Workplace Violence Prevention

Why Workplace Violence Prevention Matters

Workplace violence is one of the most serious and under-recognized hazards facing American workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 450 to 550 workplace homicides occur in the United States each year, and homicide is consistently one of the leading causes of occupational death for women. Beyond fatalities, tens of thousands of nonfatal assaults result in days away from work annually, with healthcare and social assistance workers experiencing the highest rates of nonfatal injury from violence of any industry sector.

For the ASP (Associate Safety Professional) candidate, workplace violence prevention sits within the Emergency Preparedness and Response domain because it spans the entire risk continuum: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The safety professional is expected to understand that violence is not a random or unpredictable event. It is a hazard that can be identified, analyzed, and controlled using the same systematic approach applied to any other occupational hazard. The BCSP expects you to know the regulatory basis for action, the classification of violence types, the recognized risk factors, the elements of an effective prevention program, and the correct response and post-incident actions.

What Workplace Violence Is

OSHA and NIOSH define workplace violence as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from verbal threats and abuse to physical assault and homicide. Critically, workplace violence includes threats and intimidation, not only completed physical acts. An exam question that describes a credible verbal threat describes workplace violence.

Regulatory and Legal Basis

There is no comprehensive federal OSHA standard specifically for workplace violence. OSHA enforces workplace violence hazards under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act, which requires employers to furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. To cite under the General Duty Clause, OSHA must show that a hazard existed, that it was recognized by the employer or industry, that it was likely to cause death or serious harm, and that a feasible means of abatement existed.

OSHA has published voluntary guidelines that are frequently referenced on the exam:
- OSHA 3148: Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers
- OSHA 3153: Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late-Night Retail Establishments
- OSHA guidance for taxi and for-hire drivers

Several states have gone further. California's SB 553 (effective 2024) requires most employers to establish a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, maintain a violent incident log, and provide annual training. Several states (Washington, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and others) have healthcare-specific workplace violence laws. The exam may ask you to recognize that state requirements can be more stringent than federal requirements.

Recordkeeping obligations under 29 CFR 1904 also apply: injuries from workplace violence that meet recording criteria must be entered on the OSHA 300 Log. Fatalities must be reported to OSHA within 8 hours; in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Workplace violence injuries are work-related even when the assailant is a non-employee.

The Four Types of Workplace Violence (NIOSH / FBI Classification)

This classification is the single most tested concept in this topic. The types are defined by the relationship between the perpetrator and the workplace, not by the severity of the act.

Type I: Criminal Intent. The perpetrator has no legitimate relationship to the business or its employees. The violence is incidental to another crime such as robbery, shoplifting, or trespassing. Examples: a convenience store clerk shot during a robbery; a taxi driver assaulted by a passenger intending robbery. Type I accounts for the majority of workplace homicides. High-risk settings include late-night retail, gas stations, taxi services, and businesses that handle cash.

Type II: Customer or Client. The perpetrator has a legitimate relationship with the business and becomes violent while being served. This includes patients, customers, clients, passengers, students, and inmates. Examples: a nurse struck by a combative patient; a social worker assaulted during a home visit. Type II accounts for the majority of nonfatal assaults, especially in healthcare, social services, education, and corrections.

Type III: Worker-on-Worker. The perpetrator is a current or former employee who attacks or threatens another employee, supervisor, or manager. This includes bullying, harassment, and intimidation that escalate to physical violence. Type III incidents often follow a recognizable pathway with observable warning signs, which makes threat assessment and early intervention especially valuable.

Type IV: Personal Relationship. The perpetrator has no relationship with the business but has a personal relationship with an employee, most commonly an intimate partner. This is domestic violence that spills into the workplace. The victim is usually the specific targeted employee, but coworkers can be harmed. Prevention relies on supportive policies, restraining order protocols, security notification, and workstation or schedule changes.

Some references add a fifth type, ideological violence, in which the perpetrator targets the organization or its people because of a political, religious, or ideological grievance. If the exam presents five types, this is the fifth.

Recognized Risk Factors

OSHA and NIOSH identify the following factors as increasing the risk of workplace violence. Expect questions that present a job description and ask you to identify the risk factors present.
- Exchanging money with the public or handling cash
- Working alone or in small numbers
- Working late at night or early in the morning
- Working in high-crime areas
- Guarding valuable property or possessions
- Working in community-based settings, such as home healthcare or social services
- Delivering passengers, goods, or services (taxi, delivery, transit)
- Working with unstable, volatile, or impaired individuals, including those under the influence of drugs or alcohol or with certain mental health conditions
- Having a mobile workplace
- Poorly lit parking areas, corridors, or entrances
- Understaffing, long patient wait times, and overcrowded waiting areas
- Unrestricted public access to the workplace
- Lack of staff training in recognizing and de-escalating hostile behavior

How Workplace Violence Prevention Works: The Five Program Elements

OSHA's recommended workplace violence prevention program mirrors the structure of its Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines. You should be able to name all five elements and place activities into the correct one.

