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Abstract
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Sexual assault in the workplace and the related factors have not been well studied. Workers' compensation claims data were used to describe work-related sexual assaults in Washington State between 1980 and 1989. Sixty-three cases of work-related rape were identified during this study period. The occupations of the rape victims were similar to occupations identified as high risk for other intentional injuries, and the rape incidents were characterized by isolation from the public and from coworkers. Estimates of industry-specific rates are presented. The identification, evaluation, and prevention of sexual assault and other workplace violence are discussed.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Alexander et al. was to present estimates of sexual assault of women in industry-specific workplaces and discussed the identification, evaluation and prevention of sexual assault in the workplace and other types of workplace violence.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors conducted a non-experimental content analysis the sexual assault of women in the workplace within the state of Washington for the years 1980 to 1989. The authors utilized the workers' compensation database that contained information on diagnoses, medical billing, descriptions of injuries, kind of establishment and the injury's occurrence. Then, the authors reviewed 81 claims filed for rape in the workplace. They checked these claims for three inclusion criteria: if a rape had occurred, if the claim was accepted as a workplace injury, and if the establishment was covered by the state fund. The 63 remaining rapes were included in the study. At this time, detailed circumstances about the incident were also recorded. Authors also obtained the number of hours worked at the establishment for each person involved in the claims. Each industry's age and gender proportions were calculated from the 1980 U.S. census data for the state of Washington for all people at least 15 years-old who reported a common occupation. Rates of rape for each industry were computed as the number of rapes per 100,000 full-time female workers. The equivalence of a full-time female worker was operationalized: 2,000 hours in one year equaled one full-time female worker. This operationalization allowed the authors to standardize their unit of analysis. The authors used descriptive statistics to analyze the data.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors' application of inclusion criteria resulted in 81 claims of women being raped in the workplace. Following the criteria, 18 cases were excluded from analysis because of one of the following reasons: not having been accepted by the Department of Labor and Industries as a work-related injury, involving establishments not covered by the state fund, or involving workplace injuries that had been incorrectly categorized as rapes. The authors found that most rape victims were younger than the average women in the respective occupation. Also, over 50% of the rapes occurred between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. About 85% of the rape victims were working alone at the time it occurred. The majority of assailants were strangers (86%). Only 11% were co-workers, and 3% were classified as patients of the establishment. The authors calculated that, for all industries, the annual rate of workplace rape was 1.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent female workers. This rate increased to 4.4 per 100,000 for industries that reported at least one rape. The occupation with the highest rate of rape in the workplace was taxi drivers. Job training and related services and veterinary services had the next highest rates.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors asserted that establishments should be aware that company situations that have women working alone were related to increased rates of rape in the workplace and that night-shifts and graveyard-shifts also correlated with incidences of work-related sexual assault. They recommended that occupations with the highest rates, such as taxi drivers, require the development of safety standards that address the issue of violence in the workplace.
EVALUATION:
The generalizability of this study should be questioned because of sample bias. It should be noted that rapes and other assaults in the workplace do not result in the filing of workers' compensation claims unless the incidents result in medical treatment or lost workdays. In addition, rapes are a highly under-reported crime. These two factors may result in the authors having underestimated the frequency of rapes in the workplace because of inaccuracies in their methods of composing a sample. In general, this study provides a limited examination of rape in the workplace.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
N1 - Call Number: F-649, AB-649
KW - Violence Against Women
KW - Washington
KW - Rape Effects
KW - Rape Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Rape Victim
KW - Sexual Assault Effects
KW - Sexual Assault Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Sexual Assault Victim
KW - Adult Victim
KW - Adult Female
KW - Workplace Victim
KW - Workplace Violence
KW - Female Victim
KW - Sexual Assault Prevention
KW - Rape Prevention |