Serena Williams: "Financial abuse is a human rights issue"
Tennis superstar Serena Williams is lending her voice to help victims of a form of domestic abuse that isn't always visible.
Verbal and physical abuse might be what first comes to mind when one thinks about domestic violence. But financial abuse is just as frequent and can be devastating, experts say.
A study by the Centers for Financial Security found that 99 percent of domestic violence cases also involved financial abuse — defined as controlling a victim's ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources.
Those subjected to financial abuse may be prevented from working or accessing their own money, or their abuser may steal from the victim or ruin their credit.
"The fact that financial abuse happens in 99 percent of domestic violence cases is staggering," Williams recently told CBS News. "I felt like it was really important for me to be able to learn more about this issue and speak out about it."
Williams joined forces with Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse Campaign to help fight back against the cycle of domestic violence. Allstate Foundation has been working on ways to combat domestic violence for over a decade. This year, the foundation launched a new social-experiment based film called "Lost Purse" to help illustrate the issue of financial abuse and raise public awareness about it.
In the short film, people are faced with various opportunities to help a domestic violence victim when they find and return her lost purse.
"Finances are the #1 reason victims can't 'just leave'," the video points out.
Vicky Dinges, Allstate's senior vice president of corporate responsibility, talked to CBS News about the film's concept.
"We know that we need to get people thinking and talking about financial abuse in order to make a change and raise public awareness about it. So we decided to create a film that captured people's responses to financial abuse situations," she said.
"Every time I talk to a victim's family or friends they'll say they suspected something but decided it was a private matter and that they shouldn't get involved. Many though have also said that if they had gotten involved earlier, that person might be alive today. So we wanted people to ask themselves the question in the video."
Dinges also hopes that having Serena Williams — the record-breaking 23-time Grand Slam singles champ — as an ambassador for the awareness campaign might encourage more conversations surrounding the issue.
"Serena is iconic," says Dinges. "She has a long history of speaking out on issues that are important to her and to society. She really is a big advocate for women's issues. One of our goals is to get both women and men talking about these issues and Serena is the best person to help us achieve that."
Williams stressed that both men and women need to work together to end financial abuse.
"It doesn't just affect women, it is absolutely a human rights issue," says Williams. "Domestic violence will never end unless we stop it and stop the abusers. Every woman deserves to live free from fear. I think everyone should stand up to these abusers and help empower victimized women to fight."
