ACCORDING TO:
Occupation Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) U.S. Department of Labor:
"Workplace violence has emerged as an important safety and health issue in today's workplace. Its most extreme form, homicide, is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. Nearly 1,000 workers are murdered, and 1.5 million are assaulted in the workplace each year. According to the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 709 workplace homicides in 1998, accounting for 12% of the total 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States. Environmental conditions associated with workplace assaults have been identified and control strategies implemented in a number of work settings."

ACCORDING TO:
Current Intelligence Bulletins (CIBs):
"A CIB may draw attention to a formerly unrecognized hazard, report new data on a known hazard, or disseminate information about hazard control. CIBs are distributed to representatives of academia, industry, organized labor, public health agencies, and public interest groups as well as to Federal agencies responsible for ensuring the safety and health of workers.
Each week in the United States, an average of 20 workers are murdered and 18,000 are assaulted while at work. These staggering figures should not be an accepted cost of doing business in our society--nor should death or injury be an inevitable result of one's chosen occupation.
No definitive strategy will ever be appropriate for preventing violence in all workplaces, but we must begin to change the way work is done in certain settings to minimize the risk to American workers."

ACCORDING TO:
Pinkerton, Incorporated:

"Leading with workplace violence (No. 2 last year), the 1999 list of 10 most important security threats is dominated by employee-related concerns, rather than "external" threats:
1. Workplace violence
2. Crisis management/Executive protection
3. Fraud/White-collar crime
4. Employee screening concerns
5. Hardware/Software theft
6. General employee theft
7. Internet/Intranet security
8. Drugs in the workplace
9. Unethical business conduct
10. Property crime (external theft, vandalism)
Each year, more than two million people become victims of violent crime at work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
While workplace violence cannot entirely be prevented, an integrated program of safeguards can help reduce the threat and minimize damage and business disruption when they occur."

"Employers have a general duty to "furnish to each employee, employment and a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing, or likely to cause, death or serious harm to the employee" under federal and state OSHA regulations."