Women’s Independent Press

By Anna Marie Petrarca Gire
Domestic violence affects all areas of our communities, including the workplace. An employee’s home life can affect their performance at work, particularly with an issue like domestic violence. Many abusers will stalk, harass, threaten or injure a significant other at work. For the victim, actions like these can present barriers to getting and keeping a job. For the employer and co-workers, it can result in higher medical costs, reduced productivity, absenteeism and an increased risk of violence to others.
Not only is domestic violence devastating for people, Domestic Violence is bad for business. By choosing to proactively address this issue in the workplace, employers can:
• Enhance workplace safety
• Increase employee productivity and morale
• Decrease absenteeism and turnover
• Create a powerful, positive impact in the community
• Implement effective prevention and intervention strategies
A recent study in Maine found that 78% of surveyed perpetrators used workplace resources to express remorse or anger, check up on, pressure or threaten the victim.
Prevalence of Domestic Violence in the workplace
In 2005, a national benchmark survey of 1200 employed adults (age 18 plus) by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence found that intimate partner violence has a wide and far-reaching effect on Americans working lives:
• 44% of employed adults surveyed personally experienced the effects of domestic violence
• 21% of respondents (men and women) identified themselves as victims of intimate partner violence
• 64% of victims of domestic violence indicated that their ability to work was affected by the violence.
American Bar Association Commission
Studies reported on in 2006 by the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence reflect that:
• 30-53% of employed victims of domestic violence lose their jobs due at least in part to the abuse
• 78% reported being late to work as a result of domestic violence
• 47% reported being assaulted before work
• 67% said the perpetrator came to the workplace
• 96-98% of employed domestic violence victims experienced problems at work related to the abuse

Domestic violence encompasses a wide range of acts committed by one person against another in an intimate relationship or within a family. It is a pattern of coercive behavior that is used by one person to gain power and control over another. This may include physical violence, sexual, emotional and psychological intimidation, verbal abuse, stalking and economic control. It may take the form of breaking objects, hurting/killing pets, yelling, driving recklessly to endanger or scare the victim, isolating the victim from friends and family members and controlling resources like money, vehicles, credit, medications and time. In same gender relationships, it can include threats to out the victim.
Domestic violence can happen to people of all racial, economic, educational, religious backgrounds and in heterosexual and same gender relationships. While both men and women may be victims of domestic violence, research shows that the overwhelming majority of adult victims are women and that domestic violence is a major cause of injury to women.
Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey (July 2000) indicate that domestic violence is pervasive in U.S. society. Analysis of the survey data from calls to 8,000 U.S. women and 8,000 U.S. men, produced the following key results:
• Nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men said they were raped and or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner or date in their lifetime.
• Almost 5% of women and 0.6 % of men experienced stalking by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner or date in their lifetime.
• Women experience more chronic and injurious physical assaults at the hands of intimate partners than do men.
• Slightly more than 11% of lesbians experienced rape, physical assault and/or stalking by a female cohabitant.
• Approximately 15% of gay men experienced rape, physical assault and/or stalking by a male cohabitant.
• Most intimate partner victimizations are not reported to the police

According to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
Domestic Violence is the leading cause of injury to women ages 15 – 44 in the United States – more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.
 1 in 4 women will become victims of domestic violence in their lifetime
 1 in 3 teenage girls will be physically assaulted by a boyfriend
 Domestic violence is the leading predictor of child abuse
 Boys who witness domestic violence in their homes are 1500 times more likely to perpetrate abuse later in life
 50% of girls growing up in an abusive home will go on to be victims of abuse themselves
2007 Relationship and Gender Breakdown of Adult domestic Violence Victims:
 56.5% (48) females killed by current or former intimate partners
 22.3% (19) males killed by others
 10.6% (8) males killed by current or former intimate partners
 9.2% (8) females killed by others
Additionally, Pennsylvania has the third highest number of murder suicides in the nation – including 14 cases in just six months. Seventy-three percent involved an intimate partner – spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, or girlfriend/boyfriend. Of these, 94 percent were women killed by their intimate partners.

Recognizing Domestic Violence

There is not a “typical” victim of domestic violence – it can affect anyone from any socioeconomic, demographic, geographic or educational background. The greatest risk factor for victimization is simply being a woman.
Domestic violence occurs when one person in an intimate relationship exercises power and control over the other through a pattern of intentional behaviors, including psychological, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
While most people are able to recognize an abusive relationship when it involves physical violence, relationships involving psychological or emotional abuse are more subtle, but no less destructive. If allowed to continue, these behaviors can escalate to include more physically dangerous abuse over time. It is important to recognize key characteristics of domestic violence so that abuse can be stopped before it becomes life threatening.

Are You Or Anyone You Know Being Abused?
The warning signs of domestic violence
There are frequently warning signs that domestic violence is happening in a relationship. If you have experienced or observed any of the following behaviors in a relationship, domestic violence could be happening and you might be able to take action to help yourself or others. Advocates at domestic violence programs are available to help callers determine what options are available.
Warning signs of domestic violence can include:
• One partner harms, or threatens to harm the other, their friends, family members, or pets
• One partner frequently checks up on the other (e.g. listening in on phone calls, constantly asking about whereabouts, calling a person at work or school, or monitoring a person´s car mileage, computer or phone usage)
• One partner puts the other down (e.g. name-calling, constant criticism, or public or private humiliation)
• One partner tries to control the other, (e.g. telling the person not to see certain friends or family members, keeping the person away from work or school, making the person stay home when she wants to go out)
• One partner acts jealous or possessive and says it´s a sign of love
• One partner destroys or threatens to destroy the other´s belongings
• One partner hurts or kills pets or threatens to harm them
• One partner touches the other in ways that hurts or scare the other partner
• One partner makes the other have sex in ways or at times that are uncomfortable
• One partner blames the other and other people for everything, and gets angry in a way that scares the other partner
• One partner says that the concerns of the other about the relationship are not real or not important
• One partner threatens or attempts suicide when the other talks about ending the relationship
• One partner withholds medication, food or other necessary items
• In a same sex relationship, one partner threatens to “out” the other
There is no excuse for domestic violence:
Drinking and drug use do not cause battering. Battering does not cause addiction. Chemical dependency and domestic violence are two separate problems; however, both problems can often co-exist within an abusive relationship. When this happens, both the severity of injuries and lethality rates may increase, making safety and sobriety both areas of concern. Un- or underemployment, stress or ill health, also do not cause domestic violence. These are only excuses or justifications for an abuser´s behavior.
Remember, anyone can be in a violent relationship. If you, or anyone you know is in a violent relationship, a local domestic violence program is available in every county in Pennsylvania or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE