Les violences conjugales dans les couples appartenant aux « minorités sexuelles » : quelles causes traumatologiques ?

Abstract

Introduction

Most prevention and awareness-raising programs are heteronormative and do not take into account the presence of violence in sexual minority couples.

Method

The aim of this study is to review the literature on domestic violence in sexual minority couples in relation to any traumatic experiences that may be causes and/or consequences.

Results

A link between childhood trauma, stress or a combination of the two in the perpetration of domestic violence in sexual minorities is highlighted just like the recent creation of typologies in these couples.

Discussion

Suffering from significant methodological biases, nevertheless, these studies, which are all too rare, deserve to highlight phenomena that should be better appreciated. Although domestic violence in minority couples appears to be similar to violence in heterosexual couples, two-way violence is more prevalent. This bidirectional violence could largely be the result of a cyclical process of violence from childhood to adulthood, moving from intrafamilial trauma in childhood to societal stress related to sexual orientation in adolescence and finally to mutual violence within the couple in adulthood.

Conclusion

The origins of the perpetration of domestic violence in a sexual minority couple appear to be linked to: the consequences, particularly psychological, of stress related to sexual minorities, which mediate the subsequent violence; the cycle of violence with the internalisation of an appropriate violent relationship model, thus representing a generational transmission and a pattern of repetition; the presence of bidirectional violence, also involving defence and reaction behaviours, accentuated by traumatic experiences or stress related to minorities.