Approximately 10 percent of these incidents involved the use of handguns.
Possible Explanations For Work-Related
Violence is most typically an outgrowth of conflict. Conflict is simply a disagreement between two or more parties over some issue, objective, or behavior. A conflict, thus, is a dispute. Violence is an outgrowth of conflict when peaceful dispute mechanisms fail.
When family members, coworkers, friends, strangers, ethnic and racial groups, and even nations perceive that they are being denied something that they think that they should have (regardless of their justification for such a perception), the typical response is to identify the party responsible for such denial. When such identification is established, the essence of a conflict situation--the issue and the parties--has been defined. Conflict may be the result of real inequities among parties, or conflict may stem from cultural differences that shape perceptions. Conflict need not necessarily be detrimental to the parties involved. Effective and peaceable dispute resolution may introduce greater equity into society and bring the parties involved in a conflict closer together. Conflict is detrimental, however, when violent behavior is the outcome.
The profiles of persons who perpetrate acts of work-related violence always characterize such persons as loners (Filipczak, 1993, pp. 39-43; (Schut, 1994, p. 125). Loners frequently have difficulty in both establishing and maintaining worthwhile personal and group relationships. The integration of individuals into their society stems from the forces that place them within the social system and govern their participation and patterned associations with others. Social values, group memberships, and social roles are conceived as the axes providing the ties that structure social interaction, place the person in society, and order relations with others (Bertrand, 1992, p. 22). In effect, actors are integra...