One in Five Violent Incidents Occur in the Workplace

by Melanie Joy Douglas, Monster.ca

Nearly one-fifth of all incidents of violent victimization, including physical assault, sexual assault and robbery, occurred in the victim's workplace in 2004, according to a new Statistics Canada study.

The report, the first-ever study of its kind, found that there were more than 356,000 violent incidents in the workplace in the 10 provinces, with the majority, 71%, classified as physical assaults.

Violent Sectors

Violence in the workplace was much more common in certain employment sectors. 30% of all workplace violent incidents involved a victim who was working in social assistance or health care services such as hospitals, nursing, or residential care facilities. Moreover, there was also a high level of incidents in the accommodation or food services, retail or wholesale trade, and educational services sectors.

Gender Differences

It was found that men and women were equally likely to have reported experiencing workplace violence, but men were more likely to be injured. Specifically, 27% of incidents involving male victims resulted in injuries, compared with 17% of those involving female victims.

57% of violent workplace incidents involving male victims were reported to the police, compared to 20% of those involving female victims.

Reported?

The Statscan survey found that violent workplace incidents were twice as likely to be reported to the police than violent incidents that occurred outside the workplace. Furthermore, in 90% of cases, victims of workplace violence said they spoke about the incident to another co-worker and approximately 65% of incidents, victims said they told family, friends, or neighbours. 20% of victims told a doctor or nurse.

By contrast, victims of violent incidents outside the workplace sought support from a coworker in 30%, family in 47% of incidents, friends or neighbours in 76% of incidents and a doctor or nurse in 6% of incidents.

About the study: The study, measuring criminal victimization on the job, used self-reported data from the 2004 General Social Survey that questioned respondents in about 24,000 households about the prevalence of violence for these three offences (physical assault, sexual assault and robbery) in the 12 months prior to the survey.