According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), nearly 2 million people are the victims of workplace violence each year. Workplace ranges from simple assaults to aggravated assaults. Even though police officers, corrections officers, and taxi drivers are at the highest risk of becoming victims of workplace violence, research indicates that, in general, anyone working in a position in which they handle cash or other valuable items or provide service to the public as a clientele and have direct contact with service recipients is at risk. Such occupations include (in the order of greatest risk):

• Law enforcement officers 
• Corrections officers
• Taxicab drivers 
• Bartenders
• Mental health custodians
• Special education teachers
• Gas station attendants 
• Mental health professionals 
• Junior high school teachers
• Convenience store workers
• Bus drivers  
• High school teachers 
• Nurses  
• Physicians 
• All workers
• College teachers 

Foreseeable and Preventable
Interestingly, about 75% of all workplace violence is committed by unarmed offenders. And, a 2001 report entitled Workplace Violence: A report to the nation, published by the University of Iowa, indicates that many of the factors that lead to workplace violence are “foreseeable and preventable.”

These same studies indicate that worker-on-worker violence accounts for nearly 10% of all workplace violence. And, although such violent episodes can neither be completely predicted nor prevented, many can.

Although, making sure that your business has solid workplace-violence education and response policies in place, employment screening can go a long way toward preventing workplace violence before it happens. The value of these screenings can literally be measured in lives. Weeding out potential violent workers before they have an opportunity to act – before they are hired – is one way to make workplaces safer.

Screening potential employees for such factors as work history, criminal backgrounds, references, drug and alcohol use, etc. can render “foreseeable and preventable” workplace violence a thing of the past. With the expense of workplace violence running about five times more than prevention, it also makes fiscal sense to screen.