1. Management Commitment and Employee Participation. Management demonstrates commitment by establishing a written policy, allocating resources, assigning responsibility, and holding people accountable. A clear policy statement should prohibit violence, threats, harassment, and intimidation, and should state that retaliation against those who report is prohibited. Employee participation includes involvement in hazard identification, program development, incident reporting, and participation on safety or threat assessment committees. On the exam, management commitment is consistently the foundation on which all other elements depend.

2. Worksite Analysis (Hazard Identification and Assessment). A systematic review of the workplace to identify where and how violence could occur. Methods include:
- Records review: OSHA 300 logs, incident reports, police reports, security logs, workers' compensation claims, and grievance files
- Employee surveys and interviews
- Workplace security analysis: physical inspection of lighting, access points, sightlines, escape routes, and communication systems
- Job hazard analysis for high-risk tasks (cash handling, home visits, patient restraint)
- Analysis of trends by location, time of day, shift, and job classification

3. Hazard Prevention and Control. Controls follow the hierarchy of controls. Elimination or substitution may include removing cash from a location by using cashless payment systems or eliminating lone work on night shifts. Engineering controls physically separate workers from the hazard or improve detection and response: bullet-resistant barriers, pass-through windows, access control systems, badge readers, metal detectors, panic alarms and duress buttons, closed-circuit television, improved lighting, mirrors to eliminate blind spots, drop safes and time-delay safes, locked doors with buzzers, secure employee-only areas, and furniture arranged so the worker is nearest the exit. Many of these fall under CPTED, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, which uses natural surveillance, natural access control, and territorial reinforcement to deter crime. Administrative and work practice controls change how work is done: zero-tolerance policies, cash handling procedures and minimum cash limits, buddy systems and check-in procedures for lone or field workers, visitor sign-in and escort policies, increased staffing during high-risk periods, limiting public access, scheduling adjustments, pre-employment background checks, a formal threat assessment process, procedures for responding to restraining orders, and working relationships with local law enforcement. Personal protective equipment has a limited role but may include personal alarms, two-way radios, or cell phones for field workers.

4. Safety and Health Training. All employees should receive training on the written policy, the types and warning signs of violence, how to report incidents and threats, de-escalation and conflict resolution techniques, emergency response procedures including active threat response, the location and use of alarms and security equipment, and available support resources. Supervisors and managers need additional training on recognizing behavioral warning signs, handling reports, and participating in threat assessment. Security staff and threat assessment team members require specialized training. Training should occur at hire, annually, and whenever the program or workplace changes.

5. Recordkeeping and Program Evaluation. Maintain records of all incidents, including near misses and verbal threats, on an incident log. Track OSHA 300 recordables, medical reports, security reports, training records, and corrective actions. Evaluate the program at least annually by reviewing incident trends, surveying employees, auditing controls, and updating the hazard assessment. Metrics may include incident frequency and severity, response times, training completion, and employee perception of safety.

Threat Assessment and Behavioral Warning Signs

A threat assessment team is a multidisciplinary group, typically including human resources, security, safety, legal, management, and often mental health professionals, that evaluates reported threats and concerning behavior, determines the level of risk, and develops a management plan. The goal is intervention before violence occurs. The team should have clear reporting pathways, documented procedures, and confidentiality protections.

Research on targeted violence shows that attackers rarely 'snap.' They typically move along a pathway to violence: a grievance, an idea of violence as a solution, research and planning, preparation, breach, and attack. Observable warning signs include:
- Direct, veiled, or conditional threats
- Escalating anger, hostility, or verbal abuse
- Fascination with weapons or prior violent incidents
- Expressing a grievance with a sense of persecution or injustice
- Marked changes in behavior, attendance, performance, or hygiene
- Increased substance abuse
- Depression, hopelessness, or statements about suicide
- Intimidation, bullying, or stalking of coworkers
- Recent significant losses such as termination, divorce, or financial crisis
- Statements of leakage, in which the person tells others about intentions or plans

Terminations and disciplinary actions are high-risk events. Best practices include conducting terminations privately with two people present, having security available, disabling access credentials immediately, retrieving keys and badges, and treating the departing employee with dignity.

De-escalation

De-escalation is a core skill, especially for Type II settings. Principles include remaining calm and using a low, even voice; maintaining a non-threatening posture and respectful personal space (typically 1.5 to 3 times the normal distance); avoiding direct prolonged eye contact or sudden movements; actively listening and acknowledging the person's feelings; setting clear, simple limits; offering choices where possible; not arguing, threatening, or making promises that cannot be kept; positioning oneself between the person and the exit; and knowing when to disengage and summon help.

Emergency Response: Active Threat and Active Shooter

The Department of Homeland Security framework is Run, Hide, Fight. Run: evacuate if a safe path exists, leave belongings, help others if possible, keep hands visible when encountering law enforcement. Hide: if evacuation is not possible, get out of the shooter's view, lock and barricade doors, silence phones, and remain quiet. Fight: as a last resort and only when life is in imminent danger, act aggressively and commit to incapacitating the attacker. The ALICE model (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) is an alternative framework you may see.

