowledge producer’ 57
On qualitative methods in pursuit toward ‘emancipatory’ research 58
Concluding thoughts and suggestions for further research 59
Appendices
Case study (i)
1.1. Presentation: ‘Violence in close relationships – challenges today’ 61
1.2. Public information leaflet: ‘Your rights’ 63
1.3. Public information leaflet: ‘Is domestic violence a part of your life?’ 64
Case study (ii)
2.1. Presentation: ‘An LGBTQ perspective on intimate partner violence’ 65
Reference list 66
List of abbreviations
HIV (‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus’)
IPV (‘Intimate Partner Violence’) The chosen term to describe particular acts and/or broader cycles of violence based within the framework of intimate or close relationships, whether on romantic, familial or community based levels. The particular wording of this term allows for ‘violence’ to be understood as acts harming an individual – beyond singularly physical, emotional or psychological means – in the framework of an abuse of power in a close relationship
LGBT (‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans’) Umbrella term to describe those who define themselves within queer or non-binary identity groups
MSM (‘Men who have sex with men’)
PrEP/PEP (‘Pre-exposure Prophylaxis’/’Post-exposure Prophylaxis’) Medication used for the prevention/treatment of the HIV virus
STI (‘Sexually transmitted disease/s’)
WSW (‘Women who have sex with women’)
Introduction
Domestic violence, partner violence, violence in close relationships; the list of referents in place to describe abuses of power within intimate settings are numerous – each containing particular nuances and varied possibilities of understanding – yet the incorporation of non-normative perspectives within such discussions appears to move at a much slower rate, if at all. Of research existing in the field with particular focus upon lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer cases and cycles of intimate partner violence (IPV), the striking lack – or even non-existence – of similarly focused studies and research occupations is echoed almost consistently.
Moving the focus of this reality to structures of support, which must be seen as the embodiment of change and the logical response to cases reporting abuse of power, it is vital to question how those at risk of exclusion are to be approached and protected on a societal level. Large strands of discussion are active, often focusing upon outreach and rehabilitation procedures to prevent repeat offences or cycles of violence. Such debate affirms an understanding of IPV as a reality experienced through borders through focusing on legal classifications of cases across international contexts. Regarding the current climate, and in relation to the context of this study, particularly active involvement in the issue is being seen across the Nordic states. Late 2016 saw proposals from the Swedish government’s Sexual Offences Committee via the report titled ‘Enhanced Protection of Sexual Integrity’ (SOU, 2016:60), aiming to re-define categorisations of sexual offences as a form of violence within Swedish law through replacing the legal term ‘rape’ with ‘sexual abuse’, reconsidering ‘location’ as a factor within cases – i.e. ‘virtual’/internet based accounts receiving the same classification as physical accounts, and allowing public authorities to centralise sexual offence cases (Government Offices of Sweden, 2016). These changes span from sexual assault to cases of rape and gross misconduct to minors, all of which may be classified as accounts of intimate partner based violence. In Iceland, efforts to re-address IPV response cases were held the municipal police, with an initiative to address them as ‘public’ and not ‘private’, as previously classified, including further prioritisation of preventative and rehabilitative measures. In Finland, local authorities in the capital region installed real-time advertisement boards to display 48-hour campaigns against intimate partner based violence, responsive to particular areas in Helsinki in which such crimes are reported the most.
The illustrated examples demonstrate that, at its core, attitudes toward support are rested in the conceptions of IPV by various support bodies, and such discourses and action are shown to be in motion. However, as appears vivid in the previous cases, the default position that occupies such discussions presents and discusses intimate violence in broad, standardised contexts. These are often concerned with accounts of physical violence committed by men within the home, with women as the victims. What is missing in these efforts is the discussion to reach non-normatively based perspectives, or – ideally – with such identities within the frameworks of the approach. Gaps in the existing research present an initial explication of the issue at hand; the lack of focus offered to discussions regarding violence in intimate LGBT relationships in academia seems to reflect a far broader issue, perhaps one of discursive obtuseness at the exposure of non-normative confrontation. However, such is the case that this reality presents a grounding justification for why a study focused on LGBT issues is of such importance. Furthermore, a debate of this kind is of paramount importance within the field of gender studies – as a discipline sat within the cultural and social sciences – as the larger discussion itself can be said to hold roots in the constructs of gender theory across the interdisciplinary formations in its field. The frameworks of oppression, normalisation, and subjectification can be credited here. Taking from queer perspectives of critical analysis within qualitative research, this study aims to address this partnership and entrench such relations.
