Domestic Violence
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According to South Carolina’s Domestic Violence State Plan 2007-2009
Challenge 1: Our state ranks second in the nation for number of women killed by abusive partners (SCCADVASA).
Women are more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. The incidence of these fatalities is especially high among the pregnant and recently pregnant women.Battering is the single largest cause of injury to women. The Domestic Violence Programs have few resources which addresses the overall male attitudes about violence.
SC DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ORGANIZATIONS
CASA/Family Systems
Orangeburg, Calhoun & Bamberg
800-298-7228 (Hotline)
803-534-2272 (Hotline)
803-534-2448 (Admn)
Citizens Against Spouse Abuse
Horry & Georgetown
843-448-6206 (Hotline)
843-626-7595 (Admn)
Citizens Opposed to Domestic Abuse
Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton & Jasper
843-770-1070 (Hotline)
843-770-1074 (Admn)
800-868-2632 (Hotline)
Cumbee Center to Assist Abused Persons
Aiken, Barnwell & Allendale
803-641-4162 (Hotline)
803-649-0480 (Admn)
Laurens County SAFE Home
Laurens, Saluda & Abbeville
864-682-7270 (Admn)
MEG’S House
McCormick, Edgefield & Greenwood
800-447-7992 (Hotline)
864-227-1421 (Admn)
My Sister’s House, Inc.
Charleston, Berkeley & Dorchester
843-744-3242 (Hotline)
843-273-4673 (Hotline)
843-747-4069 (Admn)
Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault
Florence, Darlington, Marion,
Chesterfield, Marlboro, Dillon & Williamsburg
843-669-460 (Hotline)
800-273-1820 (Hotline)
843-669-4694 (Admn.)
Safe Harbor
Greenville, Oconee, Pickens & Anderson
864-467-3636 (Hotline)
800-291-2139 (Hotline)
864-467-1177 (Admn)
SAFE Homes – Rape Crisis Coalition
Spartanburg, Cherokee & Union
800-273-5066 (Hotline)
864-583-9803 (Admn)
Safe Passage, Inc.
York, Chester & Lancaster
803-329-2800 (Hotline)
800-659-0977 (Hotline)
803-329-3336 (Admn)
Sistercare, Inc.
Richland, Lexington, Newberry, Fairfield &
Kershaw
803-765-9428 (Hotline)
800-637-7606 (Hotline)
803-926-0505 (Admn)
YWCA of the Upper Lowlands, Inc.
Sumter, Lee & Clarendon
803-775-2763 (Hotline)
803-773-7158 (Admn)
Everyone should know the warning signs of domestic violence.
They may include a pattern of:
• Constant criticism of a person’s abilities
• Overprotective behavior and extremejealousy
• Threats of harm to an individual, familymembers, pets or friends
• Controlling behaviors
• Preventing visits with family and friends
• Destruction of personal property
The North Carolina Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission is a women’s advocacy agency within the North Carolina Department of Administration. The agency currently:
- Provides staffing to two statewide boards
- Monitors county programs (Abuser Treatment, Displaced Homemaker, Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault)
- Shares data provided by county programs
- Educates lawmakers, advocates and the public on women’s issues
- Administers grant funding
http://www.nccfwdvc.com/programs.htm
Programs
NC Coalition for Women
NC Coalition for Women
Abuser Treatment Program
In 2002, the N.C. Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission was granted the authority to approve the abuser treatment programs utilized by the North Carolina court system. The abuser treatment programs re-educate offenders on their behavior and help them to develop new methods of interacting with family and acquitances.
View Program Rules (pdf)
View Rules Process (pdf)
View Application Procedures (pdf)
Download an Application (pdf)
Download Yearly Renewal Application (pdf)
Download Statistical Form (pdf)
Displaced Homemaker Program
North Carolina General Statute § 143B-394.4 defines displaced homemakers. Displaced homemaker programs are designed to assist people who provide unpaid household services to their home and are unable to secure employment due to lack of training or experience. Services are also available to people who were dependent on the income of another household member and no longer is supported by that income. Funding from the N.C. Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission to displaced homemaker programs provides the following mandated services: Job Counseling, job training and job placement services, health education and preventative health care counseling, financial management services and educational services.
Domestic Violence Program
North Carolina General Statute §50B-1 defines domestic violence as attempting to cause bodily injury or placing a victim or a member of the victim’s family in fear of serious bodily injury or continued harassment resulting in significant emotional distress. The definition includes stalking, rape and sexual offenses. The N.C. Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission provides funding to domestic violence programs which provide shelter services, counseling, twenty-four hour crisis line services, transportation, court and advocacy services and assistance to children who witnessed violence.
Sexual Assault Program
North Carolina General Statutes § 14-27.2-14.27.7 define rape and other sexual offenses. Sexual assault programs provide the following: counseling, twenty-four hour crisis line coverage, hospital, referral, court and advocacy services.
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Community Resources for NC provided by the Coalition Against Domestic Violence
http://www.nccadv.org/service_providers.htm
NCCADV
Phone: 919.956.9124FAX: 919.682.1449
Toll Free:
1-888-232-9124
|
©Copyright, 2009, NCCADV, all rights reserved.
