Violence is violence: comparing perceptions of intimate partner violence in homosexual and heterosexual relationships

Abstract

This research examines the perceptions of the general public of the different relationship types where intimate partner violence (IPV) exists. Historically, IPV has been characterised as a gendered problem, consequently same-sex and male victims have not been included in the core conceptualisation of research (Baker et al., 2013), resulting in marginalisation and disempowerment. The study examined perceptions to establish if they view the different types of violence to be on an equal standing, through subscales of seriousness, reporting and blame. The results suggested that the participants perceived the seriousness of IPV to be on the same standing for all relationship types. Within the second subscale, however, it was found that participants were more likely to report IPV when the victim is female in a heterosexual relationship. In the last subscale of blame, the results showed that participants were more likely to blame the male perpetrator in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The interaction of gender of the participants was found to be not significant. Overall IPV should be seen as a human problem and not a gendered problem (Hines, Brown, & Dunning, 2007), to be understood that violence is violence regardless of gender or sexuality.