Discussion


 * Discussion: Tell your findings and discuss them**

With these three case scenarios of Elementary, High School and Post-secondary students, we can see that the abundance of information given not only re-iterates the prevalence of ‘Dating Violence,’ but also strives to ingrain a high importance of this particular issue in society that ultimately needs to be garnered attention in order to create a solution. Despite the relatively moderate percentage of adolescent youths that are experiencing ‘dating violence’, it does not in no way diminish the importance of it, and the necessary needs to find methods of release for these abuse victims. With this in mind we can further analyze the percentages given from the Department of Justice Canada and discuss what exactly it means for us as a society.

With the rising statistics over these three specific groups of teenagers we can see that perhaps, the problem lies in the actual reporting of a physical altercation as opposed to the much publicized information of emotional abuse. For example, according to the Department of Justice Canada the percentage of reported emotional abuse from grades one through eight to high school rises 26 percent, indicating how teens are more likely to share their tribulations of verbal arguments with their significant other as they get older. Sadly, this does not hold true in terms of declaring actual physical abuse by their partner, for the rise in percentage is only 1.8 as it goes from 7.2 to 9 percent. This is an extension of the social issue we are concerned about as group. Not only have we established the severity of ‘Dating Violence’ we have also brought to attention the lack of insight given to physical abuse amongst teens, as the first hand account is reluctant to divulge this information due to numerous reasons that include; stigma, fear, low self-esteem, a sense of entrapment, and possibly self-blame.

Moreover, the data present ed by the Department of Justice Canada illustrates that the percentage of students grade one through eight that report they had been physically forced to engage in sexual activities is only 4, while the high school percentage stands at 14. This is indicative of the lack of awareness about possibilities of rape that these individuals may be exposed to. In addition, it also speaks volumes that perhaps these students themselves may be unaware as to what is deemed as forcible sexual activities, due to the low percent rates, for this knowledge is not succinctly illustrated within the school curriculum nor is it a topic of discussion as it is commonly labelled taboo.

Furthermore, we can assume that with the lack of experience about relationships elementary and high school students may have, one would assume that their judgement would improve with age especially in terms of identifying and preventing further abuse in relationships. Sadly, this however is not always the case. As mentioned above, the 45 percent of women that indicated they had been sexually abused in relationships upon leaving high school is a staggering statistic, for it re-enforces the idea that abuse is not common to just marital couples. It also brings to our attention that one would assume this percentage would be much lower considering undergraduates are much more aware of what abuse entails, and that they would ultimately be able to remove themselves from a situation that could pose this threat, but this is not the case. With ‘dating violence’ it becomes more known that removing a victim from this situation is a lot harder than many people assume which brings to our focus; ensuring programs and methods to help current and potential abuse victims which enables them to recognize the signs of abuse and to the road of recovery.