The number of victims of violence at the workplace is increasing at a shocking rate. In a recent study, it emerged that the leading cause of death in U.S women workers is homicide, and homicide is also the third primary cause of all reported death by workers of both genders (Barrett, 1997).
Motivations for workplace violence tend to differ but the most common is personality conflicts at work. A lot of people do not know how to cope with each other’s differences and they end up resulting in violence means. 55% of the reported incidents resulted from personal differences. Other things that spark violence at work are things like marital and family problems (Barrett, 1997).
A typical perpetrator of violence will tend to bully his way around things and is mostly an aggressive character. A lot of them will also be abusing certain drugs which give them periodic outbursts of over aggression. The perpetrators also exhibit withdrawal symptoms where they do not like to interact with other people (Barrett, 1997).
Their a lot of indicators of potential violence in a workplace it is only that a lot of people are not observant. When things like undesirable relationships are witnessed amongst employees, the relevant authorities should try and intervene. Also, employees who embrace notions that encourage violent acts should be closely monitored because this reveals a character of a person (Barrett, 1997).
Violent people before committing a violent act will tend to have defiant and abnormal behavior contrary to their routine. They will not just wake up one morning and decide to do a hideous act. It is something that they develop slowly after closely understanding their victims (Hess and Hess, 2008).
Workplace violence is classified into three categories. First, there is sexual harassment which is the most common and women tend to be more vulnerable in this. The second is threats which seem less harmful but can really affect a person’s productivity at work. The last category is intimidation which the perpetrators aim at terrorizing their victims until they can succumb to their demands (Barrett, 1997).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has devised four-pronged threat assessment procedures. It is created to assess a person who has already made a threat and to find out if the person can execute the threat. They include detection and analysis, this involves finding out then examining a situation. The second step is systems standards division where certain guidelines are set as a preventive measure. The third step is the risk assessment division where potential risk is considered and steps are taken to prevent any eventuality. The last step is global consideration this is finding out if the set guidelines are accepted globally and do not infringe anyone’s rights (Hess and Hess, 2008).
The characteristics that are portrayed for perpetrators of the workplace and school violence are similar. In both cases, perpetrators of violence will tend to bully their way around things and are mostly people with aggressive characters. A lot of them will also be abusing certain drugs which give them periodic outbursts of over-aggression (Barrett, 1997).
References
Barrett, S. (1997). Protecting Against Workplace Violence. Public Risk, 13(56), 8-11.
Lloyd, J. (2008). American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Health Care Industry, 12(8), 8-10.