NCJ Number
102369
Date Published
1986
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Lesbians who batter their intimate partners do not fit any particular profile in terms of background, behavior patterns, or attitudes.
Abstract
The batterer may or may not be physically stronger or in possession of more personal power than the victim. Having experienced violence as a child, being homophobic, feeling contempt for women, and having problems with anger and communications may or may not be a characteristic of a lesbian batterer. The belief that physical violence between lesbians is mutual is also incorrect. Like male batterers, however, lesbians who batter try to achieve and maintain power over their partners to meet their own needs. Coercive behaviors that lesbian batterers use include physical and sexual assault, property destruction, threats, economic control, psychological or emotional abuse, and verbal reminders that society is homophobic.