In 2001, Employers Against Domestic Violence (Boston, MA) conducted focus groups with convicted male domestic violence offenders, and asked them about the impact their behavior had on their workplaces.
They found that:
- Abusers made costly and dangerous mistakes on the job;
- Most abusers used company phones, vehicles, e-mail, and/or other resources to perpetrate domestic abuse;
- Most abusers used paid work time in order to attend court for matters relating to their perpetration of domestic violence;
- 10% of employers posted bail for abusers or granted them paid leaves of absence for court dates related to domestic violence.
The impact of employing partner violence perpetrators
In 2004 a study of partner violence perpetrators and the workplace was released by the Maine Department of Labor and Family Crisis Services, a nonprofit organization. The study found that employed partner violence offenders have a significant impact on their workplaces. Among the significant impacts reported by offenders:
- Over 75% of offenders used workplace resources at least once to express remorse or anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten the victim.
- 73% of supervisors were aware of the abuser’s arrest, but only 15% reminded the employee that domestic abuse is a crime.
- 74% had easy access to their intimate partner’s workplace, with 21% of offenders reporting that they contacted her at the workplace in violation of a no-contact order.
- 70 domestic abuse offenders lost 15,221 hours of work time due to their domestic abuse arrests. At Maine’s average hourly wage, this equals approximately $200,000. (Averages to 5.5 weeks/person)
- 48% of offenders had difficulty concentrating at work, with 19% of offenders reporting a workplace accident or near miss from inattentiveness due to pre-occupation with their relationship.
- 42% of offenders were late to work.
*Source: Maine Department of Labor and Family Crisis Services study released February 17, 2004.
