Workplace Violence

A company can suffer serious implications if they don’t introduce policies in the workplace that protect employees from becoming a target. Families affected can sue a company for not having proper procedures in place to protect their loved ones. Millions are paid out every year to compensate for the damages incurred.

Law Enforcement and Corrections employees are one group of people who seem to suffer more than their fair share of family and marriage problems. It appears many employees are able to tolerate problems at work, or problems at home, but when faced with both problems, an inability to effectively cope with the stress is demonstrated. Of concern is how that manifestation is revealed. More pointedly, how that manifestation occurs with a highly trained, frustrated, perhaps despondent employee while at work, is relevant to the study of the work environment, and policies of a department. When I first think of workplace violence, I think of abortion clinic bombings, a crazed gunman shooting into a office, or perhaps a murder-suicide involving a former lover at work.

The estimated annual victimizations for the years 1992 through 1996 for workplace crimes counted in the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey and by the Bureau of Labor Statistics were as follows: Simple assaults 1.5 million Aggravated assaults 396,000 Robberies 84,000 Rapes and sexual assaults 51,000 Homicides 1,0000 There were about 218 acts of violence per 1,000 correctional workers during this period, second only to Law Enforcement Officers generally, with about 306 acts of violence per 1,000 officers. (Smith) The survey found that less than one half of all nonfatal workplace crimes are reported to the police. (Warchol) The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate homicide was the second leading cause of death in the workplace, following highway fatalities, during a five-year study period. The workplace murders accounted for one of every six fatal occupational...