Statistics on Dating Violence

Dating abuse is a big problem, affecting youth in every community across the nation. Learn the facts below.

Too Common

• Nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. 
• One in three girls in the US is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner, a figure that far exceeds rates of other types of youth violence.
• One in ten high school students has been purposefully hit, slapped or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend.
• One quarter of high school girls have been victims of physical or sexual abuse or date rape.
  

  Why Focus on Teens?

• Girls and young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence, almost triple the national average.
• Among female victims of intimate partner violence, 94% of those age 16-19 and 70% of those age 20-24 were victimized by a current or former boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Violent behavior often begins between the ages of 12 and 18.
• The severity of intimate partner violence is often greater in cases where the pattern of abuse was established in adolescence.
• About 72% of eighth and ninth graders are 'dating.

• ^{Source:  http://www.teendvmonth.org}