22 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 2001

CHRISTOPHER ALLEN

JANICAK

Racial Differences in

Occupational Firearm

Homicides, 1993-97

Between 1993 and 1997, nonwhite workers experienced a

significantly greater risk of fatality by firearm in 8 of 10

industries than white workers did.

Homicides account for a significant proportion of occupational deaths each year. In the

majority of these deaths, a firearm is

used in the commission of the homicide in industries prone to robbery. This

article presents the results of a study

of the influence that race of the worker

has upon the risk of being the victim of

an occupational firearm homicide. Data

from the Census of Fatal Occupational

Injuries (CFOI) for 1993 to 1997 form

the cornerstone of the analysis.

Some background

Over the years, homicides have consistently been one of the leading

causes of occupational fatalities.1 The

large percentage of occupational homicides coincides with the large number

of occupational assaults against workers that occur each year. Between 1992

and 1996, for example, more than 2 million U.S. residents fell victim to violent

crime each year while at work or on

duty.2 In 1993, 22,396 nonfatal assaults

were reported, resulting in injuries to

1,063 workers.3

Of the 6,200 job-related fatalities

each year, approximately 17 percent are

homicides.4 Over the years, however,

there have been decreases in the homicide rate, which has fallen to its lowest

level since the inception of the fatality

census in 1992.5 Job-related homicides

totaled 645 in 1999, a 10-percent drop

from the 1998 total and a 40-percent

decline from the 1,080 homicides that

occurred in 1994, which had the highest annual count over the 1992-99 period. The decline was pronounced in

retail trade, where homicides fell by 51

percent from 1994 to 1999.6 During this

period, the retail trade industry accounted for between 43 and 54 percent of all fatalities in a given year.Despite improvements in recent years,

homicides are still the third leading

cause of death in the workplace, with

more than 1,000 homicides annually.7

Persons committing robberies and

related crimes—individuals usually

unknown to the victims—accounted

for three-fourths of 1,063 homicides at

work in 1993.8 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data point to robbery as the

primary motive for these deaths.9 Violence by coworkers and by customers

or clients was identified as the second

most common cause of homicides. In a

study of all violent attacks in the workplace resulting in fatalities and injuries,

women were just as likely as men to be

victims of theft while working.10

Studies indicate that firearms are the

most frequently used weapons in occupational homicides. Shootings are

the most frequently occurring violent

act, accounting for the majority of all

homicides.11 From 1992 to 1996, apChristopher Allen Janicak is an associate professor of safety, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA.

Telephone: (724) 357-3274

E-mail: cjanicak@grove.iup.edu
 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 2001 23

Racial Differences in Occupational Firearm Homicides, 1993-97

proximately 83.7 percent of all workplace homicides involved the use of a

firearm.12 Of those victims who received gunshot wounds while a crime

was taking place, 87 percent were

male.13 In regards to firearm homicides

by race, approximately 47 percent of all

victims were black males, 35 percent

white males, 9 percent white females,

and 7 percent black females. Differences between black and nonblack

workers varied across industries and

occupations.14

The occupation one chooses and

the industry in which one works are

two of the greatest risk factors for being the victim of an occupational homicide. Inequalities in access to the labor

market and unequal distribution of risk

within jobs are potential explanations

for racial disparity in occupational fatalities.15 Occupations with high numbers of homicides include those in

which workers typically engage in cash

transactions or have valuables on hand,

such as managers of food and lodging

establishments, sales supervisors and

proprietors, cashiers, and taxicab drivers.16 For many high-risk industries, the

risk is excessive for male workers only.17

In 1993, for example, the occupation

with the largest share of occupational

homicides was taxi drivers and chauffeurs, with a rate of 43.1 per 100,000

employed.18 This occupation accounted for almost one-tenth of all victims but for fewer than one-half of 1

percent of the workforce. Gas station

attendants, sales counter clerks, and

police each had a homicide rate of approximately 11 workers per 100,000 over

the period studied.19 Estimates indicate

that approximately 100 workers each

year are murdered while working in convenience stores.20

Racial differences in workplace homicides have been identified in various

studies.21 Discussions in public health

literature have focused on the extent

to which racial differences in the risk of

being fatally injured at work are explained by labor market forces that

might lead to a concentration of African Americans in inherently dangerous types of jobs. A study conducted

by Dana Loomis and David Richardson

indicated that the jobs held by whites

and those held by African Americans

in North Carolina differed substantially,

and that this distinction appears to account for much of the workplace mortality differential.National Institute of

