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Dating/Partner Violence

Dating/Partner Violence is the verbal, physical, and/or sexual abuse of one partner by the other, in an intimate relationship, which has the potential of developing into a long lasting relationship.

Dating/partner violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels.  Although both men and women can be abused, most victims are women.  Children in homes where there is violence are more likely to be abused and/or neglected.  Most children in these homes are aware of the violence.  Even if a child is not physically harmed, he/she may have emotional and behavior problems.

Abusive partners are not easy to spot.  They often have low self-esteem and do not take responsibility for their actions.  They may even blame the victim for causing the violence.  It is not uncommon for abusive partners to try to hide the abuse by causing injuries that can be hidden and do not cause the need for a doctor.

Abuse is not an accident.  It does not happen because someone was stressed out, drinking, or using drugs.  Abuse is an intentional act that one person uses in a relationship to control the other.  Abusive partners have learned to abuse so that they can get what they want.  It is important to remember that although in most cases, men abuse female victims, women can also be the abusers and men can be victims.
-Adapted from www.contactdallas.org/domestic_abuse.php

Examples of Dating/Partner Violence are:

Physical abuse - may involve pushing, shoving, hitting, choking, confining, or assaulting with an object or weapon.

Emotional abuse - may involve intimidation, threats, humiliation, insults, pressure, destruction of property, control over a partner’s movements, isolation.

Sexual abuse - may involve sexual relations without consent, unwanted sexual touching or pressure to engage in humiliating or degrading sexual activity.

For more information about Dating/Partner Violence please click here.

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