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PREVENT CHILD ABUSE IN NC
My first job out of college was to work with families embroiled in domestic violence and child abuse. Although I no longer work as a government employee, the fact of family violence is just as common and just as horrifying. No matter where we find ourselves in our investigation, we must always have the “child’s best interest” at the core of our belief. A strong country begins with a strong family.
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Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina is the only statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect in all its forms. We are a state chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America with a thriving statewide Prevention Network. Our Prevention Network consists of over 300 organizations and professionals working to implement critical child abuse prevention programs in their local communities.
The impact of child maltreatment is far greater than its immediate, visible effects. Early experiences in a child’s life can affect their development and have consequences that last years, even lifetimes. Children do well when their parents do well. And parents do better when they live in communities that actively support families.
Effective child abuse prevention must be woven into the fabric of our communities—into the structure of our schools, hospitals, places of work, communities of faith, and childcare facilities. Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina is leading the effort to prevent abuse before it happens by developing family-oriented, community-based prevention, awareness, education, and training programs.
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What is abuse?
What is Child Maltreatment?
Child maltreatment can be defined as a non-accidental injury or pattern of injuries to a child. Child abuse includes non-accidental:
- Physical Abuse – Examples of physical abuse include, but are not limited to: beating, harmful restraint, use of a weapon or instrument, or actions that result in or could result in serious physical injury.
- Sexual Abuse – Sexual abuse is any sexual behavior imposed on a juvenile. This involves a range of activities, including fondling the genital area, masturbation, oral sex, or vaginal or anal penetration by a finger, penis or other object. It includes exhibitionism, child pornography, and suggestive behaviors or comments.
- Emotional Abuse – Emotional abuse is expressing attitudes or behaviors toward a child that create serious emotional or psychological damage.
- Neglect -Child neglect can be defined as any serious disregard for a juvenile’s supervision, care, or discipline.
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How Domestic Violence affects the workplace
This project was funded by the National Crime Prevention Strategy, Government of Canada.
This chart outlines some of the ways a person’s job performance is impacted by violence at home, how it enters the workplace, and how it impacts on other workers, as well as the employer.
It makes good business sense for employers to care about family violence. The impact and costs of family violence on the workplace are far-reaching.
• Affects employee productivity.
• Leads to absenteeism.
• Impacts on employee morale.
• Puts all employees at risk.
• Creates substantial costs for employers.
In Canada, as well as in the United States, numerous studies have looked at the direct and indirect economic impact on businesses when workers are experiencing violence in their personal relationships. Estimates place the costs of family violence to businesses in the billions of dollars. Poor productivity is perhaps the most obvious cost to business. However, absenteeism, low staff morale, and strained relations between employees may all contribute to an inefficient work force .
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Domestic Violence is a part of Everyday life for some. Sometimes it finally get out of control..
Even when state agencies are called in, rarely is it like television, where help actually arrives in time. Here is a story out of Illinois.
Lethal Lapses
Sunday, May. 04, 2008
LETHAL LAPSES: 50 botched cases. 53 dead children.
They were under the care of a state agency, but that didn’t prevent their deaths
– News-DemocratFifty-three children died between 1998 and 2005 after state child welfare workers assigned to protect them committed serious errors, made lapses in judgment and ignored their own rules.Children were beaten, burned, smothered, shaken and starved to death by their parents or other adults, even though the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was supposed to be protecting them, according to an investigation by the Belleville News-Democrat.
In one case, a full-term baby girl — posthumously named Vanessa — died in a ramshackle house in Venice when her mentally ill mother, Jaki Ingram, delivered her into a waste-filled toilet. The DCFS suspended a caseworker and a supervisor for failing to properly assess the case over a five-year period.
In another case, 2-year-old Miracle Moon, of Chicago, died when her mother’s boyfriend pushed her head under water because, according to a prosecutor, she was slow at potty training. A medical examiner found more than 50 human bite marks on her buttocks.State overseers from the DCFS’ own Office of the Inspector General investigate child deaths where DCFS worker error or neglect is suspected. The office publishes annual warnings of the consequences of repeated mistakes and offers solutions.
But the newspaper’s four-month investigation showed that despite receiving specific warnings regarding the 53 child deaths between September 1998 and January 2005, DCFS caseworkers, child protection investigators, supervisors and contracted private agency workers made repeated errors and failed to properly gauge danger to children.
“No system should tolerate mistakes that can lead to the death of a child,” said Bruce Boyer, a law professor at Loyola University in Chicago and director of its Civitas ChildLaw Clinic, which specializes in representing children.
“It makes you wonder what they might be doing wrong in cases where kids don’t die.”
Bryan Samuels, former director of the DCFS, declined repeated requests for an interview for this series. Samuels resigned Friday.
Investigations of child deaths, which are published one to three years later in inspector general’s annual reports, detail department worker errors but do not contain the names of victims, caseworkers or references to where and when a death occurred.
To put a face on these children, the News-Democrat compared these anonymous child death reports to news accounts, police and coroner’s reports and other documents.
As a result, the newspaper identified 41 of the 53 children who died and linked errors to actual cases.
The newspaper found that DCFS and private agency workers:
• Repeatedly got suspected abusers’ names wrong when making criminal background checks, resulting in false “clean” reports.
• Accepted the word of a suspected child abuser that his son was sleeping and couldn’t be disturbed. The caseworker left without seeing the boy, who died an hour later from a beating by his father.
