DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding.
[Music]
MELISSA PERUCH: Hello everyone, we are Teens Against DV.
MELISSA PERUCH: As a group of engaged teens, we want society to notice that domestic violence is an impactful problem that's associated with everyone of every age, color, gender, ethnicity, and religion. We want society to listen to us to understand what domestic violence really encompasses. We hope to be the voice that other people feel they've lost, or haven't been granted. This is why we are working together with Connectopod, the Los Angeles Public Library, and StrengthUnited.
MELISSA PERUCH: This way and this way only can we finally understand each other, protect each other and break the cycle. That cycle where the guilty virtually imprisons the innocent.
VIVIENE CARVAJAL: At no moment, did the victim ask or give consent to be maltreated. So how can it have been their fault? This kind of behavior is not a normal, everyone deserves access to healthy relationships without the toxic arguments, the violent confrontations, a feeling of helplessness and a fear for their own life. In this series, we will describe types of abuse and warning signs. We will also discuss domestic violence resources that are available to everyone.
TANISHA GUNBY: We wanted to spend part of our summer working on this project, because domestic violence is personal to some of us who might have experienced it or have seen it firsthand. Others of us want to understand the topic of domestic violence better.
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: Anybody can fall victim to domestic violence in a relationship. Anybody can be an abuser regardless of the level of fame, success, social status, wealth, number of rewards, gender, or age.
TANISHA GUNBY: Hello, my name [Tanisha Gunby 00:01:49].
TANISHA GUNBY: Digital abuse is a type of domestic violence in which a partner is stalked, harassed, intimidated, controlled, or bullied by the use of technology or the internet.
TANISHA GUNBY: Some examples of digital abuse are when a partner controls who their partner speak to on social media, tracks their partner's location, humiliates their partner in their posts, looks through texts and pictures on their partner's phone, and monitors their partner's activities using social media or other technology.
TANISHA GUNBY: The digital abuser may send intimidating or negative messages. Force the partner to give them, or steal their account passwords and send or ask for unwanted explicit photos or videos. A partner may also incessantly contact their partner to keep them persistently engaged so that they cannot separate themselves from their phone without upsetting their abusive partner. The abuser may create fake social media profiles using their partner's name and send messages to others while posing as to other partner to embarrass and manipulate the victim.
ARTINA TUROKH: Hi, my name is [Artina Turokh 00:02:51] and I will be talking about one of the lesser known types of abuse and domestic violence, which is legal abuse.
ARTINA TUROKH: Legal abuse or abusive litigation is when a partner unjustly uses the court or the law to take control over someone, typically a partner, as seen in many cases of domestic violence. There are many different abusive actions that fall under this category. However, some examples include, a partner having full control over all personal legal documents, a partner filing, canceling, or modifying any legal documents on the other's behalf without their willing consent, threatening to sue anyone who helps the partner, including family, friends, advocates, attorneys, and law enforcement officers, and suing a partner for reporting abuse. One way someone going through legal abuse can get help, is through a judge's court order restricting abusive litigation.
ISABELLA SAEEDY: My name is Isabella Saeedy and today I will be giving some information about physical abuse.
ISABELLA SAEEDY: Physical abuse is a intentional bodily injury. Some signs of physical abuse on a victim are bruises, broken bones, broken eyeglasses, and a sudden change in behavior, especially in vulnerable adults, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, experiencing intentional slapping, choking, kicking shoving, or the inappropriate usage of drugs or physical restraints. There are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to violence outlines. Every day. One in 15 children are to intimate partner violence each year in total, the victims of intimate partner violence lose 8 million days of paperwork. Every year. The cost is about 8.3 billion per year. Intimate partner violence has been linked to the creation of neurological disorders, anxiety and PTSD victims.
MELISSA PERUCH: Hello, my name is [Melissa Peruch 00:00:43].
MELISSA PERUCH: Mental, emotional and psychological abuse is basically an abusive behavior that's intended to cause trauma to a victim via repetitive, harmful, and unauthorized name calling, verbal yelling, threats of acts, gaslighting or coercive tactics. It's essentially a way to control another person by manipulating their emotions to criticize, embarrass, shame, blame, and bully them. This type of abuse lies within a state where sticks and stones aren't applied to break another person or their body parts, but it does prove that words can definitely break their soul and their one center of control and that's their mental stability.
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: Hello, my name is [Estephanie Paz 00:05:29].
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: Sexual abuse is a branch of domestic violence and it's defined as abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. There are six main categories of sexual abuse, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, intimate partner sexual violence, incest, drug-facilitated sexual assault, and sexual assault of men and boys.
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: The statistics for these crimes are horrifying. According to RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Only 25 out of every 1000 rapists will end up in prison.
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: The effects of sexual abuse to a survivor is devastating. As 70% of them experience moderate to severe distress, a larger percentage than for any other violent crime. Luckily sexual abuse is being dealt with across the nation. In the last 20 years, sexual violence has fallen by half. More organizations, such as RAINN, American Psychological Association, The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and many others are working to combat sexual abuse.
VIVIENE CARVAJAL: This world accommodates billions of people and every one of us make up such a vast portion of that.
VIVIENE CARVAJAL: You are so extremely important because you are human. You are alive. You have a voice to talk, inspire or oppose. You have ears to listen and reflect, you have eyes to see the world and hold an individual perspective and you have a purpose to shape your own happiness. You deserve love, respect, loyalty, honesty, and a say in any relationship you're in. Know it, embrace it, act on it and live it. Somebody out there will listen. Somebody will see you, somebody will connect with you. Be kind to yourself, acknowledge that what you feel is absolutely, 100%, okay. And trust me, you will never be alone.
MELISSA PERUCH: Thank you to the Teens Leading Change Initiative of the Los Angeles Library Foundation.
MELISSA PERUCH: Find out more about this initiative that we'll be linked in the description.
VIVIENE CARVAJAL: The Los Angeles Public Library, Canoga Park and Encino, Tarzana branches, StrengthUnited, and Connectopod who have all worked together on this journey.
TANISHA GUNBY: Thank you to Samantha from StrengthUnited for teaching us how to identify domestic violence.
TANISHA GUNBY: StrengthUnited's 24/7 hotline is here for all to provide crisis counseling and support for survivors of trauma. The hotline for the San Fernando valley is 818-886-0453. The hotline for the Santa Clarita Valley is 661-253-0258. The numbers are also provided in the description below.
ESTEPHANIE PAZ: This project was made possible by generous grants from the Los Angeles Library Foundation, the Los Angeles Public Library and StrengthUnited.
MELISSA PERUCH: This Has been Teens Against DV reporting with Connectopod. Learn more about Connectopod at connectopod.net or follow us on Instagram and Facebook @connectopod.
[END OF RECORDING]
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding.