This paper will discuss violence in the workplace in the context of the current climate, the reasons violence occurs in the workplace, the cost of workplace violence, and public and private sector efforts to address the problem. It will conclude with a discussion of anecdotal efforts and the lack of a systematic method for dealing with workplace violence that provide the impetus for finding new ways of dealing with the problem.
Violence in the workplace is a concern for everyone in public life. Unlike domestic violence, which occurs primarily behind closed doors, and efforts to address it are met with and complicated by privacy concerns, workplace violence is not a private issue. It is an issue that potentially affects everyone who is employed. (While there are plenty of grim jokes about disgruntled postal workers coming back to their job sites and committing acts of violence, it(s more than an isolated problem. Violence in the workplace ranges from the most extreme, like multiple homicides, to threats of violence against employees( (Lavey, 1996, p.10).
There has been a dramatic increase in workplace homicide perpetrated by employees, frequently against those in management positions. Criminologists suggest that workplace homicide is the fastest growing form of murder in America. (Some estimates place the increase of mass murders in the office in the last decade at 200% to 300%. Violence in work settings is now estimated to claim anywhere from 900-1600 lives each year in the United States alone( (Elliot, 1994, p.287). A study in 1991 revealed that, for the period of 1980-1988, (homicide was the third leading cause (12%) of occupational deaths in the United States....From 1980-1985, homicide was the leading cause of fatal injuries for women (42%) in a work setting, compared to the third leading cause for men (11%)( (Elliot, 1994, p.287). While workplace homicides are more sensational and thus garner widespread attention, ...