Gender of Transgressors Committing Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Against LGBTQA+ College Students.

Abstract

Sexual and intimate partner violence (IPV) is more prevalent among sexual and gender minority college students than their heterosexual, cisgender peers, but few studies have specified the identities of transgressors for survivors across LGBTQA+ subgroups. This research gap limits understanding of the contexts of violence, and information on who is harming LGBTQA+ students is critical for presenting prevention efforts in ways that are inclusive of how LGBTQA+ students experience violence. To help address this gap, this study investigated variation in the gender of transgressors of sexual violence (SV) and IPV by survivors' sexual orientation and gender in a large, national sample of college students. The data come from the 2019 Campus Climate Survey by the Association of American Universities and include a sample of 23,607 SV survivors and 9,398 IPV survivors. Findings of the current study suggest that the previously identified pattern of men as the primary transgressors of SV against women and sexual minority men extends to disaggregated groups of bisexual women; asexual, queer, and questioning women; women who selected more than one identity; and every disaggregated sexual minority group of TGQN students. Among larger cell sizes than previous studies, bisexual women mostly experienced IPV from men while bisexual men mostly experienced IPV from women. Similarly, most asexual, queer, and questioning women experienced IPV from men, and most asexual, queer, and questioning men experienced IPV from women. These results could help inform programming that is inclusive of the different contexts in which LGBTQA+ college students experience SV and IPV.