Risk Factors

Prevention Programs

Training & Other Resources

Enforcement

Risk Factors

The following references provide information on risk factors and scope of violence in the workplace and may help increase awareness of workplace violence:

Federal Agency Guidance

• Workplace Violence, 1993-2009 [624 KB PDF, 18 pages]. US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, (2011, March 29). Presents data from 1993 through 2009 from the National Crime Victimization Survey estimating the extent of workplace violence in the United States.
  
  
• Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure and major private industry sector [460 KB PDF, 23 pages]. US Department of Labor (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), (2010). Includes the category "Assaults and Violent Acts".
  
  
• Workplace Violence Prevention Strategies and Research Needs. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 2006-144, (2006, September). Summarizes discussions that took place during Partnering in Workplace Violence Prevention: Translating Research to Practice, a landmark conference held in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 15-17, 2004.
  
  
• Violence in the Workplace - Preventing It; Managing It. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), (2004, March 1). Shares expertise of representatives from law enforcement, private industry, government, law, labor, professional organizations, victim services, the military, academia, mental health as well as the FBI on this important issue. This monograph resulted from a June 2002 symposium hosted by the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime entitled "Violence in the Workplace."
  
  
• Violence on the Job. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 2004-100d, (2004). Discusses practical measures for identifying risk factors for violence at work, and taking strategic action to keep employees safe. Based on extensive NIOSH research, supplemented with information from other authoritative sources.
  
  
• Violence Occupational Hazards in Hospitals. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-101, (2002, April). Also available as a 105 KB PDF, 15 pages. Increases employee and employer awareness of the risk factors for violence in hospitals and provides strategies for reducing exposure to these factors.
  
  
• Workplace Violence: Issues in Response [6 MB PDF, 80 pages]. US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, (2002). Developed from the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime's "Violence in the Workplace" symposium June 10-14, 2002 as a guide to businesses, small and large, and government in implementing a proactive workplace violence prevention strategy.
  
  
• Sygnatur, Eric F. and Guy A. Toscano. "Work-related Homicides: The Facts" [76 KB PDF, 6 pages]. US Department of Labor (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics Office of Safety, Health and Working Conditions Compensation and Working Conditions Article, (2000, Spring). Provides information on work-related homicides, including information about the perpetrators, demographics of the decedents, and other relevant facts about these events, such as the time of the incident, the location, and the type of establishment in which the homicide occurred. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of these incidents are not crimes of passion committed by disgruntled coworkers and spouses, but rather result from robberies.
  
  
• Stress... at Work. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 99-101, (1999). Highlights knowledge about the causes of stress at work and outlines steps that can be taken to prevent job stress. Defines job stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury. Explores a combination of organizational change and stress management as the most useful approach for preventing stress at work.
  
  
• Handbook on Workplace Violence Prevention and Response [874 KB PDF, 15 pages]. US Department of Agriculture, (2001, October). Addresses prevention of workplace violence, employers' and employees' responsibilities, identification of potentially violent situations and response to violent incidents.
  
  
• Violence in the Workplace – Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Current Intelligence Bulletin 57, (1996, July). Reviews what is known about fatal and nonfatal violence in the workplace to determine the focus needed for prevention and research efforts. Reports that each week in the United States, an average of 20 workers are murdered and 18,000 are assaulted while at work. These staggering figures should not be an accepted cost of doing business in our society—nor should death or injury be an inevitable result of one's chosen occupation.
  
  
• Preventing Homicide in the Workplace. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 93-109, (1995, May). Reports workplaces with the highest rates of occupational homicide were taxicab establishments, liquor stores, gas stations, detective/protective services, justice/public order establishments (including courts, police protection establishments, legal counsel and prosecution establishments, correctional institutions, and fire protection establishments), grocery stores, jewelry stores, hotels/motels, and eating/drinking places. Taxicab establishments had the highest rate of occupational homicide--nearly 40 times the national average and more than three times the rate of liquor stores, which had the next highest rate.
  
  
• Occupational Violence. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Workplace Safety and Health Topic. Reports that an average of 1.7 million people were victims of violent crime while working or on duty in the United States each year from 1993 through 1999 according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Includes NIOSH publications as well as other US government occupational violence links including a psychological first aid manual for mental health providers.

State and Local Guidance

• Maine's Caregivers, Social Assistance and Disability Rehabilitation Workers Injured by Violence and Aggression in the Workplace in 2011 [439 KB PDF, 18 pages]. Maine Department of Labor, (2012, July). This document is a report which contains statistical information regarding provider injuries from violent/aggressive actions of recipients of care/services.
  
  
• Workplace Violence: A Report to the Nation [331 KB PDF, 16 pages]. University of Iowa (UI) Injury Prevention Research Center, (2001, February). Summarizes the problem of workplace violence and the recommendations identified by participants at the Workplace Violence Intervention Research Workshop in Washington, DC, April, 2000.
  
  
• Cal/OSHA Guidelines for Workplace Security. State of California, (1995, March 30). Characterizes establishments, profiles and motives of the agent or assailant, and identifies preventive measures by type. In California, the majority (60 percent) of workplace homicides involved a person entering a small late-night retail establishment. Nonfatal Type II events involving assaults to service providers, especially to health care providers, may represent the most prevalent category of workplace violence resulting in physical injury.
  
  
• Violence in the Workplace: Accepted Disabling Claims due to Assaults and Violent Acts, Oregon, 2001-2005 [908 KB PDF, 26 pages]. Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, (2006, December). Provides a study of Workers' Compensation Claims Caused by Violent Acts, 2001 to 2005.
  
  
• Most Workplace Violence on Women Hidden, Says Center Report. University of Albany (UA), Center for Women in Government. Summarizes and comments on a report addressing workplace violence, emphasizing data specific to women. Two-thirds of the nonfatal attacks on women are committed by patients or residents in institutional settings. Husbands, boyfriends and ex-partners commit 15 percent of all workplace homicides against women. Women are more likely to suffer serious injury from workplace violence than men. Women who are victims of violent workplace crimes are twice as likely as men to know their attackers.

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