Teenage Intimate Partner Violence Online/Offline - Findings from Expert Consultations in Five European Countries
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Carolina Overlien Associate Professor, Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS)
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Teenage Intimate Partner Violence Online/Offline - Findings from Expert Consultations in Five European Countries
- 2. Teenage Intimate Partner Violence Online/Offline - Findings from Expert Consultations in Five European Countries 9th BASPCAN International Congress 12th – 15th April 2015, Edinburgh Carolina Øverlien Associate Professor, Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS)
- 3. Briefing Paper 1: Policy and Practice Awareness in Europe on Teenage Intimate Relationships and New Technology
- 4. Two expert workshops in each European country Aim: to map relevant policy, practice and knowledge on interpersonal violence and abuse (IPVA) in teenage intimate relationships
- 5. - Concepts and definitions - Levels of awareness - Training/education for professionals and young people - Gender perspectives - Policy and practice initiatives on prevention and intervention - Barriers to prevention and intervention
- 6. Concepts and definitions Bullying/cyberbullying has been used as a concept to include all forms of violence and aggression against children.
- 7. Levels of Awareness Awareness of teenage IPVA is low amongst both young people and professionals.
- 8. Training/education for professionals and young people Training for professionals and young people is offered in all countries, but is usually one-off and is not delivered on a systematic and continuous basis.
- 9. Gender perspectives The extent to which the role of gender is recognized in prevention and intervention policies/practices on IPVA in teenage relationships varies greatly between the European countries participating in this study.
- 10. Policy and practice initiatives on prevention and intervention The topic of teenage IPVA, online and offline, is either absent or acknowledged only to a limited degree in law, policies and action plans.
Editor's Notes
- IPV among young people is often defined within the framework of other phenomena, such as violence in the family, sexual abuse in the family, trafficking of children, and these phenomena often get confused. These topics are often sensationalized in the media which contributes to this confusion, and as noted in the UK, often with a polorized depiction of children as ‘angels’ and ‘devils’. Schools are familiar with the concept of bullying (for example in Norway the Olweus anti-bullying program has been very influential) and may know what is expected of them to a larger extent than in regards to teenage intimate partner violence. Gender gap: young people themselves may define it differently than adults.
- Limited awareness may be linked to the fact that the problem is often hidden from adults because adults don’t take part in children’s (cyber)lives. Awareness seem to be higher among teenagers, but they seldom communicate with adults about the violence that takes place in their lives, nor does it happen infront of adults or arenas that adults are present. There are few awareness-raising activities (and if there are any they focus on the victim rather than the perpetrator) and limited information dissemination. There are some differences among countries here, while there have been campains/awareness raising events in the UK, in Italy, the experts couldn’t recall of any specific initiative specifically relating to teenagers.
- Furthermore, training is often delivered by NGO’s, sometimes as a response to an incident, and again, the framework is often on for example bullying or sexual health, and it is unclear how much, and if any, attention there is on teenage IPVA. The impact of not providing sufficient training to professionals is that they may not have the skills to address and act in response to teenage IPVA, and especially the abuse that takes place online. The impact for young people may be that they don’t in fact know what a healthy relationship is, i.e. that violence and abuse is not an acceptable part of an intimate relationship, and they are unsure of what is illegal or not.
- In Norway, as in the UK, the gender dimension of both adult and teenage IPVA was fully recognized among experts and although interventions often lack a gendered approach, the Norwegian experts shared an understanding that the gender dynamics of IPV is recognized among professionals and policy makers, while in Cyprus, the gender perspective is completely absent from the legal framework, policy and practice that addresses any form of violence and since the national experts were unaware of any gender inequalities, they were not a position to comment on whether the gender perspective is recognized in for example prevention and intervention policies.
- There seems to be a lack of guidance and interventions on teenage intimate partner violence, both online and offline, in all five countries. General laws on child protection and welfare can be relevant, but there is a lack of laws and policies that can be used specifically to address this issue, which may contribute to uncertainty among professionals and young people as to what is legal and not online. Many initiatives on prevention and intervention come from the NGO sector, making interventions ad-hoc, local, reaching only a few, and lacking in consistency and continuity. The reluctance of schools to engage in the issue and implement policy is a major barrier to prevention and intervention. This may be linked to the lack of specialist resources, as teachers may be reluctant to engage with limited or no support from agencies outside the school. Anther barrier is a lack of evidence regarding effective policies or interventions, this was noted in expert meetings in all countries. If there are evaluations, they tend to be local and small-scale. In Bulgaria and Cyprus, the experts questioned the policies, practises and interventions in place, as they are thought to be weak and not very effective. Finally, as noted by most countries, in the current economic crisis in Europe, NGOs who have contributed to work in this field, have suffered from cuts in public funding, and as a consequence, teenage IPVA is an even less acknowledged and recognized.