• Failed to fully investigate a scalding case because a state-supplied thermometer did not come with batteries. The child later died of asphyxiation.
• Left a sick, 5-month-old baby boy in the care of a 7-year-old girl. A caseworker said she was in a hurry and didn’t have time to wait for the mother to return.
DCFS records are not subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. This overall confidentiality prevents publicity that could reduce errors by holding DCFS more accountable, said Patrick T. Murphy, a Cook County domestic court judge.
“Kids get tortured and brutalized, and all we ever get is some sanitized report without names, dates or places,” said Murphy, who as a public guardian in the 1990s fought to protect children in state care. Murphy said the way to decrease errors is to open the agency’s records to public scrutiny.
Kendall Marlowe, deputy chief of communications for the department, said top administrators are aware of worker errors.
“It’s a matter of setting up procedures, policies and practices, and monitoring supervision so that if an employee does a bonehead thing, there’s somebody right there that catches it before it affects the child,” Marlowe said.
Children still die
Despite these procedures, children continued to die during and after botched DCFS child abuse investigations. According to inspector general’s reports:
• In Aurora, near Chicago, a child abuse investigator allowed 4-month-old Daniel Bowie’s mother to smoke crack cocaine as long as she agreed to first drop the baby off next door. The caseworker accepted this arrangement as a “child safety plan” and allowed Daniel to remain with his mother. A few weeks later, the baby died from a beating in his home. No one was charged.
• In Southern Illinois, 5-month-old Dakota Jean Hedger of Carrier Mills went to the emergency room with “friction burns on her nose, a bruise on her ear, a puncture wound on her foot, a split lip, fingertip bruises on her back and a tear on the underside of her tongue,” according to a child death report. A department supervisor sent the baby and her mother to live with a relative, but the two returned to the baby’s father without approval. A caseworker could not then locate the family for three days. On the fourth day, a sheriff’s deputy called to say the infant was dead. The father is serving 25 years for murder.
• In Chicago, 6-year-old Alma Manjarrez died after her mother’s boyfriend punched the girl in the stomach on Christmas Day and left her outside in the snow. A DCFS investigator failed to check with police about a previous episode involving the boyfriend that could have alerted her to potential danger to Alma. The investigator said it was inconvenient for her to talk to the police officer because he worked nights and she worked days.
• In Blue Island, a department investigator was assigned to determine whether it was safe to allow 3-year-old Kenya Riley to remain at home. But the investigator, who was supposed to contact the family within 24 hours, failed to locate them. He finally got word of Kenya’s whereabouts six weeks later when a coroner called to say the little girl died from head trauma.
In September, stories about a young East St. Louis mother whose unborn fetus was cut from her womb and whose three children were killed and stuffed into a washer and dryer emphasized the importance of DCFS’ duty to protect at-risk children.
The mother had been involved with DCFS as a child, as were her three children.
The inspector general’s office does not investigate most deaths of children involved with the DCFS. During the period examined by the newspaper, 780 children died while wards of the state or while having some involvement with the department. Most of these deaths were due to medical problems or accidents.
The inspector general’s investigators conducted full probes into 77 child deaths during this seven-year period. The 53 deaths involved cases where the newspaper found significant caseworker error or neglect. In the other 24, there were few or no serious errors on the part of DCFS workers, even though these cases ended with the death of a child.
In many of the child death reports, the newspaper found a combination of errors, instances of neglect and questionable judgment on the part of DCFS workers.
The newspaper’s review showed that state child protection workers who commit serious errors are sometimes disciplined, transferred or counseled, but seldom suspended and almost never fired.
In 50 child death cases (two cases involved more than one child), no department employees or private agency workers were fired. Five employees resigned, 12 were counseled and 14 were disciplined or reprimanded.
In 26 cases, the department took no action against any worker after a child’s death.
In one case, 7-month-old Edgardo Martin died in January 2005 in a fire at his family’s mobile home in Fairmont City. A DCFS investigator noticed three space heaters hooked up on a single series of extension cords, but failed to warn the family and accepted the word of a Spanish translator that it was OK, according to an investigative report. Three weeks later, Edgardo died in a fire the state fire marshal’s office attributed to an electrical overload in the series of cords.
The caseworker received no dicipline, while two supervisors received counseling, the report stated.
Finding solutions
Child welfare advocates say openness, increased staffing and less reluctance by prosecutors to bring child abuse cases to court are the keys to reducing worker error.
“In the private sector, if someone makes an egregious error, you could probably discharge them. In systems where you have a Civil Service setting and personnel rules … you can’t do that,” said Jess McDonald, who was director of the DCFS from 1990 to 2003.
McDonald acknowledged that while children die under DCFS’ watch, including after worker errors, many are helped.
“Thousands and thousands of children over these same number of years have been protected from abuse,” he said, adding that eliminating potentially lethal mistakes is probably a matter of increasing supervision and vigilance.
“You know what they say when you walk along the beach,” said McDonald. “Don’t turn your back to the ocean because that one in a million rogue wave may get you. It’s the same with worker error.”
Most current and former department workers contacted for this series did not want to be identified or talk on the record. They described the work as stressful and said the department, especially in the East St. Louis office, does not have enough workers.
