| Throughout the month of February, Crime Stoppers of Houston is launching an important initiative focused on educating the public about Teen dating violence. Teen dating violence is defined as the physical, psychological, emotional, or sexual violence within a dating relationship, including stalking. It can occur in person or electronically and can occur between a current or former dating partner. An abuser can be male or female.
It happened to Joshua Webb during his freshman year at college.
“Looking back on it I can definitely see red flags, things that should have stopped me in my tracks but didn’t,” said Webb, who is now a program coordinator at Crime Stoppers of Houston, sharing with teens information about our organization’s tip line and also his personal story of abuse. He met and began dating someone and didn’t realize how quickly she began to control his life. “It took me years to accept the fact that what I experienced was abuse,” he said. Webb says he was verbally, emotionally, and even sexually abused by this partner. She became jealous of his friendships with other women and he began to feel alienated from them. He lost male friends, too. They didn’t like his girlfriend because of the way she was treating Joshua. It was only when a few remaining friends staged an “intervention” that he then realized just how abusive the relationship had become. He never imagined that he could be a victim and wants others to know that an abusive relationship can take any form and that it most certainly doesn’t have to subscribe to society’s expectations of gender roles. “When I talk about it to anybody, I like to focus on the boys and young men: This can happen to you. It’s not your fault. It’s ok to leave. It’s ok to acknowledge it. That doesn’t make you less of a man.” Webb hopes that anyone in an abusive relationship will seek help from a trusted friend, adult, counselor or law enforcement.
Teen Dating Violence By the Numbers
(Source: CDC 2021 TDV Report)
- 1 in 11 females and 1 in 15 male high school students report having experienced physical dating violence in 2020.
- 3.5 Million women and 900K men reported that the intimate partner abuse occurred before turning 18.
- 1 in 8 female and 1 in 26 male high school students report having experienced sexual dating violence in 2020.
As Houston’s leading public safety non-profit, Crime Stoppers of Houston has designed and is delivering a series of webinars to help the public understand teen dating violence, how to recognize it and what they can do about it. Participants will not only hear from victims but will learn about important organizations and resources that can help them safely extricate themselves from a volatile and abusive relationship and put them on a path to recovery. We urge you to join these upcoming informative session.
All webinars are free-of-charge. Registration for the February 14 event is now open here.
Recordings of these and prior webinars can all be viewed at any time on the Crime Stoppers website here. Click on each past event to get links to recordings.
Monday webinars are made possible by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Spindletop Charities, Inc. Tuesday webinars are made possible by Spindletop Charities, Inc. and our Safe Community Program sponsors: Phillips 66, The Hamill Foundation, Harris County Commissioners Court – Commissioner R. Jack Cagle, Harris County Commissioners Court – Commissioner Tom Ramsey, Lawrence and Linda Levy, Cheniere Energy, Houston PetSet and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Foundation.
Additionally, Crime Stoppers offers free prevention presentations on this topic and many others. To schedule a presentation, visit this link.
Visit www.crime-stoppers.org for additional crime prevention resources and events.
About Crime Stoppers of Houston
Through active collaboration, citizen empowerment and educational outreach, Crime Stoppers of Houston is leading the Nation with innovative crime prevention programming to keep our communities safe. Established in the early 1980’s as solely a Tip Line Program, Crime Stoppers remains committed to its mission to solve and prevent serious crime in partnership with citizens, media and the criminal justice system, and now offers a robust public safety program that is reaching millions each year. Focused on finding crime-fighting solutions, the organization began growing its Safe Community Programming in 2013, opened the doors to the first-ever Crime Stoppers headquarters in the world in 2017, recently expanded its Safe School Program into a forceful Safe School Institute that provides critical school safety resources nationally, and has a Victim Services and Advocacy Program that supports victim families.
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