The Darkside of Courtship: Violence and Sexual Exploitation

This article reviews the literature on the dark side of courtship, that is, the occurrence of physical violence and sexual exploitation between premarital partners. The basic premise of the article is that two features of dating and courtship both encourage the use of exploitative behavior and allow it to continue over time without necessarily causing the relationship to terminate. First, the different context of courtship for males versus females encourages male control of relationships and female compliance with that control. Second, the highly romanticized nature of courtship encourages partners to stay together despite highly negative interaction patterns. Implications for primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention are discussed.