Workplace Protections

The law protects victims of “domestic or sexual violence.”¹ In Hawaii, domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, means any of the following between family or household members:

• physical harm or the threat of immediate physical harm;
• bodily injury or the threat of immediate bodily injury;
• assault or the threat of an immediate assault;
• extreme psychological abuse;
• malicious property damage.²

Sexual violence includes:

• any of the seven sexual offenses listed on our Selected Hawaii Statutes page; and
• stalking.³ Stalking means that someone’s conduct towards you has caused you to:
  • suffer emotional distress; or
  • fear bodily injury, sexual assault, or death to you or someone close to you.³

A family or household member includes:

• your current or former spouse;
• your current or former reciprocal beneficiary,⁴ which is someone who you have significant personal, emotional, and economic relationships with, but are prohibited from legally marrying;⁵
• someone with whom you have a child in common;
• your parent;
• your child;
• someone related to you by blood or marriage;
• someone with whom you live/lived (Note: This does not include adults who lived together as roommates or who were cohabitants only for economic reasons or due to a lease); and
• someone who you are dating or used to date.⁴

¹ H.R.S. § 378-72(a)
² H.R.S. § 586-1
³ H.R.S. § 378-71
⁴ H.R.S. § 586-1
⁵ H.R.S. § 572C-2