Gary Guadagano, a former DCFS child abuse investigator, said the department pays caseworkers to make “very chancy decisions.”
“I found the job excruciating,” he said. The state of constant worry about whether he made the right decision led him to leave his DCFS job.
“It’s the worst thing. You worry that something might happen to a kid you saw,” said Guadagano, who works as a court liaison for the department in St. Clair County Court.
A study released earlier this year by Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents DCFS workers, found that despite an 11 percent increase in child abuse investigations from 2001-05, the department lost 23 percent, or 747, of its “frontline” staff statewide.
Murphy, the Cook County judge, said the agency’s strict emphasis on confidentiality leads to a lack of accountability and increased caseworker error. He favors making all details in child death reports public except for the names of people reporting the abuse and psychiatric records, unless a judge reviews them.
“They want to keep the whole thing secret, like this investigator who let the mom smoke crack. That stuff goes on across the board. I’ve seen it repeatedly,” Murphy said.
Court involvement
DCFS Inspector General Denise Kane said one of her top concerns is the practice of allowing children to remain in the home in the face of obvious or repeated abuse.
She warned that accepting a parent’s word without verification and giving too much consideration to their promises to do better is “fraught with difficulties.”
“If a parent is using (drugs) and keeps getting high, there’s a risk to those children,” she said.
DCFS often tries to steer family drug cases into court, but many state’s attorneys won’t take them, Kane said.
“Our office says that’s not correct. You should take them, even if it’s only for an order of supervision,” she said.
An order of supervision allows a judge to force a mother into court, where she can be ordered to accept drug treatment or lose custody of her children and forfeit state benefits.
In order to remove a child from the home, a judge must find “an immediate and emergent need.” That’s a problem, Kane said.
“If a mother smokes crack on Monday, but word doesn’t get to the judge until Thursday, he will probably decline to place the children in protective custody because the immediate need was when the DCFS worker actually saw the mother taking drugs,” Kane said.
But Guadagano, who makes recommendations to judges about whether a child should be removed, said most judges are willing to put a child into foster care if there’s any chance that leaving them at home will lead to injury.
“Most people will err on the side of caution,” Guadagano said. “Who wants to take a chance like that?”
When to intervene and get a court order to remove someone’s children is the most difficult part of the job, said Michael Davis, a member of the Illinois Child Welfare Ethics Advisory Board. The investigative office turns to this board for broad answers about why children die in DCFS’ care.
“When somebody actually dies, a lot has to go wrong,” he said, “because DCFS has … a number of back-up systems in place.
“There are egregious errors,” he said, “which is why they ended up in the reports. Our view is that (child deaths) indicate problems … and we try to figure out what the underlying cause is.”
But in some cases, the DCFS allowed children who were obviously being abused to remain in dangerous situations.
In Harvey, Ill., 9-year-old Shanecia McClellan, who suffered from cerebral palsy, starved to death, despite 33 visits to the home by DCFS caseworkers, according to a child death report.
The girl’s mother, a cocaine user who refused free drug counseling, told police that Shanecia had died three days earlier, but she hadn’t called authorities because she was “too busy to deal with that.”
Waiting too long
William Adams didn’t survive childhood, though there were many warning signs that he was in danger.
In April 2002, 3-year-old William died in a Centreville house fire. His mother had a long history of drug use and neglect during years of involvement with DCFS, yet her children were allowed to remain in her care, according to a child death report.
The mother, Rosie Rainey, gave birth to three children before William was born. Two tested positive for cocaine at birth, according to the state report. Three weeks after the birth of her second child, Rainey took her 3-year-old daughter to a hospital emergency room where the infant was found to be suffering from gonorrhea.
Authorities never charged anyone with sexual assault of the toddler.
William also tested positive for cocaine at birth. The DCFS referred the mother to a drug treatment program, but she attended only sporadically and was kicked out, the report stated.
In August 2000, Centreville Police Officer Pat Reliford found Rainey’s four children home alone. He found the oldest child, a 6-year-old girl, cooking for her younger siblings. Police charged Rainey with child endangerment.
As required by state law, Reliford called the state child abuse hot line. DCFS took the children into protective custody but later returned them and assigned a second caseworker to the family.
The state investigative report on Williams’ death stated that the 14-month tenure of the second caseworker “was characterized by ineffective assessments and lapses in critical judgment.”
According to the state report, the caseworker was not concerned about the threat of fire from the use of space heaters and general disarray of the house “… because the mother did not smoke cigarettes.”
But Rainey did use drugs, and one afternoon, while she slept, William’s older brother found a lighter and accidentally set some blankets on fire, according to a police report.
The older boy tried to awaken his mother to help William escape the smoky and burning bedroom, but Rainey, who admitted to using crack a few days earlier and smoking marijuana the night before, slept on.
Finally, she awoke and tried to rescue the trapped boy, but it was too late.
“I heard William screaming in the room,” she told police, “and I kept calling to him to ‘come to Momma, come to Momma.’”
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“I stabbed her in the head” were the headlines from the Raleigh News and Observer.
Raleigh man charged after 911 call describes knife attack
– Staff WriterPublished: Sat, Jan. 24, 2009 12:30AM Modified Sat, Jan. 24, 2009 09:00AM
RALEIGH — Breathless, the man asked a 911 operator to send police and paramedics to his apartment.
