Teen Violence

There are several different types of violence and not all of them are physical. Between physical, sexual and verbal violence, teens can face long-term physical and emotional damage from the various types of violence that they might inflict on each other through bullying and intended harm.

Children, teens and adults are are susceptible to become victims of all types of violence including physical, sexual, cultural, verbal, and emotional violence. Different types of violence occur at different times to different people based on the reason for the violence in the first place. Unfortunately children and teens are often victims of physical, sexual or emotional violence from those adults in their life they are supposed to trust most: their care takers or even family friends and acquaintances. Some types of violence and instances may only occur on a single occasion, but for some victims the cycle of violence may continue for years. These occasional, one-time or long-lasting instances of violence can have lingering or permanent psychological effects on a child or teen's development both physically and psychologically. The types of violence are most often behaviors that are meant to establish power over another person or family, household members, colleagues groups or intimate partners. The original concept of violence stems from instances of inequality that continue to exist in modern day society. 

Types of Violence:

Physical violence is one of the most common types of violence or abuse that many individuals at a variety of ages have become victim to in his or her lifetime. Unfortunately physical violence can take place in a variety of ways over victims of any age. Any sort of physical abuse that can harm a person physical through kicking, punching, slapping, hitting, shoving, pushing, choking, holding a person down, confinement, burning, stabbing, cutting, assaulting with a weapon and many more instances are all cases of physical violence. 

Sexual violence occurs when a person is forced to take place in a sexual act, or sexual intercourse against their will. It is one of the most traumatic cases of violence that can happen to any-age individual. Sexual violence includes forcing you to perform sex acts, humiliating or controlling a person's sexuality, exposing someone knowingly to an STD, forced prostitution, withholding sexual affection, using a weapon to make a person perform sexually, forced sexual intercourse and other similar experiences.

When a person thinks of acts of violence, they might only think about the various types of physical and sexual abuse. However, emotional violence can take its own toll on a victim and is often used in conjunction with other types of physical abuse. Types of emotional violence include name calling, bullying, constant criticism, humiliation, constant blame, threats, controlling behaviors, intimidation, threatening to take belongings/children, etc. as well as threatening to commit suicide. These types of emotional violence can create long-lasting effects to a person's psychological state and can make it more difficult for that person to learn to trust others and have healthy relationships in the future with friends and loved ones. Along these same lines are financial abuse and cultural/spiritual abuse. Financial abuse can take place when one member of the relationship or family refuses the other member of the family certain rights like the ability to work outside the home, have access to bank accounts or money to take care of the family. Cultural and spiritual violence takes place when a person becomes a victim of violence because of their spiritual beliefs or cultural background. 

Violence of any kind is never okay. It is important to teach children this at a young age through a healthy and loving home and family environment. However, if you see any of these instances or types of violence occurring within your relationship with a significant other, it is important to get help right away. Violence can have lasting effects on the victim, which is why it is important to make sure these matters of any types of violent activity are prevented in the first place. 

Sources: gov.nl.ca