Våld och Kön : En kvalitativ studie om våld i lesbiska relationer

Sammanfattning: Although the social issue of intimate partner violence has come to receive increased attention in the social debate in recent decades, there are still different ideas regarding who is to be actually considered a victim of it. Intimate partner violence is often to be assumed as a phenomenon that occurs in heterosexual relationships only, leaving the abuse in homosexual relationships to be trivialized. This study seeks to fill the gap of knowledge about intimate violence in lesbian relationships together with the aim of shedding light on the existing support efforts, the prevailing heteronorm and its impact on our perception of intimate partner violence.    Using semi-structured interviews with professionals who meet women that has been a victim of violence in a lesbian relationship we wanted to investigate in what ways their approach against the target group is affected by the professionals prior knowledge and the general heteronorm in our society. Furthermore, the purpose is also to investigate whether these factors may in turn influence how the support efforts for this target group are designed. The results of this study showed that the professionals do not always have sufficient adequate knowledge of the potential needs of the target group, which in turn may affect the support available to women who have been subjected to violence. Furthermore, the result is presented based on connections to previous knowledge and the theories Social Constructivism and Gender Theory. These theoretical perspectives were used in order to inherit a critical approach to norms and structures in the society, and through different concepts gain a deeper understanding of how different norms can become established in our society.