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Research by The Body Shop on teenagers’ attitudes to relationships reveals young women are at significant risk of future domestic violence, charity Women’s Aid said today.

The research showed 21% of teenagers believed it was legitimate for people to tell their boyfriend or girlfriend what to do, a figure rising to 27% for young men; and one in 10 felt apologising for hurting or coercing a partner made things all right.

Women’s Aid said this was particularly worrying given evidence that a woman will be assaulted 35 times before reporting her partner or ex-partner to the police.

The survey of over 1,000 12- to 18-year-olds was conducted for The Body Shop’s Stop Violence in the Home campaign, designed to raise awareness of the issue and money for Women’s Aid’s work.

Women’s Aid chief executive Nicola Harwin said: “This research is very worrying. As young people enter relationships for the first time they must be aware that allowing consistent power and control over a partner in any relationship is abusive and not acceptable.”

She said much more needed to be done to educate young people in developing positive and respectful relationships and also called for better support services for young survivors of domestic violence.

Related information 

Domestic violence: good practice schemes