Top 10 Things Employers Can Do about Domestic Violence

• Employment Wheel
• Crisis Connection Statistics
• NCADV Domestic Violence & the Workplace Fact Sheet
• Speakers Available
• The Cost of Local Domestic Violence
• What’s It Like to be Partnered with an Abusive Man?

American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence

Crisis Connection, Inc.
24-Hour Toll-free Hotline 1-800-245-4580

Legal Aid Society

Companies can address this critical issued by doing any one - or all - of the following:

1. Make the American Bar Association (ABA) "Steps to Safety" planning sheet available to your employees in your cafeterias, lounges and restrooms. (Call the ABA Service Center at 1.800.285.2221 or visit the website http://www.abanet.org/domviol/safetyplan.html for copies.)
2. Invite local domestic violence programs or law enforcement agencies to do a brown bag lunch session for employees to enhance awareness of domestic violence and the community resources available to respond to it.
3. Contact the National Workplace Resource Center on Domestic Violence (1.800.END.ABUSE) or the National Domestic Violence Hotline (512.453.8117) for additional useful materials for employers, including educational posters that can be kept in general gathering areas.
4. Train at least one employee about domestic violence and designate that employee as responsible for responding to domestic violence issues in the workplace such as safety and confidentiality.
5. Provide security and reception staff with clear instructions outlining what their response to incidents of domestic violence should be, including how to call for emergency help, whom to notify within the company, and what to do if an employee has a protective order.
6. Show the PBS documentary "Breaking the Silence: Journeys of Hope," underwritten by Mary Kay Inc. as a tool to raise awareness about domestic violence. Contact the ABA Division for Public Education and the Commission on Domestic Violence at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/domviol.html or http://www.marykay.com for more information or to obtain a copy of the video.
7. Consider flexibility in employee benefits and policies for employees who are victims of domestic violence.
8. Develop a domestic violence policy (visit the Family Violence Prevention Fund's website at http://www.fvpf.org for more information).
9. Let your employees know about the needs and activities of local domestic violence programs to offer victims in your communities more aid and support.
10. Consider sponsoring an employee "volunteer afternoon" at your local domestic violence program assisting with tasks such as painting, gardening or cleaning and providing financial or in-kind donations such as office supplies, business clothes, children's books or drapes.

Any one of these steps can go a long way toward putting a program in place that can help create a safe, secure workplace for employees. For their sake, and the sake of your business, it's the right thing to do.

For information about getting a copy of the Employer's Guide for your workplace, and for a brochure on safety tips, go to http://www.abanet.org/domviol/home.html or call 1.800.285.2221.

Thanks for helping to fight the "quiet crime" and making it clear to employees that your business will support victims of domestic violence.

For local assistance please call
Crisis Connection, Inc.
24-Hour, Toll-Free Hotline 1-800-245-4580

For help outside of Southwestern Indiana please call:
National Domestic Violence Hotline:

1-800-799-SAFE (7233) English or Español
1-800-787-3224 (TTY)

The COST of Intimate Partner Violence: YOUR Bottom Line

The majority of intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents are never reported to the police, but one in four women is known to experience intimate partner violence during her lifetime.

All the national figures that will follow are based on the cases that were actually reported to the police during 2000. The FBI estimates that these numbers represent only:

• 20% of the rapes,
• 25% of the physical assaults, and
• 50% of the stalking cases that actually occurred during 2000.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 5.3 million women were the victims of IPV during 2000 resulting in 2 million serious injuries and 1,300 deaths.

The cost of IPV to the U.S. economy exceeded $67 billion. These costs included:

• medical and mental health costs,
• lost productivity,
• lifetime earnings,
• property loss,
• ambulance service,
• police response,
• criminal justice,
• social services, and
• pain and suffering.

Workplace homicide has tripled in the last decade and has become the leading cause of workplace death for women and the second leading cause of workplace death for men. 33.2% of women, who are murdered, are murdered by a current or ex -intimate partner.

