Young queers struggle to recognize violence in relationships

Research

A recent study has examined violence among young people in relationships. – We need to talk more about violence in queer relationships, says researcher Carolina Øverlien, who found that queer people had more difficulty seeking help.

In a larger study on sexual violence in young people’s close relationships, Carolina Øverlien researched partner violence between people of the same sex.

The researcher at the National Knowledge Center on Violence and Traumatic Stress (NKVTS) emphasizes that we must recognize that everyone can be exposed to violence, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

– There were differences between those who were in same-sex couples and heterosexual relationships. But the sample was too small to look at whether there were differences between different forms of queer relationships, says Øverlien to Blikk.

She has written about these differences in depth in the articles Identifying Sexual Abuse in Same-Sex Relationships: Turning Points and Meta-Narratives, and Young People’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse in Same-sex Relationships: Understandings and Challenges, where it appears that queer experiences remain invisible and misunderstood.