CSUN On Point

Reports of domestic violence have been circulating the world like a contagious disease in recent months, as incidents of violence have sparked the attention of the media and the public. Reports of interpersonal abuse have flooded social media this year, led by the cases involving NFL players. The NFL suspended Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games after a video was released showing him assaulting his then-fiancee in an altercation at a New Jersey casino. Adrian Peterson, a running back for the Minnesota Vikings, was suspended a whole season without pay after he admitted hitting his four-year-old son.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Roughly 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year, and 85 percent of domestic violence victims are women.

“Jealousy,” said Lilyana, a former spouse of an abuser. “It [the abuse] stemmed from jealousy. That what it manifested from at that time. I’m sure it came from something he was dealing with, but I didn’t realize at the time.”

Lilyana said she remembers wondering what she was going to do if she left the marriage. At the time she had a job and owned a business, but that business had ties to her husband, and she said she was too young to have much confidence in her ability to live on her own. “The abuser plays on any insecurity you might have,” she said. Lilyana said her daughter’s protection and safety was her main concern, and when she felt that was compromised, or could be compromised, that was the signal for her that the marriage could not go on.

“It’s a painful memory,” she said, “but I can put it in perspective, and know that it could happen to anybody. People are human and they make mistakes. Some people have psychological issues they’ll always deal with, maybe because of their upbringing.”

Theresa Knott, an Assistant Professor in CSUN’s Department of Social Work, said a rocky, unstable upbringing could be linked to a person becoming violent as an adult. Most of the time, Knott said, the victim has nothing to do with the behavior and actions of the abuser.

“Domestic abuse, referred to as interpersonal violence, is related to control,” Knott said. “When an individual feels that the environment is out of their control, they tend to try to bring it back into their control.”

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police. Another reality of domestic violence is that females who are between the ages of 20 and 24 are at the greatest risk of non-fatal intimate partner violence.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective Stephanie Diaz said she receives nearly 10 to 20 domestic violence radio calls a day into the Devonshire Division.

“Alcohol and drugs are the precursors to domestic violence,” Diaz said. Many abusers have a history of abusing substances, which results in them lashing out, and reacting a certain way, consciously and unconsciously.

“We need to change the narrative,” Knott said. “We speak a lot about women and why they stay, and I think the discourse needs to focus on the perpetrators of abuse.”

Moderator: Daniel Max

Producer: Stephanie Murguia

Anchor: Candice Curtis

Reporters: Bryan Ramirez, Stephanie Murguia, Ugochi Obinma

Social Media Editor: Gabriela Rodriguez

Despite juggling four specialized coffee drinks in one hand and a pile of paperwork in the other, many interns are still able to speak out about being exploited in the workplace.

According to the Department of Labor’s Fair Labor and Standards Act, employers must meet six criteria when it comes to justifying an unpaid internship:

• The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
• The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
• The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
• The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
• The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship;
• The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

But increased unemployment rates in the wake of the Great Recession seemed to have given some employers a chance to blur the lines set by federal law, and several lawsuits filed by unpaid interns claimed employers took the educational aspect away from interns, in favor of excessive work that should have been done by paid employees. The courts tended to agree. The renewed attention to the issue has meant a change in policy for some employers, who now report their intention to pay their interns, or in some cases, to drop their internship programs altogether.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that most employers say they do use internships to recruit new employees.

“I think internships lead to jobs if there’s a job for them to lead to,” CSUN Cinema & Television Arts Professor Kim Paul Friedman said. “In my personal experience, I haven’t seen companies create jobs for interns.”

But Friedman said if a company finds a candidate who is good at what they’re doing, enthusiastic and hardworking, companies will take notice.

Jordan Helo was the internship coordinator at CSUN’s Career Center, and held many internships herself, both paid and unpaid.

Helo agreed that internships do not always lead to jobs, at least not always with the company providing the internship.

“From my experience, an internships hasn’t directly led me to a job in that company, but to the next internship or position, and has worked as sort of a resume builder,” Helo said.

Interns and legal experts agree that while the federal law doesn’t require internships to lead to jobs, it does require them to lead to training and experience. If they don’t, the interns should be getting paid.

“If you ask people to do real work, then they should get real pay,” labor attorney Manuel H. Miller said.

But Friedman said the recent lawsuits against employers probably won’t stop all employers from offering unpaid internships to students willing to learn and in need of experience.

“Laws, rules and all that are only as good as your ability to enforce them,” Friedman said.

Moderator: Danny Max

Producer: Stephanie Murguia

Anchor: Bryan Ramirez

Reporter: Candice Curtis, Stephanie Murguia, Ugochi Obinma

Social Media Editors: Ugochi Obinma, Gabriela Rodriguez, Candice Curtis