Women are more likely to be attacked by an intimate partner and 85-95% of all IPV victims are female. IPV is the leading cause of injury to women, surpassing even traffic accidents. 96% of these abuse victims will experience problems at work due to IPV (CDC).

Crisis Connection provided services to 770 victims of domestic violence and their 685 children and 164 victims of sexual assault between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006 (one year). The population of Dubois County more than doubles during the work day with commuting workers: a majority of our clients from Pike, Martin, Perry, Orange, Crawford and Spencer counties work in Dubois County.

According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) each case of rape costs $3,062 in direct medical and mental health cost, $3,682 per physical assault and $690 per stalking. Two-thirds of these costs are paid by private insurance (CDC).

Victims of rape lose an estimated 1.1 million days (3.4 days per incident) of work at $69 a day while victims of physical assault lose an estimated 9.5 million days (2.1 days per incident) at $93 a day and victims of stalking 2.9 million days (5.8 days per incident) at $93 per day (CDC). In addition, victims of physical assault average 6.7 assaults by the same partner (FVPF).

A conservative estimate of the cost for medical and mental health care and lost productivity for each incidence of IPV follows:

• 1 rape = $3,296.60
• 1 physical assault = $3,877.30
• 1 stalking = $1,229.40

It is extremely unusual for stalking not to be involved in a domestic violence case. It is also quite common for men who physically abuse their partner to also sexually abuse their partner. The overlap and repetition in these cases is very high. These factors drive the expense even higher for most cases.

Applying the CDC’s estimate of cost to the 770 adult domestic violence victims Crisis Connection worked with, a conservative cost of $2,985,521.00 could be possible strictly for medical and mental health costs and lost productivity. Nearly 3 million dollars and this includes nothing for any treatment the children may have received or the tremendous cost for police, criminal justice and social services all of which are supported by your tax dollars.

The 164 rape victims Crisis Connection worked with could conservatively cost $540,642.40 and as with domestic violence, this figure includes nothing but direct medical and mental health costs and lost productivity.

If you employ, work with, attend church with, are acquainted with, or go to school with 100 women, you are familiar with and helping pay for a minimum of 25 victimizations each and every year.

The men who make the choice to abuse other human beings have no regard for your pocketbook.

We all pay for some men’s choice to be cruel and destructive. We pay directly through health care expenses, lost productivity, lifetime earnings, property loss, ambulance service, police response, criminal justice, and social services.

We pay indirectly through:

• Substantially higher child abuse rates (50-70% of men who assault their partner also assault their children);
• Child fatality rates (80% of child fatalities are attributable to the father or father surrogate);
• Higher sex abuse rates (domestic batterers are 6.51 times more likely to sexually abuse the daughters in the home than men who do not batter);
• Substantially higher substance abuse, truancy, gang involvement, sexual acting out, teen pregnancy, running away, self-mutilation and suicidal ideation rates among adolescents who grow up in a home where the father is violent;
• Difficulty sleeping, colic, frequent illnesses, diarrhea, fearfulness, developmental delays and school phobia problems with young children and babies; and,
• A child’s exposure to a father who is abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next.

What can you do?

• Do you have a comprehensive safety plan at work? Do you directly address the crimes of domestic and sexual violence and regularly update and retrain your key people?
• Do you have Crisis Connection posters in every woman’s bathroom you are aware of? Do you have brochures and hotline cards available at your workplace, church and school?
• Do you know how the police, prosecutor and court handle IPV cases in your county? Are they tough on these guys or do they routinely simply slap their hand? Are they ordered to Batterers’ Intervention or allowed to decide what they do or don’t care to do?

Can you afford to continue to finance some men’s choice to burn your money? It’s time to make IPV your business. To use violence is always a choice and so is deciding to end it. Please call us…today.

Domestic Violence and the Workplace

The Business Side of Domestic Violence:

Employers lose between $3 and $5 billion every year in absenteeism, lower productivity, higher turnover, and health & safety costs associated with battered workers.