Occupational Safety and Health

(NIOSH) data from 1980 through 1989

indicate that the homicide rate for African American workers was higher than

that of all other races, and was 2.4 times

higher than that of white workers.22 Nationwide, the workplace homicide rates

were 6.5 deaths per 100,000 for blacks,

5.8 per 100,000 for whites, and 4.9 per

100,000for other races.23

Scope and method of the present

study

Data. Data from the BLS Census of

Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) were

used in this study. Occupational fatalities occurring between 1993 and

1997 that resulted from shooting deaths

were included for analysis. The CFOI

is an official, systematic, verifiable

count of fatal occupational injuries that

occur during the year. It has been

adopted by the National Safety Council and other organizations as the authoritative source for a count of fatal

work injuries in the United States.24

To ensure that the fatalities are work

related, cases are substantiated with

two or more source documents, or a

source document and a followup questionnaire. The work-related deaths were

classified as such if a work relationship

was established. A work relationship

was established if an event or exposure resulted in a fatal injury or illness

of a worker on the employer’s premises

or of a worker who was off the premises but in work status.

In each case, the circumstances surrounding the event, cause of death,

industry in which the worker was employed at the time of the death, and

race of victim were determined. Cases

were classified according to their major standard industrial classification

group, following the methodology outlined in the Standard Industrial Classification manual.25

Descriptive analysis. An analysis was

performed to describe the characteristics of situations that most frequently

resulted in an occupational fatality. The

descriptive analysis included a summary of homicides by industry and by

race. Racial group classifications for

the CFOI data included white, black,

American Indian, Asian, and other.

Relative risk for occupational firearm

homicides. The relative risk of falling

victim to occupational homicide by firearm was calculated by race and industry, with the incidence of homicides

based upon person-years of exposure.

The person-years of exposure were

determined using the total number of

employed persons for each year of the

5-year period covered in this study.

Employment data were obtained from

BLS. The relative risks were derived

by comparing the incidence of occupational firearm homicides per 100,000

person-years for white workers to the

incidence of occupational firearm homicides per 100,000 person-years for

workers of other races.

The relative risks were determined

to be significant using 95-percent confidence intervals, following the procedures described by Abraham M. and

David E. Lilienfeld.26 Relative risks,

adjusted log-relative risks, and 95-percent confidence intervals were computed in a manner that compared the

incidence of occupational firearm homicides of white workers with those of

nonwhite workers.

Findings from the CFOI

Descriptive analysis. From 1993 to

1997, 31,678 occupational fatalities

were reported in the CFOI data set. Of

these, 4,977 (16 percent of all fatalities)

were the result of an assault or violent

act. Of all assaults or violent acts that

resulted in an occupational death, 4,049

fatalities (81 percent) were the result of

an occupational firearm homicide.

Forty-four cases for which industry

data were not available were removed

from the analysis.

Homicides by race. Approximately 64
24 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 2001

 the 5-year period covered in this analysis. The occupational firearm homicide

rates were then calculated by year for

white workers and for nonwhite workers. For each year in this analysis, nonwhite workers experienced much higher

homicide rates than did white workers.

(See chart 1.) The homicide rate for

white workers decreased from 0.55 homicides per 100,000 person-years of exposure in 1993 to 0.42 in 1997. Nonwhite homicide rate decreased from 1.94

homicides per 100,000 person-years of

exposure in 1993 to 1.26 in 1997. Homicide rates decreased 24 percent for

white workers and 35 percent for nonwhite workers over this period. Despite

these rate decreases, occupational firearm fatality rates were still approximately 3 times greater for nonwhite than

for white workers.

Relative risks. Using BLS employment

data, relative risks based upon personyears of exposure were calculated for

occupational firearm homicides by comparing the incidence rates of white

workers with those of nonwhite workers. Comparisons were made for all industry groups. In 8 of 10 industries,

nonwhite workers had a significantly

greater risk for occupational firearm

homicide that did white workers. (See

table 3).

For each industry, the fatality rates

for white workers and nonwhite workers were calculated, along with the relative risks and 95-percent confidence

intervals. Relative risk was considered

to be significant at the p < 0.05 level if

the confidence interval range did not

include 1.00. Nonwhite workers were

identified as having a significantly

greater risk for occupational firearm

homicides in all industry groups except

for mining and the public sector.