When she asked why, he said, “I stabbed her in the head. I stabbed her about, maybe 10 times,” according to 911 tapes made public this week.
While the 911 recording was edited to remove the caller’s name, police have charged Melvin Lancaster, 45, with attempted murder.
Audio: 911 calls
A man calls 911 to ask for police and paramedics, and says he stabbed his girlfriend.
The man’s second call to 911 operators a few minutes later.
A neighbor calls 911 at about the same time and says a woman is bleeding badly at her door.He was arrested Jan. 16 when police arrived at his home at 311 Stoney Moss Drive, Apt. 303.
Warrants accuse him of repeatedly stabbing and slashing Renee Adams Jones and say he made the 911 call from his mobile phone.
“You stabbed somebody?” the operator asked.
“Yes I did, yes I did,” the caller said.
“Who did you stab?”
“I stabbed my girlfriend.”
Later, the operator asked the caller to check on the victim. “We need to help your girlfriend, OK?”
“I ain’t helping her,” the man replied. “[I'm] waiting for the police to do that.”
A few minutes later a neighbor also called 911 and said a woman at her door was bleeding badly. Police think Jones, 42, also was intentionally burned with cooking oil or grease, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said.
Lancaster also had a laceration wound, the search warrant said.
Investigators took blood swabs from seven places in and around the apartment and seized clothes, a butcher knife, box cutter, electric fryer and about 40 other items.
Sughrue would not comment on a motive for the attack or the relationship between Lancaster and Jones.
Jones was taken to WakeMed, which said this week that she’d been transferred to UNC Hospitals. A spokeswoman for UNC Hospitals said she could not confirm whether Jones was a patient or provide her condition.
Lancaster is being held in the Wake County jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
samuel.spies@newsobserver.com or 919-836-4906
Researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.
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The following is an article from the Human Resource Executive. It is an excellent article.
VIOLENTLY ILL
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=123894582
While many view domestic violence as a home — not work — issue, the costs to an employer can be immense, from absenteeism and lost productivity to security and safety issues in the workplace.
By Jared Shelly
Each morning when she walked into work, Alex thought she left her troubled personal life at home: The late-night beatings by her alcoholic husband … the mental abuse … the emotional strain.
What often lingered was the physical pain from getting punched, kicked and choked — not to mention the serious injuries, such as her fractured skull and broken foot.
An administrative worker at State Farm Insurance’s headquarters in Bloomington, Ill., the then 32-year-old began to notice that — little by little — keeping her work and home lives separate had become an increasingly difficult challenge.
Oftentimes, after a night of abuse, Alex (who requested that her last name be withheld) wouldn’t be at her desk for long before the phone would start ringing. While Alex was trying to focus on work, her husband would still be drunk from the night before, inundating her with calls.
“I’m sorry.”
“I want you back.”
“I won’t ever do it again.”
To win back her affection after a fight, he would even resort to playing music. “He would play some stupid love song,” says the now-37-year-old, noting that she let the majority of those calls go to voicemail. “When I wouldn’t call back, then they would change into a more threatening type.”
“I’m going to come find you and get you.”
“I’m coming to get you.”
Then came the intimidating e-mails that sometimes ran pages long.
A few times, he even showed up at the office, but rather than acting scary and abusive, he chose to bring flowers.
“He was wowing people that he’s this really nice guy when he’s not,” says Alex.
She finally got to a point where she couldn’t take the cycle of abuse any longer.
“You’re frustrated. You’re scared. You don’t know where to go. You’re desperate,” she says.
If that weren’t enough, her manager began to notice that she often showed up for work tired and weary, losing focus easily. He couldn’t help but be aware of the many times she called out “sick.”
Then he noticed the bruises on her arm.
Rather than asking Alex about domestic abuse outright, her manager said that he ” ‘was concerned’ ” she recalls, and also said ” ‘I’m here if you want to talk.’ “
“I felt like I couldn’t hold it in anymore,” says Alex. “I thought, maybe [my co-workers] do care and I just opened up.”
While the company leaders could have easily focused on negatives, such as her frequent absenteeism and lost productivity, State Farm urged her to formally report the threat through its electronic system, then set her up with Steve Heldstab, a security specialist at the company.
Heldstab linked her with the company’s employee-assistance program as well as several nonprofit outreach organizations that provided counseling and helped her build a plan of action to leave her husband.
Heldstab also gave her safety tips, provided escorts in and out of the building and placed her husband on the company’s “Do Not Admit” list, meaning nobody could bring him into the building as a guest.
“Then it was just a matter of her regaining her self-esteem so that she could get beyond being a victim to becoming a survivor, which she is,” says Heldstab.
State Farm also gave her paid time off and offered a flexible work schedule that allowed her to go to counseling sessions during the workday and make up her hours at night.
The company’s official policy on domestic violence, which was created about a year ago — well after Alex’s situation — also helps victims by assigning special parking spots, screening telephone calls, eliminating their names from the automated telephone directory and having paychecks delivered to other addresses. When assessing an employee’s performance, State Farm says, it makes reasonable efforts to consider that victims of domestic violence will also have higher rates of absenteeism or tardiness, and if they are getting help, they will not be disciplined for such actions.
