A growing body of research has been emerging which examines the problem of dating violence among adolescents. These studies have indicated fairly high rates of female-to-male violence which has led to a growing debate on whether and how gender shapes dating and other partner violence. This study provides a contextual examination of the nature, circumstances, and meanings of partner violence in adolescent dating relationships. It examined young women’s and young men’s accounts of male-perpetrated, female-perpetrated, and reciprocal violence in dating relationships by drawing from a large qualitative study of violence in the lives of African-American youths from a distressed urban community in St. Louis, MO. To better understand the contexts in which this violence emerges, the study situated youths’ descriptions of relationship violence within their discussions of the nature of adolescent dating relationships and their shared immersion in ideas about gender and violence. Results indicated that the meanings and consequences of girls’ violence were significantly different than those of boys’; they were both grounded in gender inequalities. Gender inequality is important in shaping the nature and consequences of partner violence, even when it is violence committed by young women. References