TRANSGENDER WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF DOMESTIC ABUSE AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES Domestic Abuse occurs in every 1 in 4 relationships (Women’s Aid 2009) Background Data is scarce but existing research suggests that domestic abuse within intimate relationships can be found at similar rates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities as among heterosexual people (Erbaugh 2007; Women’s Aid 2009). The UK’s only published research into transgender people’s experience of domestic abuse found that 80% of respondents had experienced some form of abusive behaviour (emotional, sexual, and/or physical) from a current partner or ex-partner, although 20% of those respondents did not recognise the behaviour as domestic abuse. Preliminary investigations with two city-based local authorities and one semi-rural domestic abuse service have concluded that transgender women are invisible as service users of social care. Previous research has asserted that there are barriers to accessing services which are to be found in the public sector at large (Whittle et al 2007; Hines 2008; Women’s Aid 2009). Michaela Rogers University of Sheffield Research Questions My three research questions are: 1.How and why do trans women experience domestic abuse? 2.What are the social care needs of trans women, who experience domestic abuse, and how are these met? 3.What barriers do trans women experience in accessing formal social care and how can services offer accessible and appropriate provision to trans women experiencing domestic abuse? These questions will be explored through some central themes: emerging patterns of domestic abuse; the construction of transgender; the impact of non-normative gender identity and practice and/or transition upon intimate and familial relationships; the changing practices and sources of informal care; the social care sector and the trans community; anti-oppressive practice and trans women. Methodology A constructionist framework will be used. Through narrative interviews with trans women the prevalence, forms and impact of domestic abuse will be analysed in order to identify the particularity of trans women’s experiences. Attention will be paid to how trans women negotiate their gender variant identity and practices within their partnerships and familial relationships. Interviews will be undertaken with a small cohort of domestic abuse practitioners to interrogate current (and potential) service delivery. A thematic analysis of the data will, hopefully, result in some indications and implications for policy and practice. References Erbaugh, E.B. (2007) Queering Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence in L.L. O’Toole, J.R. Schiffman and M.L.K. Edwards (eds) Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2 nd edn) New York: New York University Press Hines, S. (2008) Transgender Care: Practices of Care within Transgender Communities in Critical Social Policy Whittle, S., Turner, L. and Al-Alami, M. (2007) Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination Wetherby, West Yorkshire: Crown and Local Government Publications Women’s Aid (2009) Statistics Available from: Transgender/trans – ‘individuals who have undergone hormone treatment or surgery to reconstruct their bodies or to those who cross gender in ways that are less permanent’ (Hines 2008) Project Aims: This project explores trans women’s experience of domestic abuse, their social care needs and if, and how, these are met by social care services.