Disclosure of Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence to Police among Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals

Among the many crimes that go unreported to the police, intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the least reported by victims. While some research has addressed various factors that influence police reporting for crimes in general, less is known about what shapes comfort with disclosing same-sex IPV within the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community. The present study utilized secondary data gathered by a local nonprofit in the southeastern United States ( N = 277) to explore the influences of race, gender, previous IPV victimization, and previous police intervention on the comfort participants reported in disclosing same-sex IPV to the police. The findings illustrate that those LGB who are nonwhite, male, and had experienced a previous police intervention in their own case of same-sex IPV reported significantly less comfort in disclosing same-sex IPV to the police. These results have implications for police training, LGB outreach, and future research.