Definitions, Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Any work that discusses workplace violence must first include a solid, universally accepted set of definitions. Chapter 1 defines workplace violence using the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-enhanced definition, which includes not only actual violence but threatening, harassing, stalking, and disturbing behavior. It also includes a look at workplace violence statistics, such as the more than 2 million official complaints lodged annually by U.S. workers for violations of the OSHA definition. This chapter also extensively discusses OSHA’s role in investigating and reporting these events, as well as how OSHA handles such reports and what they will expect from employers. The chapter concludes with a look at the actual monetary fines levied by OSHA in cases where an employer failed to provide and maintain a safe, secure working environment for their employees. Additionally, this chapter shows how the Uniform Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fails to collect data and report on workplace violence cases despite being continually updated to include new crime categories.