Dates Often Turn Violent

Wed., Aug. 3, 1994

One out of 10 dating relationships are extremely physically violent, said Belinda Lafferty, coordinator of the teen domestic violence program at Youth Eastside Services.

According to New Beginnings, a Seattle domestic violence shelter, one third of all young women will experience dating violence by age 20.

In a review of a decade of studies on dating violence, researchers David Sugarman and David Hotaling estimated in 1991 that “about 28 percent of dating individuals were involved in intimate violence at some point in their dating careers.”

The Domestic Abuse Women’s Network, which runs a crisis hot line in Seattle, applied that figure to South King County and found the area could have as many as 14,510 victims of dating violence. Teens themselves know there’s a problem.

The network’s survey of 36 students at Renton High School showed 42 percent knew someone involved in dating violence.

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