Singapore launches campaign to increase awareness of dating violence

Singapore launched a week-long campaign on Saturday to help young people stay away from violent relationship, according to local radio 938Live's report on Saturday.

the Dating Violence Awareness Week was launched by Center for Promoting Alternatives to Violence (Pave) and students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Study showed that dating violence happens when a partner uses force to abuse the other partner sexually, physically or psychologically in a relationship. The frequency and the severity of the abuse usually increases as the relationship develops, the report said.

The Pave and NTU recently conducted a survey sampling 250 tertiary Singaporean students aged between 16 to 30.

Findings showed that more than half of the respondents had not heard about dating violence, about one third of the respondents said they knew someone who may be a victim of dating violence, and more than 80 percent indicated they did not know of any counseling service that they could turn to for help if they were a victim, Xinhua reported.