Citation

Salminen S. J. Saf. Res. 1997; 28(3): 123-131.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe violence in Finnish workplaces by comparing it with leisure-time violence. The data were derived from 13,762 interviews made from a representative sample of the Finnish population in 1988. The subjects were asked to report all the violent incidents they had encountered during the previous 12 months. There were 394 victims of violence in workplaces, that is, 40.6 victims per 1,000 workers. The rate of occupational violence was almost identical for males (40.6) and females (40.5). The most hazardous occupations were prison guard, police officer, and mental health nurse. The main reasons for violence at work were related to refusal of an authority's order to go away or to the relationship between doctor or nurse and patient. A typical assailant was an unaccompanied man who was under the influence of alcohol.