• Businesses lose an additional $100 million in lost wages, sick leave, and absenteeism.
• Over 1,750,000 workdays are lost each year due to domestic violence.
• 94% of Corporate Security Directors rank domestic violence as a high security risk.
• 79% of Human Resource Directors identify domestic violence as a substantial employee problem.
• Homicide is the leading cause of death to women in the workplace.
• Partners commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace every year.

The Business Side of Battered Workers:

• 96% experience problems at work due to abuse
• 74% are harassed while at work by their abuser

Source: American Institute on Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence is a Workplace Issue:

Employers can be held liable if it can be proven that the employer was aware of the violence and failed to provide a safe and healthful workplace (an OSHA requirement).

• Abusers often try to come to the workplace, endangering the victim and co-workers.
• Decreased productivity is common, affecting both the victim and concerned co-workers.
• Health care costs to the organization increase as the abuse becomes more severe.
• Employee absenteeism increases as the victim deals with injuries and/or emotional stress.
• Increased employee turnover is inevitable if no support for victims is provided.

Signs of Abuse for Employers to Be Aware Of:

Does your employee:

• Have unexplained bruises or explanations that don’t seem to fit the injuries?
• Seem distracted or have trouble concentrating?
• Miss work often?
• Receive repeated, upsetting phone calls during the day?
• Appear anxious, upset or depressed?
• Fluctuate in the quality of work for no apparent reason?
• Have a high absenteeism rate?

Employers Can Make a Huge Difference!

• Have a written domestic violence policy.
• Hold training for supervisory personnel
• Be aware of ‘Unemployment Benefits for DV Victims’. Effective 7/1/03, Indiana became the 31st State to implement HEA1558 – it provides that individuals who voluntarily leave employment due to domestic violence, harassment or stalking are eligible for unemployment benefits. The cost is not charged back to employer. Must be verified by a police report, protective order or an affidavit from a service provider.
• Know of the ‘Workplace Violence Restraining Order’ (WVRO). An employer may seek a temporary restraining order on behalf of an employee to prohibit further violence or threats of violence if (1) the employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible threat of violence from the person, and (2) the unlawful violence has been carried out at the employer’s place of work or the credible threat of violence can reasonably be construed to be carried out at the employee’s place of work by the person. IC34-26-6-6 is good for three years from date of issuance. Typically used for battery or stalking cases. Hearing on WVRO must be held within 15 days after a petition is filed. There is no filing fee for WVRO’s. Employees include board members, volunteers or independent contractors. Violation of a WVRO is a crime – invasion of privacy.

Tools Available:

We have a toolkit available from the Family Violence Prevention Fund titled, "Work to End Domestic Violence" that includes sample paycheck attachments, video, newsletter articles, posters, etc. We also have a ‘Worker to Worker Domestic Violence Action Kit’ available for loan. It can be purchased from the FVPF by logging onto their website: www.fvpf.org.

Polaroid founded the Partners Against Violence/CEO Challenge program that they help other companies with as well. Check out: www.mincava.umn.edu/workviol.asp and/or Corporate Alliance To End Partner Violence at www.caepv.org.

A Workplace Plan:

• Have victim’s calls screened
• Review safety of parking arrangements.
• Relocate employee to a more secure work area.
• Separate employees if abuser/victim both work at facility.
• Insure you have resources for help available (brochures, phone numbers, etc.)
• Ask trusted co-workers to call police if partner comes into workplace.
• Consider flexible or alternate work hours.
• Review safety of childcare arrangements.
• If someone tells you they are being abused, believe them. Listen without judging. Get them professional help.

For additional information please see:

• The Local Cost of Domestic & Sexual Violence
• Speakers Available
• Crisis Connection Statistics
• Crisis Connection Home Page
• Making a Difference…One Life at a Time
• American Institute on Domestic Violence
• Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence
• Peace at Work
• Domestic Violence Network of Greater Indianapolis
• Family Violence Prevention Fund
• National Workplace Resource Center on Domestic Violence
• Safe @ Work Coalition
• Society of Human Resource Management