Domestic Violence: February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness ...

Domestic violence and accusations of domestic violence are serious issues. Many people associate domestic violence with adult relationships and marriages, but what many people do not know is that inter-relationship violence can occur among teens. For this reason, February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.

In recent years, the Violence Against Women Act has at least partly contributed to the growing awareness of domestic violence and support services available to those who have experienced it. The federal law helped establish awareness months for different kinds of relationship violence like domestic violence, stalking, dating violence and sexual assault. The law also provides federal funding for related prevention and treatment services.

One sub-topic of domestic violence, teen dating violence, has not received as much attention as others. In a recent column posted on the Huffington Post, the CEO of Metropolitan Chicago's YWCA explained that teen dating violence is harder to address because of it involves individuals of a young age. According to the column, as many as one in three teens are allegedly abused by the person he or she dates. Like the adult version teen dating violence involves physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse.

Commonly, social media plays a role in teen dating violence and creates the potential to heighten alleged abuse. Recently, a male high school student from Illinois created a ranking of fellow female high school students and posted it on Facebook. The ranking included the alleged sexual activity of the girls and also included a review of the selected students' body parts. Young people may not be aware of what is recognized as offensive behavior and periods of time devoted to awareness help educate teens on dating abuse.

Source: huffingtonpost.com, "Teen dating violence," Christine Bork, Feb.1, 2012

Source: http://www.ilcriminaldefenseblog.com/2012/02/domestic-violence-february-is-teen-dating-violence-awareness-and-prevention-month.shtml

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