Intro

Nikki White CCT205 Abuse In Teenagers Intro Everyone is familiar with abuse whether it be first hand or knowing someone who has been abused. Abuse is a broad topic since there are many forms of abuse (sexual, physical, verbal so on) and it can happen to anyone any age, race or gender. Are certain people, genders, or races more inclined to abuse? The research in this paper will help to shed light on these kinds of questions. Our group will be narrowing down on a certain area of abuse. Although there is much awareness raised for child abuse and battered women who have been abused by their spouse there is little awareness or support for a very crucial group, the teenager. The age group that we will be looking at is teens from 13-18. More specifically we will be looking at abuse in relationships in this certain age group. This kind of abuse has been labeled Dating Violence by The Department of Justice Canada. Children are too young to be getting involved with romantic partners, therefore the teen years are really the years where girls and boys are starting to explore relationships. Just because teens are younger does not mean that there is no abuse in relationships. It is a common occurrence that once someone has been abused they are more prone to find abuse in a partner or to become an abuser themselves. Our group will be taking a look at the following categories of this form of teen abuse: Research with The Department of Justice Canada Ways we can improve the future of abuse in teenagers Laws and stats in Canada Our group will be laying out the current knowledge on this subject so that people can understand the problem before trying to solve it. One must start fixing the problem on a small local scale before moving to a larger one. Ways to implement change on a small scale can be started in schools by introducing mandatory programs for all students to learn about abuse. Also since abuse is a touchy subject there should be anonymous ways to speak with others if one desires. And even more specifically the victims should be able to choose exactly what kind of people they would like to discuss the subject with. The internet can be a great tool for this sort of interaction. If victims feel that there is a safe place to share stories online it would be very beneficial. Of course creating a safe environment online is a challenging concept since anyone can have access to the internet and make up fake identities. Ways to create a safe online environment will be discussed later on by the group.