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Impact on Workplace


What affects employees affects their employers. With nearly one in three women reporting abuse at some time in their lives, domestic violence is likely to affect almost every workplace. The good news is that employers who address it can provide real help to victims and reduce the associated risks.

 The Facts on the Workplace and Domestic Violence
* Women are the victims in 80% of rapes and sexual assaults that take place in the workplace – at least 29,000 acts of rape or sexual assault each year. (1*)
* Women who have been raped or sexually assaulted report diminished work functioning, sometimes for up to eight months after the attack. (2*)
*An estimated one million women are stalked each year in the United States (3*) and about one-fourth of them report missing work as a result of the stalking, missing an average of eleven days. (4*)
* One study of female domestic violence victims found that 44% were left without transportation when the abuser disabled the car or hid the car keys. (5*)
In a survey of 7,000 women, 37 percent said domestic violence had a negative impact on their job performance. (6*)
* Among a group of abused employees receiving workplace counseling, the average absenteeism rate of the group at the time of beginning counseling was about 30 percent higher than the average employee absenteeism rate. (7*)

Here’s some insight from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

  • In February of 2008, the CDC released the most comprehensive US survey regarding intimate partner violence – 23.6% of women and 11.5% of men reported at least one lifetime episode of intimate-partner violence.
  • According to the CDC, intimate partner violence victims lose a total of nearly 8.0 million days of paid work a year—the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs—and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity as a result of the violence.
  • The cost of domestic violence to the US economy is more than $8.3 billion. This cost includes medical care, mental health services, and lost productivity (e.g., time away from work).

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*1. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (August, 2001). Crime Characteristics: Summary Findings .
*2. Resick, P.A., Calhoun, K.S., Atkeson, B.M., & Ellis, E.M. (1981). Social adjustment in victims of sexual assault. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49 , 705-712, as cited in Koss, M.P. (1991). The Rape Victim . Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage Publications, p. 62.
*3. U.S. Dept. of Justice, National Institute of Justice. November, 2000. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women . NCJ 183781., pp. 14 – 15.
*4. Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, N. (April, 1998). National Institute of Justice Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Research Brief: Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey . U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.
*5. McFarlane, J., Malecha, A. Gist, J, Schulz, P. et al. (2000). Indicators of intimate partner violence in women's employment: Implications for workplace action. AAOHN Journal , 48(5), 215.
*6. The Body Shop. (September, 1997). The Many Faces of Domestic Violence and Its Impact on the Workplace . New York , NY : EDK Associates.
*7. Urban, B.Y. (2000). Anonymous Foundation Domestic Abuse Prevention Program Evaluation: Final Client Survey Report. Chicago , IL : The University of Illinois at Chicago .