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Violence at work statistics down

Statistics published by the Home Office show that the number of people experiencing violence at work fell by over a quarter between 1999 and 2003, and by almost a third from its peak in the mid-1990s.

Title: Violence at work: Findings from the 2002/2003 British Crime Survey
Author: Anna Upson
Series: Home Office On-Line Report 04/04
Number of pages: 51
Date published: February 2004

Key Findings

The extent of violence at work

• The risk of being a victim of actual or threatened violence at work is low; the 2002/03 BCS indicates that 1.7% of working adults were the victim of one or more violent incidents at work.

• Approximately 376,000 workers had experienced at least one incident of violence at work in the 2002/03 BCS, 32% fewer than the peak of 551,000 in 1997.

• There were an estimated 849,000 incidents of violence at work in the 2002/03 BCS, comprising 431,000 assaults and 418,000 threats.

• The number of incidents of violence at work has fallen by 35% from the peak of 1,310,000 in 1995 to the current level.

• Respondents in protective service occupations, for example police officers, were most at risk of violence at work, while science and technology professionals, such as mechanical engineers, were least at risk. Health and social welfare associate professionals, who include nurses, and health professionals such as medical and dental practitioners were also at relatively high risk.

The nature of violence at work

• Incidents of workplace violence were more likely to take place during the week and were less likely to occur in the evening or at night than non-work related violent incidents.

• Male offenders carried out most incidents of violence at work – approximately four-fifths of incidents involved male offenders only (80% of assaults and 77% of threats at work).

• 41% of physical assaults at work involved offenders aged 25 to 39, and 30% involved offenders aged 16 to 24.

• Victims of actual or threatened violence at work said that the offender was under the influence of alcohol in a third (31%) of incidents, and that the offender was under the influence of drugs in a fifth (21%) of incidents.

• The majority of violent incidents that occurred while the victim was working involved offenders who the victim did not know before the incident (61%).

Consequences of violence at work

• Overall levels of concern about violence at work are low. Among all adults in work, 3% said they were very worried about being assaulted by a member of the public while at work.

• Concern about violence at work varied considerably with occupation. 36% of health and social welfare associate professionals, such as youth workers, were very or fairly worried about assaults at work, compared with 3% of science and technology professionals, for example mechanical engineers.

• Overall 0.5% of workers said that worrying about workplace violence had a 'great deal' of impact on their health, and 2% said that it affected their health 'quite a bit'.

• 22% of workers who had contact with members of the public thought it very or fairly likely that they would be threatened at work in the next year. 10% of workers with face-to-face contact with the public thought it very or fairly likely that they would be assaulted.

• 67% of workers who had face-to-face contact with the public said they had not received any form of training in how to deal with violent or threatening behaviour.

Download "Violence at work: Findings from the 2002/2003 British Crime Survey" from the Home Office Website PDF 224Kb

Last update: 14/07/02