How Do We Arrive at 16 million per year?
Written by Robert D. Sollars
That is a simple question to answer. The original number was in a survey by the University of South Florida in 2005, of 15 million, and with the growth in employment since then…it’s logical to believe that workplace & school violence (WPV/SV) has also risen at the same rate. However, that doesn’t answer your question very well, does it?
Well maybe this paragraph will; The Department of Labor & Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL & BLS) state that only a few thousand incidents of WPV occur every year. NIOSH states that there are more than 2.5 million incidents a year. Yet I’m here telling you that more than 8 times that many happen each and every year. Why the disparity?
Because the government agencies are not in the security or WPV field and have no clue what the actual WPV/SV incidents entail. They count only actual physical assaults. Therefore, the media and law enforcement only count physical assaults. But we in the WPV field, count verbal assaults, vandalism, arson, bullying, and other ‘mundane’ incidents as violence.
Why do we? Because those incidents can certainly lead to violence and are in of themselves violent, due to their uncertain nature of them. I’ve explained the difference in friends talking shit to each other, and in a later post I’ll explain it again…the difference between “I’m gonna kick your motherfucking ass once we get to the parking lot!” and how it can be misinterpreted.
Also, if arson or vandalism is performed to either harm a person or the business itself…why wouldn’t it be considered WPV. As for counting schools in the overall statistics, that’s also simple to explain in the overall numbers. Is not an educational institution, whether for or non-profit, a place of employment for dozens, if not hundreds, of people? Then it should also be included in the WPV/SV overall numbers.
As you’ll see in the February numbers in a week or so, the number of threats against schools was very high…threatening thousands of people’s lives.
So, don’t denigrate me for publishing a rate of WPV/SV so much higher than is reported by the governmental bean-counters who haven’t a clue of the real world and how-to count or record these incidents. Nor the media talking heads, who spout anything that bleeds for their political leanings and is fluffy, and law enforcement who can only deal with physical assaults, because “their hands are tied”.
Blame them for thinking so narrow-mindedly & small when they are supposed to be open-minded and with new ideas to arise from that open-mindedness, not to mention the idea of questioning the bean-counters, other media types, and law enforcement? It just doesn’t happen as it ‘rocks the boat’ of their sensibilities.
WPV/SV is real, very real to those who suffer through an incident. It traumatizes people, sometimes for decades, whether it’s a threat, bullying, actual physical or verbal assault. IT…DOESN’T…FUCKING…MATTER…WHAT…KIND…OF…ASSAULT…IT…IS…IT HURTS SOMEONE IN THE LONG RUN. Sooner or later, it’ll happen to YOUR organization and you’ll have to confront it as best as you can with assistance or file for bankruptcy and go out of business.
Worse yet…what would you do if it happened to your child, loved one, family member, or close friend? Would you still be “Yeah well that’s life, not a big deal.” and go merrily on your way, ignoring it until it hit closer to you? Somehow, I believe that you’d be like everyone else…bawling your eyes out and wondering why the hell this happened and why no one did anything to prevent it?”
You now have the answers…it’s up to you to bring it to the attention of those in charge and demand, everything short of stamping your feet and clenching your fists, that they do Muchmore than lip service to these potentially deadly and definitely traumatizing issues!
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Copyright 2022 Robert D. Sollars
