Dating violence crosses all racial, age, economic and social lines. The Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness describes dating abuse as a "pattern of abusive and coercive behaviors used to maintain power and control over a former or current intimate partner."[2]
Profiles of abuser and victim
Abuse can occur regardless of the individual's age, race, income, or other demographic traits. There are, however, many traits that abusers and victims share in common.
The Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence describes abusers as being obsessively jealous and possessive, overly confident, having mood swings or a history of violence or temper, seeking to isolate their partner from family, friends and colleagues, and having a tendency to blame external stressors.[3]
Meanwhile, victims of relationship abuse share many traits as well, including: physical signs of injury, missing time at work or school, slipping performance at work or school, changes in mood or personality, increased use of drugs or alcohol, and increasing isolation from friends and family.[4] Victims may blame themselves for any abuse that occurs or may minimize the severity of the crime. This often leads to victims choosing to stay in abusive relationships.
Strauss (2005)[5] argues that while men inflict the greater share of injuries in domestic violence, researchers and society at large must not overlook the substantial minority of injuries inflicted by women. Additionally, Strauss notes that even relatively minor acts of physical aggression by women are a serious concern:
'Minor' assaults perpetrated by women are also a major problem, even when they do not result in injury, because they put women in danger of much more severe retaliation by men. [...] It will be argued that in order to end 'wife beating,' it is essential for women also to end what many regard as a 'harmless' pattern of slapping, kicking, or throwing something at a male partner who persists in some outrageous behavior and 'won't listen to reason.'
Similarly, Deborah Capaldi[6] reports that a 13-year longitudinal study found that a woman's aggression towards a man was equally important as the man's tendency towards violence in predicting the likelihood of overall violence: "Since much IPV [Intimate Partner Violence] is mutual and women as well as men initiate IPV, prevention and treatment approaches should attempt to reduce women's violence as well as men's violence. Such an approach has a much higher chance of increasing women's safety." However, Capaldi's research only focused on at-risk youth, not women in general, and, therefore, may not apply to the entire population.
Characteristics
Emotional abuse
They are afraid of their date
They are afraid of making the date angry and are unable to even disagree with the date.
Their date has publicly embarrassed and humiliated them.
Psychological abuse
The date threatens to use violence against them or against themself. (e.g. "If you leave me, I will kill myself".)
Tuller, A.; Raghavan, C. (2010). "Dating Violence". In Fisher, Bonnie S.; Lab, Steven P. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. ISBN978-1-41-296047-2.
External links
Canadian resources
RespectED, Provided by the Canadian Red Cross, give information to teens, parents, and teachers about abuse in dating relationships.
ACADV.org - created by the Alabama Coalition Against Dating Violence, provides a Dating Bill of Rights.
Jennifer Ann.org - provides free educational materials to schools and groups and sponsors video game contests about teen dating violence from Jennifer Ann's Group.
