Types of Workplace Violence Events

When one examines the circumstances associated with workplace violence, events can be divided into three major types. However, it is important to keep in mind that a particular occupation or workplace may be subject to more than one type. In all three types of workplace violence events, a human being, or hazardous agent, commits the assault. 

In Type I, the agent has no legitimate business relationship to the workplace and usually enters the affected workplace to commit a robbery or other criminal acts. In Type II, the agent is either the recipient, or the object, of a service provided by the affected workplace or the victim, e.g., the assailant is a current or former client, patient, customer, passenger, criminal suspect, inmate, or prisoner. In Type III, the agent has some employment-related involvement with the affected workplace. Usually this involves an assault by a current or former employee, supervisor, or manager by a current or former spouse or lover a relative, friend, or some other person who has a dispute with an employee of the affected workplace. 

In bullying, the agent may not be considered violent or assaultive to the target, but this type of behavior may lead to violent acts by either party depending on the interaction occurring. Bullying has not been defined as workplace violence, but needs to be discussed in some context, because of 

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Effective security management to prevent all three types of workplace violence events also includes postevent measures such as emergency medical care and debriefing employees about the incident. After a workplace assault occurs, employers should provide postevent trauma counseling to those who desire such intervention to reduce the short- and long-term physical and emotional effects of the incident. 

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