The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

UNHEALTHY teenage relationships present a big challenge to eliminating violence against women and girls said Detective Holly Tucker, who was the speaker at a forum on domestic violence last week.

While conducting two days of extensive training focused on the prevention of domestic violence, Detective Tucker, a 15-year veteran of the Broward Sheriff’s Office in South Florida, presented on dating violence for adults and teenagers.

The training opportunity coincided with the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, an international campaign from November 25, the International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10, International Human Rights Day.

Teen dating violence is physical, sexual, or psychological/emotional violence within a dating relationship, as well as stalking. It can occur in person or electronically and may occur between a current or former dating partner.

“Domestic violence is always changing. Twenty years ago a lot of it was just the fighting and things like that. Nowadays you are seeing domestic violence with social media and it has complicated it to the point where you cannot control it. It is almost like a wild fire that spreads and you cannot put it out.

“About one in four adolescents report verbal, physical, emotional or sexual abuse from a dating partner among 11-14 year olds in relationships; they say they know friends who have been verbally abused by a boyfriend or girlfriend,” she said.

Social media has taken teen dating violence to another level, making harassment and stalking much easier. Mobile phone applications that show a user’s location have not worked to the benefit for some teens either.

“Social media or mobile abuse occurs when individuals post negative comments on a Facebook page or twitter feed, they use Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare to keep tabs on you; they put you down in their status updates, send or post explicit videos, or they look through your phone constantly to see your texts, calls and photos.

“Lets say Kevin and Jaime have been dating for three months. A couple of weeks after they started dating Kevin texted Jaime all the time to see where she was and what she was doing. When she did not respond he would call her repeatedly or make disrespectful posts on her Facebook wall. Now, Jaime always tells him where she is and who she is with so he won’t harass her over the phone or online,” she said.

Detective Tucker said this kind of abuse takes place frequently and calls for extra effort and attention from parents to create healthy environments at home and monitor their children’s activities on social media.

“The important thing is that you have to educate these kids and tell them what is right and what is wrong and the consequences of your actions,” she said.

During her Bahamas tour, Detective Tucker also engaged law enforcement officials and security personell in a series of training workshops.

On December 2, she conducted a presentation on domestic violence to officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) at Police Headquarters in Nassau. The event was attended by Commissioner Ellison Greenslade, members of the RBPF Executive Management Team, a wide range of officers, and civilian staff members of the RBPF. She also gave similar presentations to campus security officers from the Ministry of Education. On December 3, Detective Tucker gave presentations in Freeport which included senior RBPF officers.

Persons who are in an abusive relationship or those know of someone in an abusive relationship can contact The Crisis Centre at (242) 328-9022.

Anyone seeking more information about domestic violence can email The Crisis Centre at bahamascrisiscentre@yahoo.com or visit the email www.bahamascrisiscentre.org.