Factors influencing the reporting of dating violence prevalence

Abstract

The topic of dating violence has been controversial ever since Makepeace published his groundbreaking study in 1981. Initially, many critics tried to deny that physical violence between adolescent dating partners occurred. Even those who supported Makepeace’s idea had a hard time accepting the 20 percent prevalence rate that he had found. But subsequent confirmatory research forced people to open their eyes to the issue. Although the presence of dating violence has now been accepted, even after 20 years of research, a number of questions still remain. For example, there is still a question regarding the true prevalence. In addition, there has yet to be a satisfactory answer as to which factors predispose individuals to be perpetrators or victims of dating violence. And there has been a general failure to examine factors that could cause inherent bias in the findings. Examination of such factors is the primary focus of the current study, in conjunction with replication of several key findings from previous literature