ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of research into domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in same-sex relationships, and in bisexual and/or transgender relationships. It reviews the emergence of attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender partners' experiences of DVA; and notes the historic reluctance to examine lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) DVA for ideological, reputational and methodological reasons. The chapter examines what is known to date about the extent and nature of DVA in the relationships of LGB and/or T people, focusing on the predominantly Western body of empirical research, but highlighting the gradual internationalisation of LGBT DVA research too. It presents the research – the Coral Project – which has gathered the first substantial body of empirical evidence in the UK about the use of abusive behaviours in LGB and/or T relationships, both from the perspective of LGB and/or T people and of practitioners involved in designing or delivering interventions for perpetrators of DVA.
