"NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS."
We are all familiar with this saying, and CAEPV
is incredibly fortunate to work with companies on the forefront of dealing with
domestic violence as a workplace issue.
Recently I had a conversation with one of our CAEPV members about an interesting
phenomenon they had noted – a decrease in reporting of domestic violence at their
company.
While
one might consider this “success,” they
had another take on the issue. They were concerned that in this economy, victims
of domestic violence may not report because they thought if any position was “on
the bubble” a victim of domestic violence may be more likely to be laid off. Here are their thoughts:
Since
the U.S. economy has taken a significant downturn in early 2008, the self
reporting of intimate partner violence by employees in our organization has
decreased by an average of 40 %. As an
organization that has led the way in workplace violence initiatives such as
creating and implementing a standalone policy for paid time off well before
state laws were enacted, our team found this concerning. While we certainly could pat ourselves on the
back about our efforts in education and awareness, our instincts told us
differently.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently
published a report, Intimate Partner Violence: 1993-2005, using the National
Crime Victim Survey statistics in which they state that intimate partner
violence has decreased 64% since 1993, including 50% decline in non fatal
incidents. (It will be interesting to
see the next report since this is 7 years old and does not include the years of
the economic recession.) The NCVS is a random and anonymous telephone survey of
40,000 US households which asks several questions about crime victimization not
just intimate partner violence. While the NCVS is a self reporting survey, the
FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports collects actual arrest information from 13,000 law
enforcement agencies. The UCR has also reported that overall violent and
property crime has decreased in the last 10 years. It is important to note that the UCR does not
separate intimate partner violence as a category for arrest records and there
is no uniformity in the definition of violence.
Another self report survey of 16,000
adults was conducted for the first time in 2010 by the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention titled: The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
This specifically addresses sexual and intimate partner violence and stalking.
According to the Executive Summary, more than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men
experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their
lifetimes. In my opinion, a more revealing study as far
as to the impact of intimate partner violence in their lives.
While we are thankful that are communities
are safer and the crime is decreasing. It
then makes logical sense that, in parallel, intimate partner violence would
also be declining in our communities and therefore in our workplaces.
So should we look at this as a victory of
the victim advocate organizations? Yes, certainly we can credit wider legal and
social agency accessibility, VAWA, and continuing economic mobility of victims.
But to merely rest on our laurels would
be a serious error.
Victims of IPV may still be stigmatized by
family, friends and co-workers and even employers. This may impact their
willingness to come forward specifically in the workplace. With layoffs and downsizing still the norm,
employees may hide their situations out of fear of losing their job. In addition, companies like ours, have
downsized in the service areas that normally are the safety net for reporting
such incidents. For example, HR, EAP and Security Services are the first to cut
back on personnel in a recession.
We therefore must redouble our efforts as
employers to be observant and vigilant when it comes to the warning signs of
IPV. Some of the less obvious signs,
such as deteriorating performance, absenteeism and lateness are often
attributed to a poor work ethic. This
leads to terminating employees after traditional progressive discipline efforts
have failed. While private employers have the absolute right to terminate for
these reasons often in the early stages there can be contributing factors
related to intimate partner violence that may sometimes be ignored.
In addition, we must continue to encourage
government agencies to count IPV incidents including non-fatal crimes such as
harassment and stalking and to implement stronger data collection so we can
evaluate current trends.
January is Stalking Awareness Month and it is
important to note that cyber stalking is yet another arena of harassment for
the victim. With the velocity of advancements in social media combined with technologies
such as global positioning systems (GPS) or tracking, many victims may not even
know they are being watched electronically. It is important to let employees know tips and
techniques outside of the workplace such as keeping a log of activities, never
meet an online acquaintance alone even in a public place, contact your ISP
provider if an unknown person has contacted you through your personal email,
and privatize your social media settings on Facebook and Twitter.
We
thank this CAEPV member for their perspective and for their passion to consider
that the work is “not done” just because something may appear on its face to be a success. We also appreciate their notation of the importance of addressing stalking as a workplace issue.
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