Half of teens in relationships suffer violence or controlling behaviour, reveals new report

A new report reveals that nearly half of teenage children who have been in a relationship have experienced violent or controlling behaviours from a partner.

Based on a survey of 10,000 children aged 13 to 17 across England and Wales, the report from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), examines how boys and girls experience violence.

It found that 27% of teens have been in a relationship over the past year, and of those, 49% experience some form of violent or controlling behaviour.

The type of violent and controlling behaviours that teenagers reported experiencing in their relationships include:

• 20% say they were pressured or forced into sexual activity against their will
• 19% reported being physically assaulted (e.g. hit, kicked or shoved)
• 17% had explicit images or videos of themselves shared online without their consent
• 27% said they were made to feel afraid to disagree with their partner
• 26% said their partner made them feel scared to break up with them

It comes as we continue to look at the issue of domestic violence in young people following the death of Hexham teenager Holly Newton.

The 15 year old was stalked and then stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail in Hexham, Northumberland, last January - after he would not accept that their 18-month relationship was over.

Holly's mother, Micala Trussler, has been campaigning for the age a person can be legally recognised as a domestic abuse victim to be lowered.

Currently the abuser and the victim must be over 16 for it to be considered a domestic abuse crime.

Previously, Micala told us:

"At the minute Holly’s case sits in the knife crime category and it's so much more than that. We would like Holly's case to be put down as domestic abuse so lessons can be learnt from Holly’s death.

"Control, emotional abuse, psychological abuse. She suffered all of those and then at the very end, the stalking as well.

"We feel like if she'd been aware of what was normal in a relationship and what wasn't, she could have gone out to seek help earlier.

"At the minute it's only recognised that over-16s can be a victim of domestic abuse. We’re petitioning for that to change because Holly's case has proven that it can happen to anyone.

"We need to safeguard children and that is a major point. I think there's more than Holly just going through this. Children are having relationships younger, and they do need that support."

Ciaran Thapar from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) agrees changes needs to happen:

“It’s great that the age is now lowered to 16 years old. But it boggles the mind a bit that we wouldn't try and push for the age to be lower, given that if you're now a 14 or 15 year old, or indeed younger, and you report that you have or are experiencing any form of domestic abuse that legally there's nothing that can hold the person who is responsible for it to account.

“You have to have recognition legally and in criminal justice to send a message that actually, you know, certain types of behaviour are unacceptable. So, I think having recognitions of domestic abuse go lower in age would hopefully start to grapple with the fact that this is a widespread problem across much younger children.

“There are lots of different types of violence that are really affecting that younger cohort, 13 to 15 year olds. It's not just 16 year olds and older effected. I think that there are lots of things we can do and put pressure on the government to do - in terms of law making, in terms of how the police operate, in terms of how schools operate - to try and prevent all of those types of violence. I think Holly’s case and our research shows clear examples of that.”

Jess Phillips: these cases can't be ignored

We spoke exclusively to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips who said cases like this can't be ignored:

“The proportions in the age range of 16 to 19 year olds (who experience domestic abuse), I have to say isn't something that 20 years ago when I started this that I thought would exist. I thought that we'd just progressively got better and that this was a generational thing. But the alternative is true, I'm afraid. And in the case of Holly Newton speaks enormously to that.

“And if we don't currently have the things in place, the right things in place, to be able to be gathering data, because if, like Holly Newton had come forward to the police, she wouldn't have been considered to be a domestic abuse because of her age – we have to really think about that.

“We have to think about how we’re (Government) responding to what seems to be a crime that is trending young. There is nothing I would say that is off the table. The whole violence against women and girls strategy of this government, is very much to be data-driven and responsive to the things that are actually happening and we certainly couldn't ignore this one.”