Conclusion: Telling Different Stories About Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse

Abstract

Chapter 6 concludes this book by synthesising our key findings and recapping on how they trouble the existing ways in which intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) has been researched and theorised. We highlight the key contributions that we have made, including the importance of recognising identity abuse and experiential power as distinct aspects of LGB and/or T+ people’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse (DVA), and conceptualising how victim/survivors’ use of physically and non-physically violent resistance as space for reaction can inhibit them from seeing themselves as having been victimised. We argue how the findings from the Coral Project should be translated into a holistic relationship services approach which offers prevention, early intervention and crisis responses. We also identify priorities for the continued research agenda, with a deepening of the understanding of the intersectionality of LGB and/or T+ people’s experiences being a key priority. We end by reiterating our hope that our work will not only shape how LGB and/or T+IPVA is understood, researched and responded to, but that our voices from the margins of IPVA scholarship will permeate knowledge production within the mainstream heteronormative, cisnormative IPVA literature too.