The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide a deep understanding of young women's personal accounts of violence to inform prevention programs and policies. Individual and focus group interviews about everyday experiences with violence were conducted with 67 young women, ages 15–19, at a high school in San Francisco, California. Qualitative methods were used to assess the range of young women's experiences with community and interpersonal violence. Three themes emerged from the data: 1) witnessing dating violence; 2) emotions and the language of the body; and 3) the paradox of love and violence. Violence in the lives of young women challenges assumptions about what “youth violence” means, how it happens, and who it happens to.
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