Victimization Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis quantitatively compiled the results of studies from 1992 to 2009 to determine the prevalence and types of victimization experienced by lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. Based on the results of three searches, 386 studies were retrieved and coded. Comparisons were made across all LGB individuals (138 studies), between LGB and heterosexual individuals (65 studies), and between LGB females and males (53 studies), with over 500,000 participants. Multiple types of victimization were coded, including discrimination, physical assault, and school victimization. Findings revealed that for LGB individuals, reports of victimization experiences were substantial (e.g., 55% experienced verbal harassment, and 41% experienced discrimination) and some types have increased since a 1992 review, while others have decreased. LGB individuals experienced greater rates of victimization than heterosexual individuals (range: d = .04–.58). LGB males experienced some types of victimization more than LGB females (e.g., weapon assault and being robbed) but, overall, the gender differences were small. It can be concluded that LGB individuals still experience a substantial amount of victimization. Implications for research methods are discussed, including recommendations for sampling and measurement of victimization.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Journal of Sex Research for the following free supplemental resource(s): Supplementary Tables. These tables are referred to in the text of this article as “Table S1,” “Table S2,” etc.]

Acknowledgments

We thank Matthew Cohn for his help with article retrieval and coding, Stephanie Budge for her help with coding, and Jennifer Petersen for her analysis consultation. We also thank Martha Alibali and Jenny Saffran for their helpful feedback and suggestions during the process of this project.

Notes

¹A table of descriptives for each study is available from the authors. See Appendix for full list of references used for the studies included in the meta-analysis.

Note. CI = confidence interval.

^a Number of studies used to compute each mean effect size; measures with two or fewer studies are not included.

^b Effect sizes can be interpreted as the rate of victimization, e.g., ES _p  = .41, which is 41%.

^c Significant values indicate that there is significant heterogeneity among the individual effect sizes for each measure.

^d Random-effects variance component.

*p < .01.

Note. CI = confidence interval.

^a Number of studies used to compute each mean effect size; measures with two or fewer studies are not included.

^b Effect sizes can be interpreted as the rate of victimization, e.g., ES _p  = .44, which is 44%.

^c Significant values indicate that there is significant heterogeneity among the individual effect sizes for each measure.

^d Random-effects variance component.

*p < .01.

Note. Q_B = between-groups heterogeneity; k = number of studies (measures with fewer than two studies in both levels of the moderator are not included); Q_W = within-group heterogeneity. See text for full description of moderator variable.

*p < .05.

Note. Q_B = between-groups heterogeneity; k = number of studies (measures with fewer than two studies in both levels of the moderator are not included); Q_W = within-group heterogeneity. See text for full description of moderator variable.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

Note. CI = confidence interval.

^a Number of studies used to compute each mean effect size; measures with two or fewer studies are not included.

^b Negative values indicate that heterosexual participants experienced more victimization than lesbian, gay, and bisexual participants; effect sizes were not computed for measures with two or fewer studies.

^c Significant values indicate that there is significant heterogeneity among the individual effect sizes for each measure.

^d Random-effects variance component.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

Note. CI = confidence interval.

^a Number of studies used to compute each mean effect size; measures with two or fewer studies are not included.

^b Negative values indicate that lesbian, gay, and bisexual males experienced more victimization than lesbian, gay, and bisexual females.

^c Significant values indicate that there is significant heterogeneity among the individual effect sizes for each measure.

^d Random-effects variance component.

*p < .01.