Defining Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking, and Sexual Harassment (DVSASSH)
Workplaces Respond uses language based on the Centers for Disease Control, Violence Against Women Act, and International Labour Organization’s Convention 190 and seeks to use terms that reflect survivors’ experiences.
Domestic Violence and Dating Violence (also referred to as Intimate Partner Violence):
Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. It may include physical, emotional, sexual, economic, psychological, and/or technology-based actions or threats of actions, or other patterns of coercive behavior to influence another person within an intimate partner relationship. It includes behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.
Person Who Causes Harm (also referred to as perpetrators, abusive partners, abusers, or batterers):
An individual who commits or threatens to commit an act of DVSASSH.
Note: Individuals who commit acts or threats of DVSASSH are referred to as perpetrators in the criminal legal system. These individuals are also sometimes referred to as abusive partners or batterers. Recognizing that individuals who commit or threaten to commit an act of DVSASSH may also have a complex history of experiencing violence and/or harassment, the advocacy community has shifted this language to a “person who causes harm” to define that person in relationship to the act and to recognize that they may have also experienced harm in other contexts.
Sexual Assault (also referred to as Sexual Violence):
Sexual Assault is coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact or behavior without consent. Sexual abuse includes, but is certainly not limited to, marital rape, attacks on sexual parts of the body, forcing sex after physical violence has occurred, or treating one in a sexually demeaning manner.
Survivor (also referred to as Victim):
An individual who is currently subject to, or has in the past been subjected to, DVSASSH.
Note: Individuals who are currently subjected to, or in the past have been subjected to DVSASSH are often referred to as victims in a criminal justice context but as survivors by the broader advocacy community. Survivor is often the preferred terminology because it signifies strength and resilience while victim can bring a sense of powerlessness and shame. Individuals who experience DVSASSH may or may not identify themselves as either survivor or victim. Use the language these individuals use to describe their experience and ensure that they have control over their story and any actions taken in response to their experiences of DVSASSH.
Stalking:
Stalking is a pattern of unwanted behavior that causes a reasonable person to fear for their safety or experience emotional distress. It is considered a form of violence against women, along with domestic violence, sexual assault, and dating violence.
Sexual Harassment:
Sexual Harassment is harassing conduct based on sex including conduct of a sexualized nature, such as unwanted conduct expressing sexual attraction or involving sexual activity (e.g., “sexual conduct”); sexual attention or sexual coercion, such as demands or pressure for sexual favors; rape, sexual assault, or other acts of sexual violence; or discussing or displaying visual depictions of sex acts or sexual remarks. Harassment based on sex also includes non-sexual conduct based on sex, such as sex-based epithets; sexist comments (such as remarks that women do not belong in management or that men do not belong in the nursing profession); or facially sex-neutral offensive conduct motivated by sex (such as bullying directed toward employees of one sex).
World of Work:
The World of Work consists of any location in which employees, paid and unpaid interns, contractors, volunteers, board members, consultants, and temporary workers perform their job duties. This includes:
- in the workplace, including public and private spaces where they are a place of work;
- in places where the worker is paid, takes a rest break or a meal, or uses sanitary, washing and changing facilities;
- during work-related trips, travel, training, events or social activities;
- through work-related communications, including those enabled by information and communication technologies in employer-provided accommodation; and,
- when commuting to and from work.
Outside of the World of Work, refers to any place in which a person covered by this policy is not engaging in work-related activities, such as at home or in the community off hours.