Study focus and research questions
“Researchers have long recognised that many types of intimate partner violence exist and that these are not mutually exclusive, yet few analyses have accounted for the confounding effects of this multidimensionality.”
(Kishor, 2015:e4)
As stated, the most striking shortcoming illustrated in the current discussions on violence in close relationships is the lack of focus on the experiences of violence for LGBT identities, and the non-normative settings in which such cases occupy. The concept of ‘multidimensionality’, as introduced by Kishor (2015), is of striking utility when readdressing perceptions of partner violence as it stands across discourses, and in further efforts to address cases of intimate violence present in the experiences of LGBT individuals, as is to be situated as currently deficient in this study. Researchers appear to be aware of the lack of attention to LGBT issues in this area when aiming to identify observations, relations and comparisons between the reports of intimate partner violence between same-sex and heterosexual couples; focus upon same-sex reports appear to be a relatively modern occupation and data available rarely offers adequately sized samples (Pattavina et al, 2007). However, within the last 10 years, there does exist a solid and growing collection of studies and data to encourage reflective discourse and provoke further investigation (Ard & Makadon, 2011; Duke et al., 2009; Murray et al., 2009; Turchik et al., 2016).
This particular study therefore comes in to creation at an opportune moment. Incitement to engage in non-normative approaches to the topic of intimate violence is in motion. This is a progression that need be sustained, and it is from this climate that this research shall depart from. The study shall therefore engage in an explication of the current literature regarding definitions of intimate violence, a discussion to highlight forms of violence that particularly affect LGBT individuals, and an exploration of discursive perceptions toward vulnerable identities involved with intimate violence from two different bodies of support.
Surrounding current discussions that lack perspectives and focus toward the specific experiences of LGBT identities, the following study aims to investigate the topic of LGBT experiences of intimate violence through the discursive perspectives existing across NGO and state based bodies of support based in Iceland and Sweden. The following research questions have been the groundwork of this study’s approach:
How are perspectives on LGBT cases of intimate violence situated across the settings of NGO and police institutions in a Nordic context?
To what extent is inclusion of LGBT specific issues dependent on the understanding of what constitutes intimate violence by support bodies?
The means of investigation shall approach the research questions of this study through an analysis across two case studies concerning NGO and police institution discourses on LGBT experiences with IPV. Through the methodological perspectives of intersectional analysis and queer reading, the study shall address and outline relevant theoretical frameworks in order to understand the roles of power across support settings. Both cases include primary data collected via open, semi-structured qualitative interviews with a member of a police division and a member of an LGBT rights organisation, as well as further materials acquired from publications and presentations by the respective bodies in their field.
This particular study aims to benefit the current literature by detaching the discussion of IPV outside of normative means, as well as by providing analysis on perspectives to be utilised in further research on LGBT issues. As claimed by Warner, queer perspectives “shake up society, and in doing so bring about, true, emancipatory change” – ergo, “it is time for such research” (Warner, 2008:335). An emancipatory approach thus allows for future research to adopt these findings for further study.
Disposition
The following study has been categorised in to three distinct chapters. Following a theoretical discussion of relating concepts to the topic, the study shall engage in a presentation of analysis findings, followed by a reflective chapter in which research questions are to meet data findings, and further recommendations are to be given.
Chapter I: Perpetration, masculinities, bio-power – Existing theoretical discourses
on LGBT intimate violence
In this initial section of the study, the key terms that are essential to the topic of analysis shall be defined and outlined in relation to larger research. A review of existing literature, complete with a full theoretical background of intersectional analysis and queer methodology shall introduce grounding theoretical frameworks with the aim to provide justification for the purpose and utility of the study.
Chapter II: Presentation of results from the larger qualitative study
The observatory part of the study shall begin with a discussion of the chosen type of qualitative type – case studies. The following studies are to be introduced and situated, followed by a presentation of analysed data from qualitative interviews, informational leaflets, studies and presentations by the respective support bodies.
Chapter III: Reflections on the overall study
Having presented the analysed data, the final part of the study shall outline and reflect on the data results and the implications that these are to hold across the field. The researcher’s own identity shall be situated in relation to the study, and in knowledge production in general. The study shall finally present a summary of the salient points that further stand as critical suggestions for occupations further research.
Chapter I:
Perpetration, masculinities, bio-power –
Existing theoretical discourses on LGBT intimate violence