Violence in teenage intimate partner relationships – Current knowledge in Norway

Carolina Øverlien, Ph.D

Per Hellevik, Ph.D candidate

Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies

Oslo, Norway

ISPCAN Dublin, September 16th 2013

Expert meeting• Arranged as a conference, with focus on:

– Current national knowledge on teen dating violence– Teens being exposed on, and their misuses of, digital media in Norway

• The issues discussed were: – Cyber aggression in general – Cyberbullying– Digital teen dating violence– Traditional teen dating violence

• Lecturers from the violence and aggression field in Norway(+USA).

– Prof. Justin W. Patchin– Prof. Svein Mossige– Associate Prof. Elisabeth Staksrud– Representatives from the Olweus group– Representative from the Oslo Police Department

• The attendees where representatives from:– The Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion– Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs– Save the Children– The National Police Directorate and several police departements– Regional Centres for Violence, Traumatic Stress and Suicide

Prevention– Shelters for abused women– And others

Policy and practice initiatives

Traditional («offline») IPV• Intimate partner violence has been on the political,

research and practice agenda in Norway for the last 30 years.

• The issue of teenage IPV has received little attention.

• Action plan on rape (June 2012)– Address to some extent the issue of the large number of reported

rapes being teenage girls as victims and the offender being an acquaintance/boyfriend.

• Action plans on interpersonal violence (March 2013)– Four actions plan on IPV (2000-2017)– Discuss to a little extent teenagers/adolescents

• Action plan on violence and sexual abuse of children and adolescents (Sept. 2013)– Teenage IPV only mentioned– Includes chapter on digital media (primarily cyberbullying, digital

IPV mentioned)

National action plans

Research• A prevalence study on violence in young peoples

(18-19 yrs) lives (Mossige & Stefansen, 2007)– 10 % have experience unwanted sexual acts from a friend or

boyfriend/girlfriend of the same age

• A representative, longitudinal study of dating violence among young adults (Pape, 2003).– Average age were 16,6 years old at T1 and 21,9 years old at T2.– 6 % of men and 4 % of women had been exposed to physical

violence by their intimate partner within the last year.– 48 % of men and 55 % of women had been cursed at/verbally

insulted by their intimate partner within the last year.

Digital («online») IPV• The use of digital media and its role in instigating

and maintaining control in adolescents intimate relationships have not received any attention.

• With regards to cyber aggression and misuses of digital media, cyberbylling has been considered the main issue.– Especially among children and adolescents.

• EU kids online (Norwegian data)– Includes data on cyberbullying– Being exposed to potentially harmful content, inappropriate contact,

aggressive conduct and more

• School surveys– Cyberbullying

• Olweus anti bullying program• The Student Survey (by the Directorate of Education)• The School Environment Study (by The University of Stavanger)

Research

• There are a number of laws in Norway that regulates what can be published (pictures and text) or not on the Internet.

- Not allowed to publish pictures of others without consent (Åndsverksloven § 45c, Personopplysningsloven § 8)

• There is little awareness of these laws among adolescents, parents and professionals.

• Criticism from NGOs and others of inadequate laws and laws that are not implemented and used

Laws and regulations

Concepts used for teenage intimate relationships• The lack of research on teen IPV in Norway has resulted in few

formalized concepts and definitions of teen IPV, both online and offline.

• Teenagers are uncertain of what they have experienced when faced with IPV.

– They often blame themselves.

• The experts emphasized the importance of finding what concepts and understandings teenagers themselves use.

Awareness of these issues• All the represented organisations were aware of these issues.

– More often than before, their clients are exposed to the digital aspects of these issues.

• The police know that teen digital dating violence is happening, but these cases are seldom officially reported to them.

– Typical examples are harassment and unwanted posting of pictures.– Cases involving aggression and violence where digital media is involved, have

often escalated online, before culminating in more severe violence.– These cases are not registered as digital aggression/violence.– The police are usually involved only when the conflict evolves beyond digital

media.

The gender perspective• There seems to be a strong awareness of the gender

perspective among professionals and researchers working with IPV or related issues (online and offline).

• There is a tendency in legislation and national action plans to use a ‘gender neutral discourse’.

– The new law regulating the shelters for abused women is gender neutral

The vignette – four main issues in the discussion• Conceptual

– Is this violence, bullying, aggression or conflict?

• Intervention – Who is to respond? What is the responsibility of the school? The police?

• The legal aspects of the actions

• Understand the reluctance of the girl– How is her definition/understanding important in regards to our response?

Comments• The actions were seen as part of a bigger pattern of violence.

– Social control.– It was termed «psychological violence».

• Sexual harassment.– The shelters for abused women reported that their clients often had severe

difficulties with the abuser posting nude pictures/sexualized content of them.

• The case was not seen as an issue for the child protection services.

– When happening on school grounds, the school are by law expected to file a rapport of the incidence.