Response planning should be integrated with the Emergency Action Plan (29 CFR 1910.38) and should address alarm and notification methods, lockdown procedures, evacuation routes and assembly points, communication with law enforcement, accounting for personnel, and reunification. Drills should be conducted and evaluated. Facilities should establish relationships with local law enforcement in advance and share floor plans and access information.

Post-Incident Response and Recovery

After any incident, the organization should provide prompt medical treatment; preserve the scene and evidence for law enforcement; conduct an investigation and root cause analysis; offer psychological support through critical incident stress debriefing, Employee Assistance Programs, and counseling; communicate factually with employees; review and revise controls to prevent recurrence; complete OSHA recordkeeping and reporting; and document all actions. Supporting victims and witnesses is both an ethical obligation and essential for returning the workplace to normal operations.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Workplace Violence Prevention

Tip 1: Classify by relationship, not severity. When a question asks which type of violence is described, identify the perpetrator's relationship to the workplace. No relationship and a crime is being committed equals Type I. A customer, patient, client, student, or inmate equals Type II. An employee or former employee equals Type III. An intimate partner, family member, or acquaintance of an employee equals Type IV. Do not be distracted by whether the outcome was a threat, injury, or death.

Tip 2: Know the statistics that distinguish the types. Type I causes the most workplace homicides. Type II causes the most nonfatal injuries, concentrated in healthcare and social services. Questions about 'the most common fatal' versus 'the most common nonfatal' type are routine.

Tip 3: Cite the General Duty Clause for federal enforcement. If a question asks under what authority OSHA cites an employer for workplace violence hazards, the answer is Section 5(a)(1), the General Duty Clause, because no specific federal standard exists. If the question references a state program like California, recognize that state-specific written plan requirements may apply.

Tip 4: Apply the hierarchy of controls. When asked for the most effective or preferred control, favor elimination (remove cash, eliminate lone work), then engineering controls (barriers, access control, panic buttons, lighting), then administrative controls (policies, staffing, training), with PPE last. When the question asks for the first step, the answer is usually a hazard or worksite analysis, not a control.

Tip 5: Management commitment comes first in program questions. If a question asks for the foundation or most critical element of a prevention program, choose management commitment and employee participation. If it asks for the element that identifies where violence is likely to occur, choose worksite analysis. If it asks about measuring effectiveness, choose recordkeeping and program evaluation.

Tip 6: Threats count as violence. Questions may describe a verbal threat with no physical contact and ask whether it should be reported or recorded as a workplace violence incident. The correct answer is yes; the definition explicitly includes threats, intimidation, and harassment. Encourage reporting of all incidents including near misses.

Tip 7: Recordkeeping questions follow 1904 rules. Injuries from assaults by customers, criminals, or coworkers are work-related and recordable if they meet the general recording criteria. A fatality is reported within 8 hours; an in-patient hospitalization within 24 hours. The fact that a third party caused the injury does not make it non-work-related.

Tip 8: Recognize threat assessment as the prevention tool for Type III and Type IV. When the scenario involves a coworker making concerning statements or an employee disclosing a threatening domestic partner, the appropriate organizational response is to activate the threat assessment team, not to immediately terminate or to ignore the report. Look for multidisciplinary, documented, and proportionate responses.

Tip 9: Know Run, Hide, Fight in order. If a question asks about the preferred initial response to an active shooter when a safe exit is available, the answer is to evacuate (Run). Fight is explicitly a last resort. Lockdown and barricade (Hide) applies when evacuation is not possible.

Tip 10: Match the setting to the control. Late-night retail: cash controls, drop safes, lighting, visibility, two-clerk staffing, signage stating limited cash. Healthcare: controlled access, panic alarms, de-escalation training, flagging of patients with violent history, adequate staffing, secure nurse stations. Field and home visits: buddy systems, check-in procedures, cell phones, prior visit risk screening, authority to leave unsafe situations. Taxi and delivery: partitions, cameras, GPS, cashless payment.

Tip 11: Choose prevention and systems over blame. Distractor answers often focus on punishing the victim, increasing armed security as the only solution, or relying solely on training. The BCSP favors systematic, multi-layered programs that combine engineering, administrative, and training controls with management commitment and continuous evaluation.

Tip 12: Watch for terms like 'CPTED,' 'zero tolerance,' 'EAP,' and 'critical incident stress debriefing.' CPTED refers to environmental design to deter crime. Zero tolerance is a policy statement that all threats and violence are prohibited and will be addressed. EAP refers to confidential counseling resources. Critical incident stress debriefing is a post-incident psychological intervention. Knowing these definitions allows you to eliminate wrong answers quickly.

Summary

Workplace violence prevention on the ASP exam is fundamentally about applying the safety management system model to a human-caused hazard. Know the four types and how to classify them, the recognized risk factors, the General Duty Clause basis for enforcement, the five program elements, the hierarchy of controls as applied to security, threat assessment and warning signs, de-escalation, Run Hide Fight, and post-incident recordkeeping and recovery. Read each scenario carefully, identify the relationship of the perpetrator, determine what stage of the prevention cycle the question addresses, and select the answer that reflects a systematic, prevention-focused, management-led approach.