METHOD

For this study, 1071 cases have been selected among the medical documents and files sent to the Department of Traumatology – The Council of Forensic Medicine, between January 1-December 31, 1998. Among these, 339 cases have been sorted out, whose incident place were already known. Consequently, the demographic findings on the offenders and victims of 140 cases have been evaluated on the basis of incidents taken place at workplaces or related outlying buildings. Since the same data have not been acquired for each cases, the relevant tables and rates have been ascertained on the basis the number of cases for which the variable under consideration can be counted.

These professionals can be associated with self-employed people: petty traders; private accountants; merchants; quilt makers; drivers/cab drivers; marble cutters; cafe owners; cafeteria operators; restaurateurs; restaurant managers; constructors; tailors; ice cream sellers; soccer players; sellers; pub-buffet-bar-disco owners; hair dressers; butchers; gallery owners; auto-mechanics; bonnet repairers; welders; fruit and vegetable wholesalers; woodworkers; upholsterers; carpenters; pool hall owners; tourist agency owners; carpet dealers; boutique owners; street vendors; jewellers; tanners; salesmen; grocery store owners; dried fruit and nuts sellers; scrap-iron dealers; gas station owners; musicians; fishermen; hotel owners; managers; textile shop owners; liquor and tobacco sellers; blacksmiths; lotto men; tradesmen of Russian market; bakers; office owners; circumcisers; chicken or animal farm owners; electricians; insurers; building contractors; driving course owners; and shoe sellers.

These can be counted among the civil servants: workers in the public sector; watchmen; temporary village policemen; soldiers; retired officials; retired watchmen; retired notaries; civil servants, teachers, policemen; gendarmes; elected heads of villages; health officials; airport managers; and non-commissioned officers.

Student group covers all students attending ordinary schools; secondary schools for the training of Islamic religious personnel; and Koran courses.

These employees can be associated with the group of workers: insured agricultural workers; servants in the private sector; waiters & waitresses; tea vendors; stokers; workers in the pastry shops and restaurants; freighters; assistants; workers; construction workers; apprentices; secretaries of the bus companies; bakery workers; cooks; secretaries; dustmen; porters; bodyguards of the bars; carpenter journeymen; simit sellers; shoeshiners; cotton candy makers; weavers; and miners.

Herdsmen, farmer and stock raisers can be evaluated under the group of agricultural works.

INTRODUCTION

Workplace violence is a serious community medicine problem. Victims of workplace violence are exposed to fatal or nonfatal injuries and physical or moral losses, in addition to productive power losses. All these have led the preventive studies on workplace violence to come on the scene.^(1,2)

Peek-Asaand Kraus report that the rate of injuries based on workplaceassaults is annually 72.9 per one hundred thousand and 50 times morethan the incidences resulted with death.⁽³⁾In another study, they ascertain that this rate is 184,6 per onehundred thousand.⁽¹⁾ Kraus and Brown, on the other hand,present that nonfatal workplace injuries occur at least 100 timesmore than the fatal ones.⁽⁴⁾

Krausand McArthur specify job related risk factors causing fatal andnonfatal injuries; and give a summary of the risk maximising factorsand events.⁽⁵⁾

Nelsonand Kauffman draw a notice on the fact that in 1992, nonfataloccupational injuries were more frequently occurred in Washington andthat these were caused by different risk factors. Furthermore, theytouch upon the necessity of special strategies applied for theprevention of these injuries occurring in particular occupations.⁽²⁾

Theobjective of this study, on the other hand, is to stress thesignificance of workplace violence cases in social life.

FINDINGS

It hasbeen ascertained that 90,7 % of the victims is female, while 98,5 %of the offenders is male, as it can be observed in Table-1.Additionally, the age distribution of both victims and offenders,whose age has been known, is shown in Table-2. It can already bededuced that the rate of the age group between the ages of 20-39occupies the highest place both among victims and offenders (52,8 %victims; 53,1 % offenders).

