Types of Dating Violence

Violent relationships can often be complex, and there are many kinds of abuse that can occur in a dating relationship: verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual.

Verbal & Emotional

Emotional abuse originates in the aggressor’s desire to control the other person’s behavior. The abuser tries to limit a dating partner’s ability to act independently, and undermines their confidence. Verbal abuse can include swearing at a partner, insulting and belittling them, and threatening or terrorizing them with words.

Physical

Typically, males use physical force to assert control, while females use it to protect themselves, to retaliate, or because they fear an assault. This type of abuse includes hair-pulling, biting, shoving, slapping, choking, strangling, punching, kicking, burning, using or threatening use of a weapon, and forcibly confining someone.

Sexual

Sexual abuse includes unwanted sexual touching, force or pressure to get a partner to consent, rape or attempted rape, and attempting or having sex with a person who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs.