College Students' Perceptions Of Adolescent Dating Violence

The purpose of this study is to examine college students' perceptions toward adolescent dating violence. The objective is to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences in knowledge and experience among criminology and criminal justice majors and non-criminology and criminal justice majors. Surveys were administered to 100 college students to measure knowledge and experience of adolescent dating violence. Survey responses of students who identified themselves as criminology and criminal justice majors were compared to responses of those students who did not consider themselves criminology and criminal justice majors. While there were some statistically significant differences between the two groups with regards to both knowledge and experience, there were not as many differences as the author hypothesized. The findings of this study demonstrate shortcomings in both policy and education in both adolescent dating violence prevention and education.