Workplace Violence and Victimization

There were 609 workplace homicides in 2002 in the United States, down from 643 in 2001. (Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2003. National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2002. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.)

Assaults and violent acts accounted for 22 percent of the workplace fatalities in government between 1992 - 2001. Of these 1,425 deaths from assaults and violent acts, 1,058 were homicides. (Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2004. Fatal Occupational Injuries to Government Workers, 1992 to 2001. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.)

In 2000, 128 fatalities occurred in the grocery store industry. The majority (91 percent) of these resulted from assaults or violent acts, mostly homicide. In 78 percent of the homicide cases, robbery was the motive. (Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2003. Workplace Injuries and Illnesses in Grocery Stores. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.)

Nearly one in five on-the-job fatalities result from homicides. Almost half occur in the South. (Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2003. Regional Variations in Workplace Homicide Rates. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.)

Five percent of workplace homicides (or one-third of all homicides not associated with robbery or stranger crimes) are the result of intimate partner violence. (University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center. February 2001. Workplace Violence: A Report to the Nation. Iowa City, IA.)

Risks of assault on employees in the health care industry is particularly high. On some psychiatric units, assault rates against staff are as high as 100 cases per 100 workers per year. (Ibid.)

Sensational multiple homicides represent a small number of violent incidents in the workplace. The majority of incidents are lesser cases of assaults, domestic violence, stalking, threats, harassment, and physical and/or emotional abuse. (Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2004. Workplace Violence: Issues in Response. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)

Violence in the workplace accounted for 18 percent of all violent crime between 1993 and 1999. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2001. Violence in the Workplace, 1993-1999. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)

Workplace homicide is primarily robbery-related. (Ibid.)

The rates of workplace assaults are higher for males than females. (Ibid.)

On average, between 1993 and 1999, 1.7 million violent victimizations per year were committed against people in the workplace, including: 1.3 million simple assaults, 325,000 aggravated assaults, 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults, 70,000 robberies, and 900 homicides. (Ibid.)

Of the occupations measured, police officers are at the greatest risk to be victims of workplace violence. Other occupations at risk are private security workers, correctional officers, bartenders, and taxicab drivers. (Ibid.)

Simple assaults account for 75 percent (or 1.3 million victimizations) of the crimes committed against people while working. Aggravated assaults account for 19 percent of workplace violence. (Ibid.)

In 1999, there were 2,637 non-fatal assaults committed against on-duty hospital workers. This rate of 8.3 assaults per 10,000 is significantly higher than the rate of non-fatal assaults for all public sector industries – two per 10,000. (Centers for Disease Control. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 2002. Violence, Occupational Hazards in Hospitals. Atlanta, GA: U.S.Department of Health and Human Services.)

Homicide is the leading cause of injury death for women in the workplace. (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “Women's Safety and Health Issues at Work.” www.cdc.gov/niosh/injury/traumaviolence.html. Accessed September 14, 2004.)

Each year, victims of intimate partner violence lose nearly eight million days of paid work because of the violence - the equivalent of over 32,000 full-time jobs. (Centers for Disease Control. 2003. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)

One-fifth of women raped by an intimate and one-third of stalking victims lost time at work because of the victimization. (Ibid.)