Upon entering counseling, Alex began to finally realize the gravity of her situation, especially during one exercise in which counselors attempted to quantify the severity of the abuse.
“I was in the highest bracket, which means homicide was most likely to happen,” she says. “That information is what really woke me up and I needed to make a decision to start getting out.”
Cases such as Alex’s are far too common. In a study of 70,000 people, released in February 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men reported being victims of “intimate partner violence,” defined as being threatened, attempted or completed physical or sexual violence, or emotional abuse by a current or former intimate partner. The CDC reports that in 2004, intimate partner violence resulted in 1,544 deaths; 75 percent of them women and 25 percent men. Each year, women are subjected to about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults, says the CDC, while men are subjected to roughly 2.9 million.
And because this is an issue that also affects the workplace, HR must get involved in detection and prevention, not only to protect potential victims, but protect the bottom line, as well.
Threat to the Workplace
Each year, victims of domestic violence lose nearly 8 million days of work, the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and almost 5.6 million days of productivity, according to a 2003 study by the CDC.
“People think, ‘Sure [people are domestic-violence victims], but they don’t work here. If they work, they don’t work in a place like this,’ ” says Kim Wells, executive director of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, a Bloomington, Ill.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the costs and consequences of partner violence by leveraging the resources of the corporate community.
In a 2007 study of 503 employees and 200 senior executives by the CAEPV — along with retailer Liz Claiborne Inc. and support group Safe Horizon, both based in New York — the majority of corporate executives (55 percent) say they understand the negative impact domestic violence can have on the workplace; however, those same executives estimate that it only affects 6 percent of workers.
The study revealed that 26 percent of women identified themselves as victims or survivors and 22 percent reported working with someone who is a victim or survivor.
The largest discrepancy, however, appears to be between what employers and employees think about the company’s role in addressing the problem. An overwhelming number of employees (84 percent) said they believe the company should be involved in the solution, while just 13 percent of executives think it’s the company’s job to help solve the problem.
“There’s this disconnect between what a CEO or a senior-level executive perceives, and what’s happening on the ground,” says Wells.
The effect on the company can be devastating, since domestic violence can lead to rising healthcare costs, absenteeism, lateness, loss of productivity, turnover and decreased workplace safety, says Wells.
Not knowing the extent of harm can hurt a company’s bottom line.
“They’re losing money,” says Denise Curran, a psychotherapist at the Chicago-based employee-assistance-program provider ComPsych.
Curran trains employers to pick out the warning signs in potential victims: receiving lots of outside phone calls, sudden outbursts of tears, acting anxious, preoccupied, unfocused or depressed. And, of course, visible bruises.
To address the issue, she says, companies should create a policy that allows victims to take paid time off and connect them with an EAP that can provide counseling and other resources. Curran says companies interested in developing a domestic-violence training program should start by instructing management, but she hopes an organization would eventually extend that education to all employees.
Training often includes teaching employees the warning signs that someone is being abused, and how to gently elicit information, such as, “I’m here if you ever want to talk.” A training program may also outline security procedures or provide videos or written materials about the issue.
For many victims, however, admitting their abuse to co-workers or managers may not feel natural. Curran says companies can gain the trust needed to achieve such a confession by running a training program on the topic and showing that anyone who steps forward will be treated with support, not scrutiny. Oftentimes, once employees take part in the training program, they may go to their EAP counselor on their own to admit they are being abused, she says.
If an employer fails to recognize the warning signs of domestic violence, it could not only prove life-threatening for the victim, but the company could also be held liable. In the case of La Rose vs. State Mutual Life Assurance Co. in 1994, the family of Francesia La Rose filed a wrongful-death action against her employer after she was murdered by a former boyfriend at the worksite for failing to protect her after being notified of the specific threat. The case was settled for $350,000.
The specific laws on domestic violence vary from state to state. Several — Florida, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, North Carolina and Washington — force companies to allow workers to take leave if they are victims of domestic violence.
Some, such as Florida, which enacted its law in July 2007, mandate that companies with more than 50 employees must give three days of leave to victims during a 12-month period. The leave can be paid or unpaid.
The law in Washington, enacted in April, applies to public or private companies regardless of size.
Legalities aside, there are right and wrong ways to handle domestic-violence victims, says Curran. They should be handled with sensitivity and not be punished or made to feel guilty for a lack of productivity or time away from work.
It is also important to put domestic-violence policies into place to minimize the effect it can have on co-workers, who are often asked to make up for the victim’s missed work when they are absent or tardy.
“The co-workers can get this residual anger about it and the feeling that [the victim] gets special attention [and] gets to come in late,” says Curran, “and they feel they have to pick up where she’s not functioning or have to fill in when she’s sick or doesn’t come in.”
Companies should also be concerned because, if an abuser enters the workplace looking for trouble, it becomes a workplace-safety issue for all employees.
“If [a victim] says ‘Don’t tell anybody, but my abusive husband is coming over here and might be violent,’ they have to make sure they, as a company, come up with a safety plan for that whole company,” says Curran. “It has to involve the receptionist, the security people and managers.”
A safety plan should include provisions for moving a threatened employee to a different work location, changing his or her shift time, making sure the employee has a cell phone, providing a safe parking space or escorts to and from the building and providing a photo and physical description of the abuser to security.
