Researching Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships—A Feminist Epistemological Approach to Survey Development

Abstract

The article draws on recently completed research by the authors, involving a detailed study of love and intimate partner violence in same-sex and heterosexual relationships (funded by the ESRC, award RES-000-23-0650). The research, hitherto the most detailed study of its kind in the United Kingdom, included a national same-sex community survey (n = 800) plus four focus groups and interviews with 67 individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, queer, bisexual, transgender, or heterosexual. The article discusses in particular the development of the same-sex community survey, focusing on the epistemological and methodological implications of using a feminist approach.