Violence in the Workplace

Workplace violence is one of the most important security issues faced by companies today, as these activities span a lengthy continuum from coworker bullying and intimidation to verbal threats to homicide. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), approximately 1.5 million workers are assaulted and more than 500 people are murdered in the workplace every year in the United States. Despite the dramatic headlines that accompany workplace fatalities, they represented only 0.1% of all violent work incidents in the 1990s. More than three quarters of the incidents involved simple assaults, which are typically attempts to commit an injury or acts that place another in fear of receiving a violent injury.

The U.S. Department of Justice identifies four types of workplace violence, including (1) violent ...