But how does the company keep a situation private yet still warn security and others about the threat? Curran says company leaders should first remind people of the already existing safety plans and then focus on informing the “gatekeepers,” usually security personnel stationed at the entrance.
“A description and name of the abuser can be given discreetly to building security and receptionists or front-desk people,” she says. “That has worked effectively at many companies, but HR must be diligent about updating new personnel on the situation, keeping building security aware. If the abuser makes it past the gatekeeper, it’s often too late.”
Fighting Back
At a jewelry counter at a Macy’s store, a female employee had just returned to work after a sudden, two-week absence that she said was due to illness, according to a company executive. Shortly after her shift started, her husband came to her station and the two got into a heated argument.
Within minutes, the husband grabbed the woman by the hair and slammed her face repeatedly into the glass cosmetics counter.
“It’s shatterproof glass, but he was hitting her face hard enough that it not only did damage to her face, but it shattered the glass,” says Julie Avins, vice president of employee and labor relations at San Francisco-based Macy’s West, which includes roughly 230 retail stores in 11 states in the western part of the United States.
A co-worker contacted Macy’s security, who subdued the man. In accordance with company policy, a manager was called, who took the injured woman off the selling floor and called police and paramedics. Security officials detained the attacker until authorities arrived.
Although the woman was fortunate enough to suffer only cuts and bruises, Macy’s management knew that she needed support from the company to get her life in order.
“We gave her a couple weeks of paid time off and, during that time, we were having conversations with her almost daily just to check in to see how she was doing,” says Avins.
The company eventually moved the woman to another work location, but, in an effort to keep her safe, management did not tell any employees where she had gone or that she had even been transferred. If the abuser called looking for her, an employee would only be able to tell him that she no longer worked there.
All of these steps were taken because of a domestic-violence-training program Macy’s began in January 2003 targeted to managers and executives. Since then, the company has trained approximately 6,000 employees, mainly in small-group settings.
“We talked to them about the warning signs they could look for, gave them guidelines about conversations that they could initiate — and we talked to them about their responsibility to report what they observed or what they had been told,” says Avins.
So far, the initiative has been well-received.
“Associates walk away from training realizing that the company does care about them,” says Avins. “And that it’s not just performance at work, but if there is something that is happening outside of work that is affecting them negatively and, in turn, possibly affecting their ability to do their job, we want to know about it and we want to do whatever we can to help them.”
Back in Bloomington, Alex still works for State Farm, and is grateful to the company for providing sercurity and giving her the resources to get counseling so she could eventually leave her abusive husband. Five years later, she is remarried and has been promoted several times.
But perhaps most remarkable is how she turned from domestic-violence victim to survivor to motivator. She has spoken at lunch-and-learn events at State Farm and “It’s Time to Talk Day,” a day of outreach and events in Bloomington. She has even been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations.
“It’s been a pretty emotional rollercoaster,” says Alex. “I have a whole nervousness about stepping out and telling my story. There’s always that risk that my abuser can find out, but I feel empowered in some sense that I am standing up and saying, ‘This is what happened to me and it isn’t right.’ People need to recognize this issue. I know that if I’m saving at least one person’s life, then I’ve changed that bad in my life to a positive.”
In her journey toward a new life, she credits a lot to that manager who pulled her aside and asked if she needed help.
“I always tell the manager, he saved my life.”
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<!–[endif]–>September 1, 2008
Copyright 2008© LRP Publications
Contact reporters George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczyk@bnd.com or 239-2625 and Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.
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Ann Lane
knhayes
THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME FOR AN ABUSED WOMAN IS WHEN SHE LEAVES
Posted at: 02/10/2009 5:05 PM
Updated at: 02/11/2009 7:44 AM
By: Dan Conradt
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN MINNESOTA
(ABC 6 NEWS) — There’s a new report out about domestic violence in Minnesota.
It tells us something about when deadly violence is most likely to happen in a relationship.
21 women died in domestic violence in Minnesota last year.
That number is about the same as the year before, but what did change was when the violence escalated.
“The most dangerous time for a victim is when they are leaving,” said Tori Miller, from the Crime Victim’s Resource Center.
“It’s certainly one of the calls that we respond to very frequently in this community,” said Austin Police Chief Paul Philipp.
And that’s what the study found, 54% of women who died in domestic violence last year died when they tried to leave their partners, compared to 42% the year before.
And that gets to the heart of “domestic violence”
Advocates who work with crime victims will tell you that domestic abuse isn’t about anger, It’s about control.
“An individual having power and control over that victim, and once the victim leaves, that abuser loses the power and control,” said Miller.
Which sometimes results in the abuser’s ultimate act of control: taking another person’s life.
The sour economy can also contribute to violence in relationships that are already established as “abusive.” Again, it comes down to a matter of “control.”
“One of the ways they exert their power and control of their victim is by not allowing them to handle money or have money,” said Miller.
For women who find themselves in abusive relationships, leaving is essential, but it’s something that must be done with support and a plan.
“And I think the most important piece of leaving safely is meeting with an advocate and establishing a safety plan prior to leaving and getting that plan in place,” said Miller.
According to some statistics, nearly one-in-three women will be abused during their lifetime.
