Violence and Victimization of Youth

This entry provides a brief overview of two approaches to understanding the violence and victimization of LGBTQ students in schools. The first dominates the field and is rooted in psychology. It frames the problem in terms of individual aggressive bullies who need remediation and victims who need support services. The second is rooted in sociology and frames the problem as heteronormative school (and larger) cultures and the social regulation of gender and sexuality. In this approach, addressing bullying requires also addressing school culture, the circulation of narrow gender norms, and the values that determine “normal” and “different.” The term LGBTQ is used throughout this entry for consistency. However, some of the research drawn upon addresses only LG, LGB, or LGBT.