Sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:
* approximately one in three adolescent girls in the United States is a victim of physical, emotional, or verbal abuse from a dating partner, a figure that far exceeds victimization rates for other types of violence affecting youth;
* twenty percent of teen girls exposed to physical dating violence did not attend school because the teen girls felt unsafe either at school, or on the way to or from school, on one or more occasions in a 30-day period;
* being physically and sexually abused leaves teen girls up to six times more likely to become pregnant and more than two times as likely to report a sexually transmitted disease;
* teen dating abuse most often takes place in the home of one of the partners;
* a majority of parents surveyed believe they have had a conversation with their teen about what it means to be in a healthy relationship, but the majority of teens surveyed said that they have not had a conversation about dating abuse with a parent in the past year; and
* digital abuse and “sexting” is becoming a new frontier for teen dating abuse.
The resolution “calls upon the people of the United States, including youth and parents, schools, law enforcement, state and local officials, and interested groups to observe National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month with appropriate programs and activities that promote awareness and prevention of the crime of teen dating violence in their communities.”
Source: Women's Policy, Inc.