Kentucky states that the Economy is causing more Domestic Violence
Police: financial stress leading to increase in domestic violence
08:03 PM EST on Tuesday, February 10, 2009
(WHAS11) -The economy is declining and stress levels are going up.
Watch this story
Jonina Clarkson says, “It’s been very stressful.”
Cara Stewart says, “It makes you mad and aggravated.”
Bruce Pipps says, “No cash flow will cause stress.”
All that stress can lead to problems in relationships.
Lloyd Moore says, “We get into whose going to pay this bill, how are we going to pay that bill.”
It’s a common argument among couples, and an argument Nancy Waters is seeing a lot more often. She’s a marriage counselor at the Old Louisville Counseling Center.
Nancy Waters says, “Probably the greatest magnifier of all the stressers, second only to death and dying because our financial parts of our lives really do relate to our life existence.”
But according to Metro Police, those stressers are leading to something even more alarming- an increase in domestic violence.
In the past six months, the number of domestic violence calls increased by 639 calls over the same time frame a year ago. Waters says she’s not surprised.
Nancy Waters says, “It is predictable with financial crises that there will be an increase in domestic violence.”
Corissa Phillips isn’t surprised either. She works at the Center for Women and Families, and says that they are seeing an increase in the number of women needing their help. In the last year, the number of calls to the center has gone up by 15%.
Corissa Phillips says, “Anecdotally we’re seeing the calls that come in and those reasons that people place a call to our crisis line have had more to do with situations that can be directly tied to finances.”
Marriage Counselors say the best way to deal with stresses, such as financial hardships in your relationships is to talk to your spouse or partner and make a plan and set goals to deal with the problems. If needed, you can always seek out the advice of a counselor.
Get the Facts: Domestic Violence is a Serious, Widespread Social Problem
Prevalence of Domestic Violence
Published: March 23, 2009 06:53 pm
Report: Most states lag with dating-violence laws
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Only Oklahoma and a handful of other states have responded to teen dating violence with laws enabling the youthful victims to obtain protection orders on equal terms with adults, an advocacy group says in a new national survey.
The report on state laws by Break the Cycle, a teen-violence prevention organization that has worked with the Justice Department, gave A grades to only five states. Twelve states got D’s and 11 failed.
Grades were based on various comparisons between the legal treatment of adult victims of domestic violence and teen victims of dating violence. Failure was automatic for states where protective orders are unavailable for minors, or where dating relationships are not explicitly recognized as valid for obtaining such orders.
“It is essential that dating violence and the needs of minor victims be specifically addressed within state domestic violence statutes,” said Marjorie Gilberg, executive director of Break the Cycle. “Lawmakers have a responsibility … to propose legislation that will ensure the protection of all victims of domestic violence — regardless of their age.”
National surveys have estimated that one in three youths experiences dating abuse at some point during their teens — incidents ranging from a slap on the cheek to homicide. Despite the high rate of abuse, Break the Cycle and other advocacy groups say too many states do not treat dating violence with appropriate seriousness.
“Some states feel that if have they good child abuse laws, minors are protected,” Gilberg said in a telephone interview. “There’s definitely a lack of awareness about the prevalence of abuse among teens in their relationships.”
Break the Cycle contends that all young people over 12 should have the right to petition for protection on their own behalf and that domestic violence protection orders should be available even against abusers who are minors.
The new report gives states lower grades if their laws block minors from seeking protective orders on their own, without parental involvement.
Sheryl Cates, CEO of the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, said parental involvement is a challenging issue.
“If you’re a parent, you want to know if your child is in danger, but on other hand, teens want the anonymity, to not have to tell their parents,” she said. “It’s very complicated, trying to find a balance between a victim’s rights and parents’ right to know.”
Kristina Korobov, an attorney with National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women, said it’s sometimes crucial for teens to be able to seek protective orders on their own. They may have strained relations with their parents or come from a home where domestic violence already is occurring.
Korobov, a former prosecutor in Indianapolis and Loudoun County, Va., said it’s important in such instances for courts to provide an attorney or other expert to guide the youth through the legal process.
The report commended New Hampshire as the only state where the law specifically allows minors of any age to go to court by themselves to request a protection order. It received an A along with California, Illinois, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
Getting F’s were Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia.
Korobov said the law in Virginia, where she is based, makes it hard for many teens to get protective orders because it generally limits them to cases where the victim and the perpetrator have been married or lived together — circumstances which often don’t apply to dating violence.
“A lot of people tend to see crimes being committed by juveniles as ‘kids being kids,’” Korobov said. “They think, ‘Oh, this person is lovesick. It’s not as serious as domestic violence.’”
Gilberg said some legislators are wary of the changes advocated by Break the Cycle because they fear creating a “litigious group of minors” who might misuse expanded access to the justice system. But she said awareness-raising efforts were making headway in several states.
For example, in Ohio, which got a failing grade, Attorney General Richard Cordray and some lawmakers have been promoting a bill this year that would allow juvenile courts to issue protection orders for minors in dating relationships.
The bill was inspired in part by the plight of Johanna Orozco, a Cleveland teenager who was shot in the face by her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend in 2007 and has had numerous operations. Orozco wanted to get a protection order, but Ohio juvenile courts cannot issue them against minors.
On the Net:
http://www.breakthecycle.org/
Domestic violence kills 131 people in NC in ’08
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 26, 2009