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Domestic Violence in the Workplace
Because of the continued issue of domestic violence, apolicy known as the Violence Against
Women Act needs to be amended so that the policy helps women in the home and in the
workplace.
Betsy M. Rubio
Spring 2015
Abstract: In this paper I argue that domestic violence is an issue not just at home but also in
the workplace. Womenaround the world face many struggles at home and at work, but what
happens when the struggles youface at home enter the workplace. Domestic violence is not
just an issue that happens at home, it can followthe personto work causing great harm.
According to US Bureau of Labor and Statistics from 1997-1999, 33% of women were killed
at work. The Department of Labor reportedin 2013 that 27% of violent events that occurred
in the workplace were tiedto domestic violence issues. (DOJ, 2013)

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Introduction
In recent news, professional sportingteams have brought the issue of domestic
violence to the public. Ray Rice was the most recent abuser inthe NFL, originallyonly
gettinga two-day suspension. This caused a public outcryand they demanded a much
harsher punishment, and in the end he was removedfrom the NFL for domestic assault on
his finance (Brock, 2014). Domestic violenceis amuch broader issue, it is not an issue that is
just at home, but an issue that can go into the workplace and cause much greater harm.
Imagine the word domestic, nowimagine the stigmaassociated with the word
domestic. The word domestic means that any personal affairs that occur in the home must
stay in the home, so that no one else is aware of the situation. With a phrase like domestic
violence how do we keep it at home when it affects not just the person sufferingfrom the
abuse but the workplace as well? Imagine a woman with a PhD, one would see that she is
very educatedand knows how to stay out of an abusive relationship. The woman with her
PhD gives her paycheck to her husband, and has to cover her arms all summer long just to
cover up the bruises (Wilson, 2014). This example is used to demonstrate that it doesn’t
matter what a person’s economic background, education, cultural background, age, gender or
religion(Catalano, 2014).
The Merriam Webster dictionarydefines domestic violenceas”the inflictingof
physical injury by one family or householdmember onanother; a repeatedor habitual pattern
of such behavior”. Domestic violence is “a patternof coercive tactics whichcan include
physical psychological, sexual, economic andemotional abuse, perpetratedby one person

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against an adult intimate partner with the goal of establishingand maintain power and control
over the victim” (Cuomo, 2014). Domestic violenceis away to gain power over a person,
particularlywomen and the abuser’s goal is to gain control over the intimate partner no
matter your social standing, ethnicityor age (Donovan, 2011). Because of the continued
issue of domestic violence, apolicyknown as the Violence Against WomenAct needs to be
amended so that the policyhelps women in the home and in the workplace.
Domestic violence is important to everyone, domestic violence canhappen to anyone.
Your mother, your sister, your brother, your significant other or your neighbor couldbe a
victim of domestic violence or they couldknow someone who is. This policycouldhelp save
a life;it couldbe the life of someone youknow.
LiteratureReview:
Withindomestic violence there are eight types of violence: verbal, emotional,
isolation, intimidation, stalking, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and financial control. Verbal
abuse is when the abuser yells and uses inappropriate language (Donovan, 2011). Emotional
is when insults are used; isolationis when the victim loses contract withfamily (Donovan,
2011) “intentional destruction of victims self esteem, the abuser manipulates the victims self
worth in order to gain control”(Powell, 2011). Intimidationis when the abuser uses physical
threats, and stalking is when theyare being trackedat all times. Sexual abuse occurs when
the victim is forcedto participate ininvoluntary sexual acts (Donovan, 2011). The abuser
couldalso use sexual violence to “demean and control avictim”; these actions include “rape

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martial or non-martial, attemptedrape, sexual attacks on the body, and threats of sexual acts”
(Powell, 2011). Physical violence is when the victim is physically assaultedby being kicked,
beaten, slapped, shoved, punched, or chocked (Powell, 2011). Last, we have financial
control, which is when the abuser holds important account informationfrom the victim, the
victim couldhave extreme credit carddebt that theydid not create (Donovan, 2011). For
example a man gets a credit card in his significant others name, he doesn’t pay any of the bill
just runs it up, and ends up ruining the credit of the women. This leaves the women with poor
credit and unable to be on her own, even if she was not the one who caused herself to have
bad credit (Wilson, 2014).
In 2012 the Department of Justice released astatement from President Obamawhere
he says his goal is to address domestic violence inthe federal workforce, he thenasks the
Office of Personal Management to create apolicythat would address domestic violence,
sexual assault and stalking (DOJ, 2013).
In 1995 the DOJ createdthe Office onViolence Against Women, where moneyand
other resources wouldprovide assistance inthe US towards polices that want to end domestic
violence, dating violence, and stalking (DOJ, 2013). An article calledThe NFL Controversy,
states that some companies will defend their employee evenif theyare found to be abuser.
(Caplan, 2014). The article also mentions shockingstatistics: 20 people aminute in the US
alone are victims, and that one in three women in their lifetime will be victims of domestic
violence (Caplan, 2014).

