Workplace Deaths

IN 2001, 5,900 people in the United States were killed at work. The ways people died included motor vehicle deaths, accidents with machines, falls, being struck by objects, electrocutions, and homicides. The number of workplace homicides (the killing of one human being by another) was the lowest since the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) began collecting data on workplace homicides.

To fully understand workplace homicides, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the offenses,[Page 865] victims, and offenders; the causes of workplace homicide; reasons for decreases in workplace homicides; and strategies to deal with offenses.

A number common patterns have been found in workplace violence cases. For instance, offenders and victims tend to be males. According to the Department of Justice (2001), between 1993 and 1999, 80 percent of victims were males. Victims also tend to be between the ages of 25 and 44, as do offenders in these cases. Also, guns are used in 86 percent of the cases and robbery is the most common motive in workplace homicides, according to the Office of Victims of Crime (2001). Taxi cab drivers have the highest risk of workplace homicide. In fact, in the mid-1990s, they were 60 times more likely to be killed at work than the rest of the population.

In Workplace Homicide: A Continuum from Threat to Death, criminologist Mittie Southerland and her co-authors identify the following possible causes of workplace homicides. These causes include: 1) low self-control theory, 2) routine activities theory, 3) strain theory, and 4) domestic violence theory.

Low self-control theory suggests that individuals with low self-controls are more likely to commit crime than are those with high self-controls. Routine activities theory assumes that victims are engaged in normal activities and a level of vulnerability and risk may increase the likelihood of victimization. According to this theory, three elements must be present for a crime to occur: 1) a motivated offender, 2) a suitable target, and 3) the absence of a capable guardian. Strain theory is traced to sociologist Robert Merton who argued that individuals work to attain goals by any means set by society.

Domestic violence theory considers the way that intimates commit workplace homicides against their partners. Violence is believed to be a loss of control and the aggressor feels disobeyed or rejected. Tying in routine activities theory, the offender knows the victim's whereabouts at all times when she is at work. Indeed, when domestic violence is the source of the workplace homicide, it is usually a man killing a woman.

In addition to these causes, other authors have identified certain themes that address some reason why these offenses occur. Kelly McMurry (1996) stresses that 75 percent of workplace homicides are robbery-related, while just 9 percent of homicides outside of the workplace are robbery-related. The study further points out that victims who are at risk are those who work alone, work very late, have a great deal of contact with the public, and exchange money. T.S. Duncan, in the article “Death in the Office,” (1995) identifies some other themes that help to explain workplace offenses. The article suggests that these offenses more often involve: 1) a man with a gun, 2) a man with a mid-life crisis, 3) disgruntled employees, 4) civil servants, and 5) offenders who are suicidal.

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