February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, and members of the community are stepping up to help teens who might be in abusive relationships.

Every year nearly one in four teens report that they are the victims of verbal, physical, or emotional violence. Teens in controlling or violent relationships often carry those patterns into their adult relationships. One local judge hopes to break the cycle of teen dating violence to prevent more severe cases in the future.

"When our boys and girls are bumping into each other in middle school, they're developing patterns of the way males and females relate for the rest of their lives," said Judge Tom Boyd, chief judge at the 55th District Court in Mason. "If those patterns aren't developed in a healthy manner, they end up here."

Judge Boyd says he handles domestic violence cases at the 55th District Court on a weekly basis. He says the violence is the end result of a pattern of power and control that begins at a very young, and often ends in tragedy.

"So this pattern goes on to turn into what we see in adult court," said Boyd. "We've seen in our community in the last 5 years that domestic relationships not only turn violent, but often turn fatal."

That's why Boyd says it's important to teach teenagers how to have healthy relationships. He works with the organization End Violent Encounters (EVE) to educate teens on dating violence.

"We go out to middle schools and high schools and we talk to teens about dating violence and healthy relationships," said Jillian Pastoor, who works with community relations at EVE. "We talk about the warning signs as well so that teens understand what the definition of dating violence is."

Some of those warning signs include jealousy, extreme emotional attachment,,verbal abuse, and threats of violence. That behavior often starts at a young age.

"Now we don't think of tweens 11-14 as dating, but that boyfriend/girlfriend possessiveness, dominating, stalking behavior turns into violence for 1 in 5 tweens in the country," said Boyd.

However, knowing the warning signs might help teens break the cycle of abuse.

"It's very difficult to leave an abusive relationship," said Pastoor. "It's very difficult to recognize what you're going through is abusive. And to be able to get out and seek help - that's an amazing source of inspiration for us."

Pastoor says constant communication is often a sign of dating violence in teen relationships, and that texting and social media can become a tool for abuse. An overwhelming amount of contact through texting, Facebook, or Twitter is a way for somebody to become very controlling.

If someone recognizes any of these warning signs in a loved one's relationship, or in their own relationship, it's important to reach out for help from family, friends, teachers of from EVE.

EVE has a 24-hour crisis hotline anyone can call to figure out what the best step is for them. That number is 517-372-5572. Or for more information, go to eveinc.org.