Nonwhite workers in agriculture,

retail trade, and transportation experienced the greatest risk of occupational

firearm homicide. Nonwhite workers in

these industry groups had a risk of firearm homicide more than 4 times that of

white workers employed in the same

industry. Differences in firearm homicide rates existed between industries

and between races within industries.

Table 1. Number of occupational firearm homicides, by race and year, 1993-97

White ................................................................. 562 587 462 482 458 2,551

Black ................................................................. 146 185 171 150 133 785

American Indian ................................................... 5 5 4 5 4 23

Asian ................................................................. 110 93 70 77 76 426

Other ................................................................. 51 45 27 26 23 172

Unkown/missing .................................................. 7 6 18 10 7 48

 Total .............................................................. 881 921 752 750 701 4,005

Year

Race 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Total1

Chart 1. Occupational firearm homicide per 100,000 workers, by race and

year, 1993-97

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Non-whites

Whites

Nonwhites

1

Excludes 44 cases for which industry data were not available.

percent of the victims were white, 20

percent were black, and 16 percent were

of other races. (See table 1). The number of occupational firearm homicides

decreased by approximately 20 percent

over the 5-year period examined in this

study, with the greatest decline occurring in the “other” category. White victims, who accounted for the majority

of the deaths, experienced an approximately 18-percent decrease in occupational firearm homicides over the study

period.

Homicides by industry. Approximately

48 percent of the occupational firearm

fatalities occurred in the retail trade industry, which accounted for the greatest percentage of homicides. The

transportation and retail trade industries, combined, accounted for approximately 61 percent of occupational firearm homicides. The summary of

fatalities by industry is displayed in

table 2.

Homicide rates. The person-years of

exposure were obtained from BLS for

Whites

Table 2. Frequency and percent

distribution of occupational firearm

homicides by industry, 1993-97

Fre- Percentquency age

Agriculture .............. 64 1.60

Mining .................... 6 .15

 Construction .......... 56 1.40

 Manufacturing ........ 163 4.07

 Transportation ........ 492 12.28

 Wholesale trade ..... 92 2.30

 Retail trade ............ 1,946 48.59

 Finance ................ 129 3.22

 Services ............... 669 16.70

 Public administration 388 9.69

Total1 ...................... 4,005 100.00

Industry

1 Excludes 44 cases for which industry data were not available.

Homicides per thousand workers
 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 2001 25

Racial Differences in Occupational Firearm Homicides, 1993-97

The public administration industry had

the highest firearm homicide death rate

for white workers, with 1.37 deaths per

100,000 person-years, while the retail

trade industry had the highest firearm

homicide death rate for nonwhite workers, with 5.29 deaths per 100,000 person-years of exposure. In the transportation industry more than in any

other, nonwhite workers had a greater

relative risk for occupational firearm

fatality compared with white workers,

an indication that a disproportionate

level of risk by race exists among workers employed in that industry.

Conclusion

Part of the explanation for disproportionate risk by race of occupational firearm homicide may be found in differences in environmental factors or in job

task assignments that were not captured in the fatality data. One factor

may be a disproportionate number of

nonwhite workers working in high crime

areas or during high crime periods, such

as late night shifts.

This study, like others before it, has

confirmed the fact that robbery is the

primary motive, and the handgun is the

principal weapon used, in workplace

homicides In many industries, crimeprevention strategies include training

workers and incorporating protective

measures to reduce the potential for

being victim of a crime. In transportation, for example, commonly used measures include the installation of bulletproof glass between driver and

passenger, providing radio communiTable 3. Relative risks for white workers and nonwhite workers by industry, 1993-97

Agriculture ......................................... White workers .32

........................................................ Nonwhite workers 1.32 4.14 (2.37,7.62)1

Mining ............................................... White workers .20

........................................................ Nonwhite workers 0 0

Construction....................................... White workers .13

........................................................ Nonwhite workers .34 2.61 (1.50,5.26)1

Manufacturing..................................... White workers .12

........................................................ Nonwhite workers .40 3.35 (2.44,4.60)1

Transportation .................................... White workers .66

........................................................ Nonwhite workers 3.21 4.83 (4.05,5.76)1

Wholesale trade .................................. White workers .32

........................................................ Nonwhite workers .90 2.84 (1.76,4.56)1

Retail trade......................................... White workers 1.29

........................................................ Nonwhite workers 5.29 4.12 (3.76,4.51)1

Finance ............................................. White workers .28

........................................................ Nonwhite workers .62 2.23 (1.52,3.36)1

