emotionalabuse

[Unregistered]

I'm 17 and emotionally abused can I leave home to be with my boyfriend

[ccsmod7]

Re: emotionalabuse

Hi there,

Thank you for sharing on our online forum. You raise some very good questions about emotional abuse. Please keep in mind you by no means deserve any type of abuse, emotional or otherwise. Emotional abuse is often harder to provide evidence for compared to physical abuse which is often what Child Protective Services relies on when conducting an abuse investigation. That said, you may want to look into the organization Child Help USA: 1-800-422-4453 https://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse/. They might be able to provide you with some more information about steps you can take to prevent or report abuse.

You mentioned that you're thinking about leaving home and staying with your boyfriend. If you leave home without permission, your parents/guardians could report you as a runaway and the police would be authorized to return you home. If you are reported as a runaway it’s typically just a status offense; however, sometimes people helping runaways are at risk for charges such as harboring a runaway. This charge is often considered a misdemeanor, but might be something to explore if you or whoever you would be staying with are concerned.

In some areas the police handle runaway cases for people age 17 a little differently. They may not actively search for you or they might just check if you are safe but not force you to return home. The way police handle runaway cases can vary from county to county and even among police districts. If you want to know for sure how the police in your area handle runaway cases at your age, you could call your police non-emergency line and ask them hypothetically how they handle such cases. If this is something you’re not comfortable with, we can help by calling out to the police for you or by looking up the appropriate number for where you live.

We thank you again for contacting us. We hope this information is useful and that you contact us directly if you want to discuss your situation in more detail.

Best of luck,
NRS