9781422276082

Chapter 1

Teen Dating Violence

Too often, young people are mistreated in their relationships, but they tell themselves it “doesn’t count” because the relationship is casual or nontraditional . That’s not true — it counts. If you’re a young man, you might be telling yourself that you can’t be abused because you’re physically stronger than your partner. That’s not true, either — men can also be abused. If you are in any type of dating relationship with another person, whether there’s sex involved or not, and that person.

• frequently insults you, • constantly criticizes you, • tries to control what you do, • stalks you, • threatens you, • physically hurts you, and/or • tries to force you into sexual activity,

that is abuse. For the purposes of this book, we’ll call it teen dating violence . It is not okay, not ever. It counts. This chapter will discuss the different types of abuse that can occur and who is affected by them.

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