Youth is a period of adolescence and emerging adulthood. When adolescents find themselves in that period of life, their task is to build their own identity through a variety of tasks, changes, their own expectations and expectations of society. During emerging adulthood, young people are faced with developmental tasks which they haven’t completed in adolescence. Also, in those periods young people enter and develop relationships and it is challenging to achieve a balance between the desire for a greater intimacy with their partner and the aspirations for personal freedom in the relationship. Dating violence is recognized as a significant public health and social problem. It can manifest in a form of physical violence, psychological/emotional violence and sexual violence. Both domestic and foreign studies show a large prevalence of violence, between 1.4% and 99.3% of young perpetrate violence in a relationship. Theories such as social learning theory, attachment and feminist theory try to explain why relationship violence exists and what the significant risk factors for this behaviour are. This paper explains the concept of relationship violence and presents the theories and significant studies in Croatia, as well as provides a comparison with studies conducted in foreign countries. It also specifies the risk and protective factors and consequences of violence. Social workers have an important role in the prevention of dating violence.