This book originates from the Australian Institute of Criminology. The common thread running through it is not just the problem of violence, but the concept of homophobia - the disapproval of homosexual desire and an animosity to homosexual identities, politics and lifestyles. There are chapters on the differential impact of harassment and violence on young people, on gay men and on lesbians; on police responses to this violence in South Australia and New South Wales; on the constructed deviant status of homosexual homicide victims; on criminology’s description of lesbians and gay men as deviants marked out from heterosexuals; on HIV-related violence and its impact on victims; and a detailed analysis of the relevant law throughout Australia.
Gay, lesbian and transgender communities in Australia continue to be disproportionately and unacceptably the victims of high, perhaps even increasing levels of violence. Moreover that violence is perpetrated against them for no other reason than that of their sexuality. … We know that gay men are four times more likely to be the victims of assault, and lesbians six times more likely, than other men and women. … There must be wider acceptance that the level of continuing violence against this group of our fellow Australians constitutes a national disgrace which cannot be tolerated. Homophobic Violence will serve to focus attention upon an issue too long ignored and too often concealed. Chris Puplick, former President, Anti-Discrimination Board of New South Wales