DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT WORK ZONE Sexual Violence is a Workplace Issue By Maya Raghu
Across the country, communities, companies, governments and individuals observe Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. Why should employers concern themselves with sexual assault? What can they to do address it?
Sexual violence is startlingly prevalent in the United States: nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime.1 Sexual violence can have devastating lifelong physical, emotional, mental and economic impacts on its victims, and is one of the most underreported types of crime in our country. Most (78%) victims are sexually assaulted by someone they know,1 and the majority of non-stranger sexual assaults are not one-time incidents; rather, these perpetrators commit multiple sexual assaults.2 Accordingly, sexual violence will likely impact on the workplace whether it occurs at the worksite or elsewhere. If employers fail to address it, they could face legal and economic costs, in addition to the human costs of trauma, injury and violence.
Workplaces can take important steps to prevent and address the occurrence of sexual violence, to assist employees who are survivors, and to improve safety and productivity.
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For more information on observing Sexual Assault Awareness Month in your workplace, see the Workplaces Respond website (
www.workplacesrespond.org). Domestic Violence Accounted For About a Fifth of All Violent Victimizations Between 2003 and 2012
Domestic violence accounted for 21 percent of all violent victimizations during the period from 2003 to 2012, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced. Intimate partner violence (15 percent) accounted for a greater percentage of all violent victimizations than violence committed by immediate family members (4 percent) or other relatives (2 percent) during that time.
The rate of domestic violence in U.S. households declined 63 percent, from 13.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 1994 to 5.0 per 1,000 in 2012. Both serious domestic violence (rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault) and simple assault decreased, and most of the decline occurred from 1994 to 2002.
Current or former boyfriends or girlfriends committed most domestic violence between 2003 and 2012. This was true for both females (39 percent) and males (30 percent). The majority of domestic violence was committed against females (76 percent), compared to males (24 percent).
Continued on page 15 Pass a copy of this edtion of The Wokrplace Violence Prevention eReport
to a colleague in Human Resources, Security, Safety and Risk Management. 14
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