What is dating violence or relationship abuse?
Dating violence is a pattern of controlling behavior used against a girlfriend or boyfriend. Dating violence can include various forms of abuse:
- Physical Abuse – hitting, slapping, pushing, choking, throwing objects, threatening to use physical force
- Sexual Abuse – pressuring or forcing any type of sexual act
- Emotional Abuse – name-calling, insults, isolating someone from friends or family, controlling someone’s actions, what they wear and what they do
- Technology Abuse – the use of technology (texting, social media) to bully, harass, control, stalk or intimidate
Statistics:
- 1 in 3 teens will experience violence in a relationship. Two-thirds of them will never report it to anyone.
- Females between the ages of 16-24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group.
- 1 in 10 high school students report being purposefully hit, slapped or physically hurt by a dating partner.
- SC ranks #5 in the nation for the # of women murdered by men.
- Teen dating violence runs across race, gender, and socio-economic lines.
- One in four (25%) teenage girls who have been in relationships reveal they have felt pressured to perform oral sex or engage in intercourse.
- Rates of dating and domestic violence are equal to higher in the LGBTQ community.
- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women, more than muggings, stranger rapes and car accidents combined.
- Dating violence is a cycle. If it happens once, it will happen again.
