To Help Teens Experiencing Dating Violence, Meet Young People Where They’re At

Some people mistakenly think that when teenagers experience intimate partner violence, it’s less serious than when adults experience it, explains Andrew Sta. Ana,  supervising attorney of Day One, which seeks to end teen dating violence. “There’s this idea, ‘Oh, teen DV. That must mean domestic violence or intimate-partner violence ‘lite’… I think that what’s important to recognize about teen dating violence, particularly as it affects young women, is that [the age group of 18 to 24 has] the highest rates of dating violence” among any group, Sta. Ana says in this New Thinking podcast. He also explains what services Day One offers clients and how it works with the Brooklyn Youthful Offender Domestic Violence Court, and he discusses some of the factors that distinguish cases of teen intimate-partner violence from adult cases, including differences in law, the use of technology, and adolescent brain development.     The following is a transcript:    Intro clip: “When I started doing this work, one of the most important lessons I learned was people said the opposite of domestic violence isn’t safety. The opposite of domestic violence is self determination.” ROB WOLF: I’m Rob Wolf, director of communications at the Center for Court Innovation. Today I am in the office of Andrew Santa Ana, who is the supervising attorney at Day One, which is a legal services program that works with teenagers and young people who are experiencing or are survivors of intimate partner violence. Welcome to the podcast. ANDREW SANTA ANA: Thank you so much for having me. I’m glad we’re able to do this. WOLF: Your work involves many things. I thought maybe we could start with a program that the Center for Court Innovation has been involved in and helped develop, the Youth Offender Domestic Violence Court in Brooklyn, which works with young people ages 16 to 19 who have been involved in intimate partner domestic violence, misdemeanor criminal cases. Now, your role is representing the victims in civil cases. Is that correct? SANTA ANA: Yeah, when there’s a case going on in the YODVC, many of the young people who are victims in that case have questions about family court, custody of their kids, or orders of protection in the civil process. We have a pretty close relationship with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. They make referrals to us and we see how we can help. WOLF: Let’s talk about your clients and being a teenager in an intimate partner violence situation. Are there different characteristics? Are there different issues and concerns that teenagers have and that you have representing teenagers than an adult might have? SANTA ANA: Sure. Young people are obviously a different population with respect to their age. That plays out in a few different ways. There are things about it that are similar to cases involving adults and things about it that are significantly different. When I think about the differences, I break them into a few different categories. First and foremost is the law, right? When we talk about working with young people, the law treats young people and minors differently, right? A young person under the age of 18 is considered an infant of the laws, considered a minor or someone with diminished capacity. From the get go you have someone for whom the standard is a little bit different and that requires more from an attorney and from the court to think about where that young person is. There’s definitely the legal aspect of that. Then, secondly, there’s the culture aspect of that, which means that young people who are teenagers in the 2014 time are different in some ways because of their access to technology than young people even just 10 years ago. We’re talking about manifestations of intimate partner violence or ways that power and control manifest. They’re taking along on a huge technological component. Then, I would say the last piece about this is that as studies and research develops, we know that we’re interacting with young people at a certain developmental stage in their lives. Whether it be normal teenage brain development to hormones to relationships with their parents, we know more information about how young people are processing information. That helps inform what services they need, what they seek, and what remedies are appropriate. WOLF: The Youth Offender Domestic Violence Court takes care of or works with the criminal side of things. Then, what happens if you get a referral from the court? What are some of the issues that, some of the civil remedies or issues that you’re dealing with when you represent the young victims in a civil setting? SANTA ANA: Sure. When people contact Day One, they might have questions about a civil case. We work with a lot of teen mothers who have questions about whether it be paternity or child support or custody and visitation, the clients we work with also have a right to file for an order of protection from the civil process. Those are often some pretty typical questions but also because of the lives of our clients are complicated and they have many different identities. Sometimes there’s questions about benefits, about young people and teenagers accessing public benefits. There’s sometimes immigration questions. If we’re talking about young people in violent relationships, there’s also the need for them to just to connect with someone and to talk to someone. We have legal services, but we also have one-on-one and group counseling services. We also have a survivors group that does advocacy. Thinking about where that young person is and being responsible for that is where we come from because while it’s great and I can talk to someone about their legal options, sometimes they just want to talk to someone about this relationship where it might have been their first time they were in love or the parent to their child with whom they might have a complicated relationship. It’s important for young people to have people that they can talk to and reach out. WOLF: Let’s put this in a little bit maybe in historical context. Domestic violence itself has been an issue that has taken historically many years for advocates to bring to the attention of the justice system and take it as seriously as any violence and also look at the complexities that are involved when it involves intimate partners. Now for teenagers, is that taking another level of awareness and more time to bring attention to the fact that teenagers too can experience this kind of … SANTA ANA: Yeah. Thank you for asking that question because that in some ways gets to the real heart of it. Part of this is talking about young people and teenagers as people who have intimate relationships, as young people who will be having sex, as young people that will be engaged in a lot of behaviors that their parents or adults would rather not touch, right? We’re talking about domestic violence. We are certainly working with young people who are parents or young people that are having sex and unprotected sex or sex that’s coerced. We’re also talking about young people who wouldn’t necessarily talk about these things with their parents. As I was saying before, there are developmental things going on with young people, so maybe they don’t want to talk to their parents or their counselors or their teachers or people that they trust about what’s going on in their lives or at least adults because they’re developing a sense of themselves. That’s one piece of it. A second piece of it is a cultural misconception about young people in intimate relationships. There’s this idea, oh, teen TV. That must mean domestic violence or intimate partner violence light or it’s not as serious. This is maybe slapping or some constant phone calls. What’s important to recognize about teen dating violence particularly as it affects young women, is that these are actually the highest rates of intimate partner violence, young women between ages say 18 and 24, right? There’s the highest rate. There’s also a lot of physical violence. With thinking about these relationships, it’s important to recognize what exists culturally, which is a minimization of this experience but also recognizing that these young people at a particularly high amount of risk in this age group. WOLF: Do the teenagers themselves sometimes have trouble as anyone perhaps does recognizing that they’re in a situation that’s perhaps becoming dangerous or abusive because when someone’s been in a relationship for a long time, that’s when those patterns maybe become the most unmanageable and the most evident, sometimes even to the victim. If someone’s very young and less experienced in the world and perhaps being told that this is normal or this is what they’re to expect, is that a challenge? SANTA ANA: Sure. That challenge comes from all sides. On one hand, you have someone who’s navigating their first i...