What is Workplace Violence?
On August 20, 1986, a part-time letter carrier named Patrick H. Sherrill, facing possible dismissal after a troubled work history, walked into the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office, where he worked and shot 14 people to death before killing himself.

Though the most deadly, the Edmond tragedy was not the first episode of its kind in this period. In just the previous three years, four postal employees were killed by present or former coworkers in separate shootings in Johnston, South Carolina; Anniston, Alabama; and Atlanta, Georgia.

The shock of the Edmond killings raised public awareness to the kind of incident now most commonly associated with the phrase “workplace violence”—murder or other violent acts by a disturbed, aggrieved employee or ex-employee against coworkers or supervisors. An early appearance of the phrase itself in Nexis, a database of articles in many major U.S. newspapers, was in August 1989, in a Los Angeles Times account of yet another post office shooting.

As a result of this seemingly new trend, mass murders in the workplace by unstable employees have become media-intensive events. In fact, the apparent rise in such cases may have been an impression created by this increased media attention. Still, the frequency of episodes following the Edmond post office killings was startling.

In Southern California alone, one summary showed, over an eight-year span from mid-1989 to mid-1997, there were 15 workplace homicide incidents, six with multiple victims, that killed 29 people.

In subsequent years, major workplace crimes across the country included four state lottery executives killed by a Connecticut lottery accountant (March 1998); seven coworkers killed by a Xerox technician in Honolulu (November 1999); seven slain by a software engineer at the Edgewater Technology Company in Wakefield, Massachusetts (December 2000); four killed by a 66-year-old former forklift driver at the Navistar Plant in Chicago (February 2001); three killed by an insurance executive at Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York City (September 2002); three killed by a plant worker at a manufacturing plant in Jefferson City, Missouri (July 2, 2003); and six killed by a plant worker at a Lockheed-Martin aircraft plant in Meridian, Mississippi (July 8, 2003). (The Chicago, New York ,Mississippi, and Connecticut shooters killed themselves. In the Honolulu and Massachusetts cases, the shooters went to trial. Both pleaded insanity but were convicted, and both received the same sentence, life in prison without parole.)

Workplace violence is now recognized as a specific category of violent crime that calls for distinct responses from employers, law enforcement, and the community.This recognition is relatively recent. Prior to the Edmond shootings, the few research and preventive efforts that existed were focused on particular issues—patient assaults on health care workers and the high robbery and murder risks facing taxi drivers and late-night convenience store clerks. ...

While agreeing on that broader definition of the problem, specialists have also come to a consensus that workplace violence falls into four broad categories. They are:

• TYPE 1:Violent acts by criminals who have no other connection with the workplace, but enter to commit robbery or another crime.
• TYPE 2:Violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates, or any others for whom an organization provides services.
• TYPE 3:Violence against coworkers, supervisors, or managers by a present or former employee.
• TYPE 4:Violence committed in the workplace by someone who doesn’t work there, but has a personal relationship with an employee—an abusive spouse or domestic partner.

Download Workpalce Violence: Issues in Response

PDF format, 6MB, 80Pages.

Edited by Eugene A. Rugala
Supervisory Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Arnold R. Isaacs

Critical Incident Response Group
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia

FORWARD
The FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC), part of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), located at the FBI Academy at Quantico,Virginia, consists of FBI Special Agents and professional support staff who provide operational support in the areas of crimes against children, crimes against adults, counterterrorism, and threat assessment.

Typical cases received for services include child abduction, serial murder, serial rape, single homicides, threats, and assessment of dangerousness in such matters as workplace violence, school violence, domestic violence, and stalking.

The NCAVC reviews crimes from behavioral, forensic, and investigative perspectives. This criminal investigative analysis process serves as a tool for client law enforcement agencies by providing them with an analysis of the crime as well as an understanding of criminal motivation and behavioral characteristics of the likely offender.The NCAVC also conducts research into violent crime from a law enforcement perspective in an effort to gain insight into criminal thought processes, motivations, and behaviors.

Results of the research are shared with law enforcement and academic communities through publications, presentations, and training, as well as through application of knowledge to the investigative and operational functions of the NCAVC.

The assistance of the NCAVC can be requested only by law enforcement. Law enforcement, when responding to a request by an employer about a potentially dangerous employee, may contact the NCAVC to conduct a threat assessment and render an opinion as to the potential for violence posed by this employee to the company. If the threat is found to be credible, intervention strategies are provided to the requesting agency to lower the level of threat.

Mass murder on the job by disgruntled employees are media-intensive events. However, these mass murders, while serious, are relatively infrequent events. It is the threats, harassment, bullying, domestic violence, stalking, emotional abuse, intimidation, and other forms of behavior and physical violence that, if left unchecked, may result in more serious violent behavior.These are the behaviors that supervisors and managers have to deal with every day.

The NCAVC, working with a select group of experts in violence and violent behavior, and looking at this issue from a law enforcement and behavioral perspective, wanted to examine issues in prevention, threat assessment and management, crisis management, critical incident response, research, and legislation.This working group met with members of the NCAVC at a two-day meeting held at the FBI Academy, and it was through their recommendation that a symposium be held to bring together the many disciplines and groups who are involved in this issue.

From June 10 to 14, 2002, the NCAVC hosted a “Violence in the Workplace” symposium at the Lansdowne Resort and Conference Center in Leesburg,Virginia. A collaborative effort, consisting of representatives from law enforcement, private industry, government, law, labor, professional organizations, victim services, the military, academia, mental health, and members of the NCAVC and CIRG’s Crisis Negotiation Unit came together to share their expertise on this important issue.

The agenda included plenary sessions and presentations, panel discussions, and afternoon breakout groups.This monograph is the culmination of those efforts, looking at the latest thinking and best practices. It is hoped this monograph will serve as a useful and practical guide to businesses, small and large, and government in implementing a proactive workplace violence prevention strategy.

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