Difference Between Teen Dating Violence And Domestic Violence

Teen Dating Violence and Domestic Violence Differences

No matter how we try to ignore violence as a 21^st century society, we find it somehow difficult to leave peacefully without expressing our emotions or some of our dissatisfaction with violence. Violence should be a thing of the past, for instance violence has led to dissolution of several marriages and family breakups, some violence can be so strong that it can lead to death of a particular party involved. And generally, what’s the meaning of violence? According to World Health Organization, violence can be defined as the intentional use of one’s own power or force that is physical and threatening against oneself, other individual, community or a group of people that can possibly result to injury, death or even physical harm against the victim. I can categorically say that youth violence is one of the most common type of violence that parents and the all involved parties have to deal with, according to WHO, youth is anybody between the age of 10 and 29. Violence among the youths includes the act of bullying others, physical fighting, sexual assaults and many other cases involving homicide. Research shows that, majority of the youth engage in strong violence when they are drunk maybe after a party out, jealousy over a lady and many others. After fully understanding what violence is, we will base our discussion on teen dating violence and domestic violence and try and understand the difference between the two, what causes teen dating violence? Does it have any relationship with domestic violence?

Teen dating violence can be defined as sexual, physical, emotional or physiological violence in a dating relationship including stalking of one another (In Aiken, 2015). Of course a teenager is any individual who falls between the age brackets of thirteen to nineteen or rather the adolescent age. Some people also consider the age of twenty and twenty one as teen age depending on how individual behave and carries him or herself. Teen dating violence can occur with the current lover or even the previous lover, nobody is spared in this. Unhealthy relationship can clearly start presenting itself at the teen age; this can lead to a future negative effect such as violence if not dealt with earlier. One thing about teen dating violence is that, the involved teens rarely report the case because of fear to tell the family members or friends, research shows that 23% of females and 14% of males who became victims of rape, physical and emotional violence, were once subjected to a kind of partner violence between the age of 11 and 17 years (CDC nationwide survey, 2011).  What are the causes of teen dating violence? Teen dating violence always happens due to a number of the following reasons; to begin with, lack of communication between your partners is one of the major causes of teen dating violence. Inter- relationship communication will aid understanding between partners, one will able to understand what does the other partner likes or what does he hate,? What makes him / her angry? Knowing what makes your partner angry will help you avoid such things (Molinelli, 2015). Secondly, things like emotions and anger are also major causes of teen dating violence. Finally, lack of respect can also lead to violence among dating teens, teens should always seek advice from their parents and other family members before engaging in any kind of unhealthy relationship because it can have a prolonged impact such as trauma, use of drugs or controlled substances and there are a few cases where teens take their lives due to anger as a result of violence. And how can we prevent this teen violence? The people who have powers to prevent this are the people around these teenagers. Families, communities, organizations, churches and schools have a task to work together to ensure teen dating violence is a thing of the past.

Close to teen dating violence is the domestic violence; it can be defined as any type of abuse that involves a spouse or a partner who are already in marriage (Wilson, 2009). Domestic violence can involve father, mother and the children, but the most common ones are committed with the father against the mother. Domestic violence can be sexual assault, physical violence leading to injury and emotional abuse that can lead to depressions. Domestic violence has no boundaries; it can happen to anyone despite the sex, race, religion or age. It affects both the poor and the reach, it does not only affect the victims of the abuse, and it also affects the family members, community, coworkers who witness the same. Domestic violence where father and mother are involved, the most affected are the children because such types of domestic violence often lead to divorce, imagine being raised with a single parent? Of course is not a coolest thing because for a child to grow a fully morally upright person, he / she will require both the efforts and contributions from the father and the mother. What are the causes of current domestic violence? Most common Domestic violence may start when one partner feels the need of patronizing the other, this need maybe as a result to jealously, anger and low self-esteem (Gerdes, 2012). The major ignorable common causes of domestic violence is abuse of drugs and alcohol, some partners will go out drinking and when they come back the other partner won’t have peace in that house, in fact some would wish that moment should be the end of their  marriage. Domestic violence should not be a way of solving conflicts; there are many other ways that can be explored by the spouses such as visiting the marriage counsellor to get counselling. If it’s a must for the violence to take place, the children should not be a party to it. Children who are exposed to domestic violence will grow and adopt the same knowing that violence is the only way of solving conflicts.

From the above discussions, the difference between teen dating violence and domestic violence clearly presents itself. But the major difference of this two is that, domestic violence occurs when the two people involved in the violence are already in a marriage and lives together whereas teen dating violence occurs in dating teenagers who lives with their parents, maybe their parents might not even be aware of their relationships. Domestic violence is broader compared to teen dating violence, domestic violence occurs in all relationships, young and old despite the socio economic status. Domestic violence can also occur in heterosexuals and the homosexuals. The common persons abused in domestic violence are women, but men are also victims.

References;

• Gerdes, L. I. (2012). Domestic violence. Detroit: Greenhaven Press
• Wilson, M. (2009). Domestic violence. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
• In Aiken, J. (2015). Teen dating: Perspectives on relationships and violence.
• Schloat, S., Siegel, M., Molinelli, J., In Robles, R., & Human Relations Media, inc.,. (2015). Coping with dating violence and abuse.