Sec. 2. Findings

1,258 words·~6 min read·/bill/116/s/627/is/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: Over 1 in 3 women experience sexual violence, and 1 in 5 women have survived completed or attempted rape. Such violence has a devastating impact on women’s physical and emotional health, financial security, and ability to maintain their jobs, and thus impacts interstate commerce and economic security. The Office on Violence Against Women of the Department of Justice defines domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one intimate partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner.

Domestic violence can include physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. Domestic violence includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound an individual. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that domestic violence or intimate partner violence is a serious public health issue for millions of individuals in the United States.

Nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men in the United States have suffered sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death for women on the job. Domestic partners or relatives commit 43 percent of workplace homicides against women. One study found that intimate partner violence resulted in 142 homicides among women at work in the United States from 2003 to 2008, a figure which represents 22 percent of the 648 workplace homicides among women during the period.

In fact, in 2010, homicides against women at work increased by 13 percent despite continuous declines in overall workplace homicides in recent years. Women in the United States are 11 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other high-income countries. Female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined. The presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.

Violence can have a dramatic impact on the survivor of such violence. Studies indicate that 44 percent of surveyed employed adults experienced the effect of domestic violence in the workplace, and 64 percent indicated their workplace performance was affected. Another recent survey found that 78 percent of offenders used workplace resources to express anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten a survivor of sexual assault, whether occurring in or out of the workplace, can impair an employee’s work performance, require time away from work, and undermine the employee’s ability to maintain a job.

Nearly 50 percent of sexual assault survivors lose their jobs or are forced to quit in the aftermath of the assaults. In a study commission by the Office on Violence Against Women of the Department of Justice, 66 percent of respondents said an abusive partner had disrupted their ability to complete education or training through tactics such as not allowing them access to money to pay for school, socially isolating the survivor, controlling or monitoring their mobility, using physical or sexual violence, and damaging or destroying personal property.

Studies find that 60 percent of single women lack economic security and 81 percent of households with single mothers live in economic insecurity. Significant barriers survivors confront include housing, transportation, and child care. Ninety-two percent of homeless women have experienced domestic violence, and more than 50 percent cite domestic violence as the direct cause for homelessness. Survivors are deprived of their autonomy, liberty, and security, and face tremendous threats to their health and safety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that survivors of severe intimate partner violence lose nearly 8,000,000 days of paid work, which is the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and almost 5,600,000 days of household productivity each year. Therefore, women disproportionately need time off to care for their health or to find safety solutions, such as obtaining a restraining order or finding housing, to avoid or prevent further violence. Annual costs of intimate partner violence are estimated over $8,300,000,000.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the costs of intimate partner violence against women in 1995 exceeded an estimated $5,800,000,000. These costs included nearly $4,100,000,000 in the direct costs of medical and mental health care and nearly $1,800,000,000 in the indirect costs of lost productivity. These statistics are generally considered to be underestimated because the costs associated with the criminal justice system are not included. Fifty-five percent of senior executives recently surveyed said domestic violence has a harmful effect on their company’s productivity, and more than 70 percent said domestic violence negatively affects attendance.

Seventy-eight percent of human resources professionals consider partner violence a workplace issue. However, more than 70 percent of United States workplaces have no formal program or policy that addresses workplace violence, let alone domestic violence. In fact, only four percent of employers provided training on domestic violence. Studies indicate that one of the best predictors of whether a survivor will be able to stay away from his or her abuser is the degree of his or her economic independence.

However, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking often negatively impact a survivor’s ability to maintain employment. Abusers frequently seek to exert financial control over their partners by actively interfering with their ability to work, including preventing their partners from going to work, harassing their partners at work, limiting their partners’ access to cash or transportation, and sabotaging their partners’ child care arrangements. Economic abuse refers to behaviors that control an intimate partner’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain access to, money, credit, ownership of assets, or access to governmental or private financial benefits, including defaulting on joint obligations (e.g. school loans, credit card debt, mortgage, or rent).

Other forms may include preventing someone from attending school, threatening to or actually terminating employment, controlling or withholding access to cash, checking, or credit accounts, attempts to damage or sabotage an intimate partner’s creditworthiness, including forcing a survivor to write bad checks, including forcing a survivor to default on payments related to household needs, such as housing, or forcing a survivor into bankruptcy. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( Public Law 111–148 ), and the amendments made by such Act, ensures that most health plans must cover preventive services, including screening and counseling for domestic violence, at no additional cost.

In addition, it prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against patients for preexisting conditions, like domestic violence. Yet, more can be done to help survivors. Federal law in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act does not explicitly— authorize survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking to take leave from work to seek legal assistance and redress, counseling, or assistance with safety planning activities; address the eligibility of survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking for unemployment compensation; provide job protection to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking; prohibit insurers and employers who self-insure employee benefits from discriminating against survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking and those who help them in determining eligibility, rates charged, and standards for payment of claims; or prohibit insurers from disclosing information about abuse and the location of the survivors through insurance databases and other means.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This Act aims to empower survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking to be free from violence, hardship, and control, which restrains basic human rights to freedom and safety in the United States.

Connections1 off-index

1 reference not yet in our index

Pub. L. 111-148

Citation graph

cites case law

Sec. 2

Findings

Pub. L.Pub. L. 111-148

Cites 1Cited by 0 across 0 sources