April 5, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Work-related homicide rates highest among cabbies, cops

Taxicab drivers and chauffeurs face the highest on-the-job homicide rate of any occupation. In 1998, there were 17.9 homicides per 100,000 workers in these occupations, or about 36 times the risk among all employed persons.

[Chart data—TXT]

Public police and detectives suffered the second-highest occupational fatality rate from homicide, 4.4 fatalities per 100,000 workers. Homicides led all other causes of death among police in the 1992-98 period, accounting for almost half of all their fatalities.

The rate of fatalities among private police was 4.1 per 100,000; this was not significantly different from the rate among public police. Their similar risk reflects the similarities of duties.

These data are products of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Learn more about workplace homicides in "Work-related Homicides: The Facts" (PDF 76K), by Eric F. Sygnatur and Guy A. Toscano in the Spring 2000 issue of Compensation and Working Conditions.