Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) affects at least one in every ten Australian women in their adult lifetimes, with serious negative impacts on their health and wellbeing. It is consistently associated with other forms of abuse in relationships, particularly psychological and physical violence. Indeed, IPSV is often referred to as a risk factor for homicide or serious harm. However, the nuances of the relationship between IPSV and other forms of violence are poorly understood. One reason for this is that measurement of IPSV is often limited to rape or forced sex, with little attention paid to the many other sexually coercive behaviours that women can experience. In response, we have developed a new survey instrument, the Intimate Partner Sexual Violence Scale (IPSVS), a multidimensional scale that defines three categories of IPSV: dominance and humiliation (behaviours seeking to degrade or dominate the victim/survivor), emotional manipulation (use of blackmail, threats or coercion to obtain sex) and “aggressive indifference” (disregard of the victim/survivor’s wellbeing and bodily autonomy). The IPSVS is based on extensive qualitative research with victim/survivors and uses perceived perpetrator motivation as a central guiding principle for understanding IPSV.

In this presentation, we will draw on in-depth qualitative data from victim/survivors in Australia to highlight the unique dynamics of IPSV, including the central role of degradation and the bi-directional relationship with psychological abuse. We will then present quantitative data from a national online survey of n=1000 victim/survivors to explore how the three IPSVS domains interact with physical and emotional abuse and coercive control. Our findings speak to the value of unpacking the nuances of IPSV (and different perpetrator motivations in particular) to better understand relationship with other types of violence. This knowledge can, in turn, help tailor policy and practice responses to victim/survivors.

Key Learnings:

1. Intimate partner sexual violence shares characteristics with both intimate partner violence and sexual violence but also has elements that set it apart.

2. Intimate partner sexual violence has been inadequately measured in survey studies, with little attention paid to different types of behaviours and perpetrator motivations.

3. The nuances of the associations between sexual violence and other types of abuse in relationships are poorly understood, but have important implications for research, policy and practice.