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Edwards, Julian and Buckley, Paul
(2020).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.0000/JHSE.1000178
Abstract
Background: Prevalence rates of Work-Related Violence (WRV) in Britain are increasing. Urgent action is now needed to protect staff from incidents of both threats and assaults at work.
Aims: To explore current prevalence rates on WRV and test causal predictors that influence violent incidents in an attempt to provide evidence to help develop interventions to combat workplace violence.
Methods: Eight years of incident data from a working population is used to examine patterns of WRV from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW).
Results: An average sample size of 1580 respondents revealed that 24% of all crime committed in Britain occurs in the workplace. Structural Equation Modelling (Multi-Group Invariance
Analysis) and frequency analysis statistical approaches both show the strongest predictors of WRV are age, supervisory responsibilities and mental health.
Conclusions: UK employers have a legal duty to protect the health and safety of workers, including WRV. The current paper contributes to the literature by using longitudinal data from a working sample of victims of crime to test the causal link between WRV, demographic variables, work characteristics and perpetrator’s personality traits.
The findings from this study can be used to further develop guidance on how to manage violent incidents in the workplace.