In these cases, 7,1 % of the victims and offenders is at the same age. In 51,7 % of the cases, victims are older than offenders; and in 39,2 % of the cases, victims are younger than offenders. In 24,1 % of the cases, the age difference between victims and offenders is ± 5 years; and in 25,8 % of them, it is 6-10 years. The rest 42,8 % is the rate in which the age difference between victims and offenders in more than 10 years.

Table-3 demonstrates the distribution of victims and offenders on the basis of occupational differences. Accordingly, 49,7 % of the victims and 51,2 % of the offenders work in the agricultural sector. This majority is followed by self-employed people (20,2 % of the victims; and 24,0 % of the offenders).

The distribution of the cases in regard to seasonal, monthly and timely differences is shown in Table-4 and Table-5. It has been observed that assaults occur most frequently in summer and gradually decrease towards winter; and they increase by degrees between 00:01 p.m. – 06:00 p.m. 39,2 % of the cases occurs due to blunt trauma, and 29,6 % of them is the injuries caused by cutting, cutting-piercing or cutting-crushing devices (Table-6).

36,3 % of the cases is the one that occur between neighbours-neighbouring jobs or friends-co-workers; and in 24,2 % of the cases, victims and offenders are acquainted with each other. Table-7 shows the intimacy degree of victims and offenders.

With respect to the investigation made on whether the files include cases in which the consumption of alcoholic beverages could be observed, it has been deduced that 92,1 % of the victims and 88,4 % of the offenders are sober.

Except for the cases on sexual assault, 31,2 % of 109 cases that are related with the ones exposed to trauma overcomes a vital risk, and 69,8 % of them not.

DISCUSSION

In this particular study, it has been noticed that 90,7 % of the victims is female, while 98,5 % of the offenders is male. A similar study carried out in the Sivas region denotes that more than 80 % of both victims and offenders are male⁽⁶⁾,as in the cases occurred in Chile⁽⁷⁾and Saweto.⁽⁸⁾Likewise, it has been notified that in Denmark, males come about in70 % of the cases. ⁽⁹⁾We may affiliate this male domination with the fact that maleemployees come first in working life and they have a great majorityquantitatively.

Considering the ages of both victimsand offenders, people between the ages 20 and 39 constitute thelargest group (Table-2). We may consider this in relation to theeconomic activeness of this age group.

In this study, it has been observed that assaults are mostly observed in summer (37,2 %) followed by spring and autumn, and rarely in winter (Table-5). Songar asserts that seasonal differences have an impact over individuals’ emotions, thoughts and behaviours; hence various offences are most likely committed in April and September.⁽¹⁰⁾ Similarly, Üge reports that the assault rates tend to increasein June and September.⁽¹¹⁾The increase of workplace violence cases in summer times may beassociated with the fact that people, during summer, work in openareas more and they make contact with each other more.

In 70,6 % of the cases, incidents take place between 06:01 a.m. – 06:00 p.m. The highest rate has been observed in between 00:01 p.m. – 06:00 p.m. This situation has made us to think that occupational stress, and hence violent tendencies of people, increases in parallel to the time passed along the day. Kraus and Brawn state that evening and night are the most risky periods with respect to the occurrence of fatal or nonfatal injuries.⁽⁵⁾ Budd, Arvey and Lawless, on the other hand, explicate that working during the evening hours is one of the most important high risk factors leading to workplace violence.⁽¹²⁾

In this study, it has been found outthat the rate of injuries caused by blunt trauma is 39,6 %, and by penetrating trauma is 51,2 % (Table-6). In their studies, Eisele, Watkins and Matthews put forward that the rate of firearm caused injuries is approximately 30 %.⁽¹³⁾Nelson and Kauffman, on the other hand, stress that the most likelyoccurred injury type is blunt trauma cases (85,1 %).⁽²⁾

