Contextualizing LGB Youth’s Experiences With Victimization and Risky Behaviors: A Qualitative Approach to General Strain Theory

• Author: Deeanna M. Button
• DOI: 10.1177/1557085118789792
• Published date: 01 October 2019
• Date: 01 October 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085118789792

Feminist Criminology

2019, Vol. 14(4) 441 –465

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1557085118789792

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Article

Contextualizing LGB

Youth’s Experiences With

Victimization and Risky

Behaviors: A Qualitative

Approach to General Strain

Theory

Deeanna M. Button1

Abstract

This study uses 20 in-depth interviews with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young

adults aged 18 to 25 years to integrate theoretical constructs from the sociology of

sexuality with Agnew’s general strain theory (GST). This approach provides theoretical

context to LGB youth’s experiences with victimization and risky behaviors. The use

of qualitative data provides a deeper understanding of LGB youth’s experiences with

heteronormativity, heterosexism, and homophobia, and how these structural-level

processes shape interactional- and individual-level experiences. Integrating sexuality

research and GST helps clarify interconnected processes that occur at multiple levels

of social life, providing a more complete picture of LGB experiences.

Keywords

LGB youth, victimization, general strain theory, risk behaviors

Introduction

For the past several decades, social science research in the United States on lesbian,

gay, and bisexual (LGB)1 adolescents has unequivocally demonstrated greater risk

of victimization and subsequent risky behaviors when compared with their

1Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Deeanna M. Button, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Criminal Justice Program, Stockton

University, 101 Vera King Farris Drive, Galloway, NJ 08205, USA.

Email: deeanna.button@stockton.edu

789792FCXXXX10.1177/1557085118789792Feminist CriminologyButton

research-article2018

442 Feminist Criminology 14(4)

heterosexual counterparts (e.g., Abelson, Lambeski, Crawford, Bartos, & Kippax,

2006; Almeida, Johnson, Corliss, Molnar, & Azrael, 2009; Birkett, Espelage, &

Koenig, 2009; Cniro et al., 2005; Espelage, Aragon, & Birkett, 2008; Koh & Ross,

2006; Loosier & Dittus, 2010; Poteat & Espelage, 2007; Rosario, Schrimshaw, &

Hunter, 2005; Rostosky, Owens, Zimmerman, & Riggle, 2003; Teasdale & Bradley-

Engen, 2010 ; Williams, Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, 2005; Wisconsin YRBS, 2007).

Nonetheless, a good deal of research on LGB youth’s experiences with victimization

and risky behaviors tends to be either theoretical and without data to support propo-

sitions or quantitative and atheoretical in nature, with a focus on problematic out-

comes rather than understanding the processes in which they emerge and develop

(Flowers & Buston, 2001; Savin-Williams, 2001). In other words, there is a shortage

of scholarly work that empirically documents the theoretical linkages between struc-

tural-level processes of stigmatization, heterosexism, and homophobia that shape

interactional levels of social life, where victimization occurs, and individual levels

of social life, where risky behaviors develop.

Thus, the purpose of this study is to integrate theoretical constructs from the sociol-

ogy of sexuality with a general strain theory (GST) framework (Agnew, 1992, 2002),

to provide greater context to the lived experiences of LGB youth in the United States.

The integration of sociology of sexuality literature with GST connects processes at the

structural, interactional, and individual levels. GST focuses on the relationship

between victimization at the interactional level and risky behaviors at the individual

level, but fails to consider the influence of structural-level processes, such as hetero-

normativity, heterosexism, and homophobia. Sexuality research, however, provides an

avenue to identify the ways that structural processes of stigmatizing identities shape

interactional- and individual-level experiences (Burgess-Proctor, 2006).

Interview data from 20 LGB young adults aged 18 to 25 years are used in the analy-

sis; qualitative data can provide more depth and detail regarding LGB youth’s experi-

ences with heteronormativity, heterosexism, and homophobia, and allow for a rich,

detailed account of how these structural-level processes shape experiences of victim-

ization and risky behaviors in their day-to-day lives. Integrating sexuality research and

a GST framework using qualitative research methods may help further clarify the

interconnected processes that occur at multiple levels of social life, providing a more

complete picture of LGB experiences (Burgess-Proctor, 2006; Patton, 2002).

Structural Level: Sexual Identity Stigma

To understand widespread victimization of many LGB youth and the potential, subse-

quent consequences, sexuality must be understood as a social phenomenon that

extends beyond a biological trait or an individual attribute (Seidman, 2003; Stein &

Plummer, 1994). Sexuality is a socially constructed source of power that organizes

various levels of social life, configures social practices and discourses, and is regu-

lated by social institutions (Berrill & Herek, 1990; Glenn, 2002; Koh & Ross, 2006;

Risman, 2004; Seidman, 2003; Stein & Plummer, 1994). Until recently, several states

excluded the LGB population from marriage rights and the benefits provided by