” women were more than three times more likely to be murdered on the job than men (34 percent and 10 percent, respectively). ”

Is Your Workplace Safe From Crime and Violence?

Assaults and homicides committed by agitated patients, disgruntled co-workers, dissatisfied customers, estranged domestic partners and violent criminals have been in the news with alarming frequency lately. The number of job-related homicides has been trending downward for the last seven years, but fatal assault continues to be the second largest contributing factor in on-the-job deaths — and the leading cause of occupational fatality among women, according to the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). Some recent cases in point:

July 1999: In Atlanta, a man said to be a disgruntled stock trader walked into the offices of two brokerage and shot a total of 11 people to death. The gunman later committed suicide at a gas station.

June 1999: A recently fired employee of Norristown State Hospital in Pennsylvania held two supervisors hostage for 48 hours. He shot them, one fatally, when police smashed a window to get a better view of the situation.

February 1999: A patient who received breast implants following a mastectomy fatally shot her plastic surgeon at his office. The office manager, who was also shot, suffered permanent brain damage.

January 1999: Three workers at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Tucson — the manager, a waitress and a kitchen worker — were shot to death in an apparent robbery.
According to the latest CFOI, 12 percent of the 6,026 on-the-job deaths in 1998 were homicides; women were more than three times more likely to be murdered on the job than men (34 percent and 10 percent, respectively).