October is National Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. This year’s theme is “Everyone Knows Someone,” #Every1KnowsSome1. Instances of domestic violence are terrifying and manifest in many forms including physical violence, sexual violence, psychological aggression, intimidation, stalking, financial control, and human trafficking.
- A middle school teacher is in the process of divorcing her husband. Her husband is diagnosed with PTSD from his former combat military experience. He is proficient with firearms and owns a “cache” of weapons. Upon learning that his child custody rights are being reduced, he phones his wife and children to tell them that he will kill himself after he kills his wife because she is to blame for destroying their family.
- A pharmacist with a large retail outlet receives incessant threatening phone calls at work and long, rambling delusional threat letters FAXed to her work from her ex-husband. He states he will find her at work and kill her because she has ruined his life.
- A senior management professional with a global financial firm is reported to his company’s employee tip line for domestic and sexual violence against his wife and teen aged daughter. The tipster describes and documents first-hand knowledge of numerous incidents of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse perpetrated by the employee, exacerbated by chronic alcohol use and abuse while the employee was working from home.
These are just a few examples of intimate partner violence that spills over into the workplace, putting the safety and security of employees and others at risk as well.
The Facts
From The Facts on Gender-Based Workplace Violence, we know that approximately 24 percent of violent acts committed in the workplace are related to personal relationships, where an individual gains access to a workplace and commits a crime targeting an employee or associate who is a current or former intimate partner. According to the CDC, 20 to 25 percent of women and 10 percent of men have experienced or will experience violence in their intimate relationships, which means that someone in your workplace is likely being emotionally, mentally or physically abused by an intimate partner.
- In one study, one in five workers experienced the impacts of intimate partner violence at work. Of these workers, 66% had this type of violence perpetrated in the workplace or on their workplace premises.
- According to a study from the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly one in four large private industry establishments (reported at least one incident of domestic violence, including threats and assaults, in the 12 months prior to the study.
- Women are much more likely than men to be victims of on-the-job intimate partner homicide. Spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends and exes were responsible for the on-the-job deaths of 321 women and 38 men from 1997-2009.
- A 2018 national survey of domestic violence survivors found that 83% of respondents reported that their abusive partners disrupted their ability to work. 49% said they missed one or more days of work, 18 % missed promotion opportunities, and 38% said they lost out on other work opportunities.
- Stalking is the most prevalent form of abuse at work. It poses risks to the physical safety of workers, co-workers, and customers/clients, can lead to property damage, and can negatively affect productivity and morale. In addition, employers could be held liable if an employee uses work time and resources to engage in stalking.
- About 130,000 survivors of stalking in a 12-month period from 2005 to 2006, reported that they were fired or asked to leave their job because of the stalking. About one in eight employed stalking survivors lost time from work because of fear for their safety or because they needed to get a restraining order or testify in court. More than half these survivors lost five days or more from work.
Employer Responsibilities and Best Practices
Intimate partner violence is a pervasive workplace issue and employers have an affirmative responsibility to provide a safe workplace that is “free from recognizable hazards that are likely to cause death or harm to its employees.”
There are many things we can do every day in our workplaces to demonstrate commitment to prevent domestic and intimate partner violence. Robust workplace violence prevention programs help to ensure the safety of our employees and those with whom we do business. Critical program elements include:
Workplace Violence Prevention Policies that clearly define and identify forms of workplace violence with specific reference to domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking.
Employer Responses to Violence and Reports of Violence to ensure non-retaliation and confidentiality, and to provide for leave, reasonable accommodation, and access to benefits.
Workplace Safety Plan to address handling of court protective orders, procedures for alerting security personnel, work schedule adjustments, and processes for reporting threats.
Threat Assessment and Threat Management Programs to ensure that all workplace violence threats are appropriately investigated, coordinated with security and law enforcement, and mitigated to protect the safety and security of the targeted victim and all employees.
Workplace Education and Training to prevent violence, promote healthy relationships, raise awareness around indicators of workplace and intimate partner violence, and to institutionalize procedures for reporting concerns.
Coordinated Organizational and Local Employee Resources such as Human Resources, Security, law enforcement, Employee Assistance, sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence providers.
How We Can Help
At SEC, our mission is to help you create and maintain secure environments in which your greatest assets can be productive, learn, and grow. Our team of experts is available to work with you to develop personalized and customized security solutions.
We understand that safety and security are complex and multi-faceted endeavors. This is why we partner with the best to deliver holistic, multi-disciplinary solutions for your workplace safety and security needs. We are proud to partner with Dr. Coggins to bring you her expertise in the prevention of targeted violence and behavioral threat assessment.
Together, we can support you in developing a comprehensive security strategy that includes a workplace violence prevention policy and best practices to address workplace-related and non-workplace incidents of family and domestic violence.
If you or someone you know is a target of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.7233, or text START to 88788.
About the Author
Dr. Coggins is a trusted advisor and an experienced security consultant, bringing over 30 years of specialized work in the prevention of targeted violence, threat assessment, behavioral analysis, and change management. She is a subject matter expert in workplace violence prevention programs; school and campus safety; insider threat and fraud prevention models; and, protective intelligence investigations. As a psychologist, Dr. Coggins’s approach emphasizes proactive prevention and intervention strategies to mitigate risk.
From her law enforcement background, Dr. Coggins’s implements operationally relevant, tactically sound, and practically valid solutions. She routinely consults on best practices for program design and implementation, policy development, communications strategies, and training to achieve safety and security objectives. A common denominator throughout Dr. Coggins’s distinguished career is her demonstrated ability to align mission and business priorities with workforce talent and organizational culture. She is recognized as an innovative leader, advancing partnerships and information sharing between Federal law enforcement, mental health, social science research, mental health law, and criminal justice systems. Her work includes providing training and assistance to law enforcement on dealing with the mentally ill.