Services ............................................ White workers .25

........................................................ Nonwhite workers .57 2.31 (1.96,2.72)1

Public administration ............................ White workers 1.37

........................................................ Nonwhite workers 1.21 .88 (.50,1.99)1

Industry 95-percent confidence

interval

Incidence rate (per 100,000 person

years of exposure) Relative risk

cation between driver and dispatcher,

installing a safe in the vehicle, and crime

prevention training for drivers.In retail

trade, prevention strategies include redesign of the store to place a barrier

between worker and customer, video

surveillance systems, drop safes, and

panic buttons that can be used to notify police. The State of Washington,

for example, has implemented a crimeprevention training program for retail

store owners that has been effective in

reducing the incidence of workplace

deaths in that industry. Despite these

and similar measures, however, a study

of relative risk reveals that nonwhite

workers in most industries still have a

greater risk of falling victim to occupational homicide by firearm than do white

workers.
26 Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 2001

1

 See Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1995: A

Collection of Data and Analysis, Report 913

(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1997), p. 26;

Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1996: A Collection of Data and Analysis, Report 922 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1998), p. 56; and

Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1997: A Collection of Data and Analysis, Report 934 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999), p. 4. 2

 Guy A. Warchol, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: WorkplaceViolence: 1992-

96 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998), pp. 1-9.

3

 Guy A. Toscano, “Workplace violence:

An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data,”

Occupational Medicine, vol. 11, no. 2, pp.

227-35. 4

 Guy A. Toscano and Janice A. Windau,

“Profiles of Fatal Work Injuries in 1996,”

Compensation and Working Conditions,

spring 1998, pp. 37-45. 5

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Nonfatal and Fatal Firearm-related

Injuries—United States, 1993-1997,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 48,

no. 45, pp. 1029-34. 6

 See National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1999, USDL 00-236 (Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 2000). 7

 Warchol, Bureau of Justice Statistics

Special Report, pp. 1-9; Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, Fatal Injuries to

Workers in the United States, 1980-1989: A

Decade of Surveillance (Washington, U.S.

Government Printing Office, August 1993),

p.10; and Dawn N. Castillo and E. Lynn

Jenkins, “Industries and occupations at high

risk for work-related homicide,” Journal of

Medicine, February 1994, pp. 125-32. 8

 Toscano, “Workplace violence,” pp.

227-35. 9

 Toscano and Windau, “Profiles,” pp.

37-45; and Eric F. Sygnatur and Guy A.

Toscano, “Work-related Homicides: The

Facts,” Compensation and Working Conditions, spring 2000, pp. 3-8.

10 Ronet Bachman, United States Department of Justice Crime Data Report: Violence

and Theft in the Workplace (Bureau of Justice

Statistics, 1994), pp. 1-2. 11 Toscano and Windau, “Profiles,” pp.

37-45. 12 Castillo and Jenkins, “Industries,” pp.

125-32. 13 Marianne W. Zawitz, Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Guns Used

in Crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1995),

pp. 1-7. 14 Castillo and Jenkins, “Industries,” pp.

125-32. 15 Dana Loomis and David Richardson,

“Race and the risk of fatal injury at work,”

American Journal of Public Health, January

1998, pp. 40-44. 16 National Census of Fatal Occupational

Injuries, 1999. 17 Castillo and Jenkins, “Industries,” pp.

125-32. 18 Toscano and Windau, “Violence in the

Workplace,” Compensation and Working

Conditions, Spring 1995, pp. 43-49. 19 Toscano, “Workplace violence,” pp.

227-35. 20 Rosemary J. Erickson, “Retail employees as a group at risk for violence,” Occupational Medicine, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 269-76. 21 Toscano and Windau, “Profiles,” pp.

37-45; Loomis and Richardson, “Race,” pp.

40-44; Jess F. Kraus and David L. McArthur,

“Epidemiology of violent injury in the workplace,” Occupational Medicine, vol. 11, no.

2, pp. 201-17; and Zawitz, “Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings,” pp. 1-7. 22 Kraus and McArthur, “Epidemiology,”

pp. 201-17. 23 Toscano and Windau, “Profiles,” pp.

37-45. 24 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:

CFOI Research File User Reference (Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 1997). 25 U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Standard Industrial Classification

Manual (Washington, U.S. Government

Printing Office, 1987). 26 Abraham M. Lilienfeld and David E.

Lilienfeld, Foundations in Epidemiology

(New York, Oxford University Press, 1980).