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What reallyare the statistics onworkplace violence? The DOJ states that 8% of rapes
occur while the victim is at work and that eight out of ten of the victims know their abuser
(Catalano, 2014). Onaverage four women are killedby their spouse or significant other in
the UnitedStates a day (Catalano, 2014). In2013 22% of the 302 fatal workplace injuries
that occurredto womenwere homicides (Botelho, 2014).
How is the workplace affected? In 2000, 36% of the reportedvictims stated “they lost
ten days or more of work after an incident” (Catalano, 2014). An article writtenby Jennifer
Swanberg mentions that those who suffer from intimate violence will have lower
productivity at the workplace, they are more likelyto be absent from work, they will be tardy
frequently(Swanberg, 2006). In an article written by Heidi Hankwitz in 2011, she says
around 75% of people who suffer from domestic violenceface harassment while they are
working (Hankwitz, 2011). As of 2012, 4,277 peoplewere killedat work of those 4,277: 385
were murdered. Between2003-3008 142 womenwere murderedat work because of intimate
partner violence (Covert, 2014). The survivors and victims of domestic violence maylose
focus while working; they lose their concentration because they “fear the perpetrator may
come to the workplace or harm childrenwhen they returnhome” (Runge, 2010).
Policy
Identify the issue:
Domestic violence is “a patternof coercive tactics whichcan include physical
psychological, sexual, economic andemotional abuse, perpetratedby one personagainst an

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adult intimate partner with the goal of establishingand maintain power and control over the
victim” (Cuomo, 2014). Inthe workplace women still suffer from domesticabuse. The
abuser may use three tactics whichare known as: sabotage, jobrelatedstalking and on the
jobharassment. Sabotage are actions that prevent the victim of abuse from gettingto work on
time or at all, some of these tactics include turningoff the alarm clock, refusingchildcare, or
not allowing the victim to sleep. (Swanberg, 2006) Next, there is onthe job stalking, which is
when the victim receives unwelcomedvisits from the abuser with the use of threats or
harassment. The abuser can do this by lurking around the workplace or waiting for the victim
on the route they use to commute to work. Lastly, there is on the job harassment which is
when the abuser harasses the victim at work by showing up, frequent phone calls and emails,
and not allowing the personto go to their job (Swanberg, 2006). One in four women are
victims of physical abuse that is causedby their intimate partner and “70% of workplaces do
not have a policyaddressingdomestic violence”(Caplan, 2014). Domestic violence cancost
a workplace 8.3 billiondollars a year in mental healthcosts and loss of productivitycosts, on
average 33.2 milliondollars aday (Donovan, 2011). Accordingto the Bureau of labor and
statistics 30% of the deaths that occur to womenwhile they are working happen at the
workplace because the abuser knows where the victim will always be. These murders can
occur inpublic, in broad daylight in parking lots, public buildings during “normal business
hours” (Covert, 2014).

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Players andactors:
In the case of domestic violence, there are many players and actors. First, we have the
victims of domestic violence;theyare the men and woman who are verbally, sexually,
emotionally, and physically abused. Next, we have the abuser who is the personwho uses
tactics against their partner with the goal of gaining control over their partner (Cuomo, 2014).
Then, we have the employees and the managers of the public government workplace. These
are the people that are around the victims and the abusers ona daily basis who see the signs.
An article from the CorporateAlliance to End Partner Violence statedthat 31% of the co-
workers felt that they had to cover for the victim, 27% of them said they did the work that the
victim couldnot do when theywere out, 25% of the co-workers didnot like the victim
because they had to do their work and their own, and 38% of the workers said that they had
fearedfor their own lives (CAEPV, 2014). For example the fear of their own lives is a real
thing especiallyinOctober of 2011 whena man known as Scott Dekraai went to his wife’s
workplace. Scott openedfire inthe salonkilling his ex-wife and seven other people. Scott
had a prior historyof domesticviolence before the tragic incident had occurred(Covert,
2014).
Solution:
The goal is to create a policy that will help the victim of domestic violence inthe
workplace. The solutionto domesticviolence is to amend the federal law known as the
Violence Against WomenAct, and to make this law a workplace policyfollowedby all. The
first stepof the policyis to inform everyone in the workplace of what domestic violence is,

