State gears up to combat workplace domestic violence

An emerging crisis in the state of Ohio is being combated with an executive order signed by Gov. Ted Strickland in April 2008.

According to the state Office of the Governor Web site, domestic violence is an issue of public health, as well as an economic issue and a workplace safety issue.

The governor showed his support for combating intimate partner violence by signing the Barbara Warner Workplace Domestic Violence Policy, which honors an Ohio Department of Health employee who was a victim of domestic violence and was murdered by her husband in 1997.

State agencies were required to have a domestic-violence policy implemented by July 1 of this year.
Kate McGuckin, executive director of the My Sister's Place domestic violence shelter, said that Warner was a strong feminist who was "working really hard to provide support and encourage the powers that be to get a workplace violence policy."

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, domestic violence - also called intimate partner violence, battering or spousal abuse - is associated with long-term health repercussions, as well as significant social and public-health costs.

The annual cost of domestic violence has been estimated to be more than $5.8 billion, and victims lose about 8 million days of paid work each year, or the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs.

According to the state Web site, many non-governmental entities throughout Ohio also have taken an active role in the project to combat workplace violence.

The executive order created a policy and training on workplace domestic violence for an estimated 60,000 state employees of cabinet agencies, boards and commissions.

"Domestic violence in and outside of the workplace has become increasingly prevalent," Strickland said in a press release. "As an employer, the state must foster a safe working environment for all employees and provide the resources necessary to assist a worker who may be the victim of a domestic-violence situation."

Two other emerging issues include teen dating abuse and intimate partner violence between same-sex couples.

Mickey Hart, director of the Ohio University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center, said social services in general are lacking for people of the LGBT community.

"Really, my understanding is that (domestic-violence incidents) are underreported, and just as we know that domestic violence is underreported, it is more so in the LGBT community," he said. "But it is present in all communities where there's partner relationships."

Hart said LGBT people often face homophobia in society and sometimes struggle with internalized homophobia.

"People may lash out when it's really more something they're battling within themselves, and they take it out on their partner," he noted.

According to the CDC, violence between couples can start early and last a lifetime.

The CDC reports 72 percent of eight- and ninth-grade students reportedly "date," and one in four adolescents reports verbal, physical, emotional or sexual abuse from a dating partner each year.

About 10 percent of students nationwide reported being physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past year.

A bill dealing with teen dating violence has been approved by the Ohio House of Representatives.

The Tina Croucher Act was passed this year and, if signed into law, would require school districts to adopt a dating abuse policy and include dating violence education in health education classes.

The bill is named after a Middletown area girl who was murdered in 1992 by her ex-boyfriend.