Assailants can be current or former customers and clients such as passengers, patients, students, inmates, criminal suspects or prisoners. The workers typically provide direct services to the public, for example, municipal bus or railway drivers, health care and social service providers, teachers and sales personnel. Law enforcement personnel are also at risk of assault from individuals over whom they exert custodial supervision. Type III - Employment Relationship. Job related violence involves verbal threats, threatening behavior or physical assaults by an assailant such as a current or former employee, supervisor or manager.
Any workplace can be at risk of violence by a co-worker.
In committing a threat or assault, the individual may be seeking revenge for what is perceived as unfair treatment. Domestic violence erupting at work is one of the most common types of workplace violence and involves verbal threats, threatening behavior or physical assaults by an assailant who, in the workplace, confronts an individual with whom he or she has or had a personal relationship outside of work. Personal relations include a current or former spouse, lover, relative, friend or acquaintance. The assailant's actions are motivated by perceived difficulties in the relationship or by psychosocial factors that are specific to the assailant. Determining risk factors for workplace violence The types of violence identified in the previous section illustrate different characteristics of workplace violence and the ways violence may present itself.