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then to tell the workers the warning signs of someone who is sufferingfrom abuse or is the
abuser. Each workplace will teach the employees that domestic is not aword that should be
associatedwith the home. All employees must be aware that domestic violence is no longer
an issue that stays at home, but that the issue can also enter the workplace. At these seminars
HR will tell all the employees of the warning signs of someone who is sufferingfrom
domestic violence. They will also learnhow on the jobharassment may occur, and how to
lookfor the signs. Learning all these things will help those in the workplace safer, and may
save a life.
The next stepwould be to have a particular persontrainedwith HR that would know
about domestic violence: policies, resources, and crisis management. The persontrainedto
deal with the victims would then teach all the workers in the workplace about laws in place
to protect the victims. The most important part of being an HR person is to maintain
confidentiality about anything they are toldby either the victims or other coworkers.
Finally, in the Federal government there is a grant used for assistance for victims of
domestic violence. Byallowing these funds to be used by HR in the public sector, theycan
help the victims get financial assistance that they may need to get away from the abuser. The
victims then would have assistance inmoving away from the victims. Depending on the job,
some of the women may be able to seeka transfer within their agency. For example if they
are working in Philadelphia, but needto transfer she couldchoose atransfer to DC doing the
same work she is now. When the HR person and the worker (victim) agree on a transfer, they
can state in the paperwork that they are transferringfor “transfer of assignment”which HR

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couldcode as for domestic reasons. Withthe codingwe can evaluate how many people
utilize this resource.
Evaluation:
Each government agency will submit an annual evaluation onthe domestic violence
policyprogram. This program would include data from several activities: evaluation of
training programs. In addition, the human resourcemanager must keep track of how many
people contact them for resourcesondomesticviolence. It does not matter if it is the victim
asking for informationor aconcernedcoworker, HR must trackeverything. Withthe
tracking HR must trackwhich informationthe workers ask for: shelters, economichelp,
psychiatrist, and etc. We would also track how many people request a transfer for domestic
reasons.
Conclusion:
In the year 2015 only38 of the 50 states have penalties towards those that commit
crimes of domestic violence. Inthe state of Pennsylvania they have a law in their constitution
title 23, 6102 whichstates that abuse “between family, house members, sexual or intimate
partners or persons who share biological parents. This includes bodily harm, serious injury,
false imprisonment, physicallyor sexual abusing a minor child” (NCSL, 2015). As of 2014
only 15% of public workplaces had a domestic violence policyineffect, and in 44 states it is
legal to fire the victim of domestic violence (Covert, 2014). We needto have all 50 states say
no to domestic violence, we shouldnot fire the victim, but rather help them. Womenare half

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of the US population: 21% of those victims are victims of abuse from multiple people, 13%
of those women have been abused for more than 20 years (Miller, 2014).
Domestic violence is important to everyone, domestic violence canhappen to anyone.
Your mother, your sister, your significant other or your neighbor couldbe a victim of
domestic violence or couldknow someone who is. This policycouldhelp save a life;it could
be the life of someone youknow.
References

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Brock, Sam, and Kinsey Kiriakos. "NFL's vs. Other Pro Leagues'Policies on Domestic
Violence." NBC Bay Area. September 12, 2014.
Caplan, Arthur. “DomesticViolence: The NFLIsn’t the Only Workplace With a Problem”.
NBC News. September 22, 2014.
Catalano, Steve. “The Facts on the Workplace and DomesticViolence.” A National
Resource Center. May2014.
Covert, Bryce. “Why are so Many Women Being Murdered at Work.” Think Progress. May
13, 2014.
Cuomo, Andrew. “What do Professionals Needto Know”. Office forthe Preventionof
Domestic Violence. 2014.
Department of Justice. “Department of Justice Announces New Policy to AddressDomestic
Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking in theWorkplace”. Department of Justice.
November 20, 2013.
Hankwitz, Heidi. "Domestic Violence Statistics and YourWorkplace." Crisis Prevention
Institute News. April 7, 2011.
Miller, Laura, Kathryn Howell and Sandra Graham-Bermann. “The Effect of an Evidence-
Based Intervention on Women’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence.” American
Orthopsychiatry Association. 2014.
Powell, Pamela, and Marilyn Smith. “DomesticViolence: An Overview.” Universityof
Nevada. December 6,2011.

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Runge, Robin. "The Legal Responseto the Employment Needsof DomesticViolence
Victims." The Legal Response to the Employment Needs of Domestic Violence
Victims. May 2010.
Swanberg, Jennifer, Caroline Macke, and TK Logan. "Intimate Partner Violence andthe
Workplace."Sage Publishing. December 1, 2006. AccessedMarch19, 2015.
Wilson, Thomas. "Money, a Powerful Weapon in DomesticViolence." CNN. September 10,
2014.