Compounded Violence: An Intersectional Exploration of Transgender Survivors’ Victimization Experiences

• In Event: Intersectionality, Victimization, and Responses to Women's Victimization and Offending

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) researchers have found that transgender survivors experience high rates of victimization, distinct tactics of abuse, and trans-specific barriers to help-seeking. Furthermore, transgender individuals have higher risks of experiencing multiple forms of victimization targeting their transgender identity, such as family violence and general anti-transgender violence, yet few researchers have explored how cumulative victimizations, including but not limited to anti-transgender violence, may shape transgender survivors’ understandings of their abuse. The present study draws findings from twenty in-depth interviews with transgender and nonbinary IPV survivors using an intersectional approach to grounded theory. Participants situated their IPV experiences within a broader context of victimization experiences occurring at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. The impacts of prior victimization weaved in and out of participants’ stories of IPV, shaping their sense of self, conceptualization of their abuse, and comfort with seeking help. Overall, this study contextualizes IPV victimization within a broader context of systemic violence, highlighting the need for an intersectional approach that emphasizes the interlocking nature of inequalities and their impact on compounded victimizations.

Author

• Victoria Ann Kurdyla, University of North Carolina at Pembroke