Peek-Asa and Kraus report that exposure rate of assaults occurring in individual sector constitutes 73,1 % of the overall workplace assaults.⁽⁴⁾ In our study, 49,7 % of the victims and 51,2 % of the offenders are from the agricultural sector, and these rates are followed by the ones of working as self-employed persons. If we are to regard agricultural jobs together with the individual ones, 69,7 % of the victims and 75,2 % of the victims work in the individual jobs. Nelson and Kauffman, in their particular study, propose that people working in social and health services, in restaurants and public places are exposed to violence more.⁽²⁾ Budd, Arvey and Lawless elaborate that these factors increase the occurrence rate of workplace violence: frequent job changes, job dissatisfaction, and carrying gun or cutting devices at workplaces.⁽¹²⁾

In these cases, 8,9 % of the victims and offenders is not acquainted with each other; 36,3 % of them is either neighbours-neighbouring jobs or friends-co-workers; and 23,3 % of them is close or distant relatives; and 1,6 % of them is husbands and wives (Table-7). Gunay and others explicate that the rate of the inter-spousal violence cases constitutes 5,9 % of the general violence cases.⁽¹⁴⁾We may associate this with spouses’ not working together at thesame workplace.

It has been derived that 61,5 % of the cases undergoes a medical treatment by being hospitalised for a short or long period of time. It has been examined that occurred in 1992 at workplaces in Washington, 784 of 2395 cases, which are resulted with nonfatal injuries, have one or more day work losses.⁽²⁾ On the other hand, La Mar and others report that 712 cases, observed in Minnesota in 1992, are kept from doing their job for two days and more.⁽¹⁵⁾All these point out that workplace violence does not only bring aboutmoral loses, but also physical ones.

Peek-Asa and others have investigated the reports on workplace violence prepared by the police and employers comparatively; and concluded that although the data on the type of the incidents and the arms employed are the same both in the police and employer registrations, the ones on the occupation and field of activity of victims show some divergences. Regarding the programs utilised in order to prevent workplace violence, they have also touched upon the necessity of paying attention to the occupation of victims cited in the police reports.⁽¹¹⁾ As for Turkish police reports, we think that registration of both incident place and the occupation of victims and offenders would facilitate the future studies to be carried out.

To sum up, this study ascertains that the parties of workplace violence cases are mostly males; they are between the ages 20 and 39; injuries take place mostly between 06:00 a.m. – 06:00 p.m. and in individual occupations; victims and offenders are generally acquainted with each other; and these assaults lead to work and potency losses to a great extent. When we compare this matter with the cases taken place in the foreign occupational life periodicals, we notice that workplace related studies are fairly inadequate in Turkey. In our opinion, more studies should be carried out on that matter; both the police and employers should be much more sensitive on the workplace violence cases; and medical specialists, when these cases are related to hospitals, should record the incident place and other related inputs of the incidents in a more detailed way .

Table-1 Gender distribution of victims and offenders

Gender	Victim (n)	%	Offender (n)	%
Female	13	9,3	2	1,5
Male	127	90,7	133	98,5
TOTAL	140	100	135	100

Table-2Age distribution of victims and offenders

Age Group	Victim(n)	%	Offender(n)	%
0-9	4	3,1	–	–
10-19	22	17,3	23	20,7
20-29	33	26	30	27,0
30-39	34	26,8	29	26,1
40-49	10	7,9	12	10,9
50-59	16	12,6	10	9,0
60 and older	8	6,3	7	6,3
TOTAL	127	100	111	100

Table-3Distribution of the cases according to occupational differences ofvictims and offenders

Occupations	Victim(n)	%	Offender(n)	%
Unemployed/ housewife	6	4,4	2	1,5
Self-employed	27	20.0	31	24,0
Civil servant	11	8,1	11	8,5
Student	4	3,0	–	–
Worker	18	13,3	18	14,0
Agricultural Works	67	49,7	66	51,2
Unclassifiable/ Other	2	1,5	1	0,8
TOTAL	135	100	129	100

Table-4Distribution of incidents according to occurrence hours

Occurrence Hours	N	%
06:01 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.	34	28,6
00:01 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.	50	42,0
06:01 p.m. – 12:00 p.m.	30	25,2
00:01 a.m. – 06:00 a.m.	5	4,2
TOTAL	119	100

Table-5Distribution of cases according to seasonal and monthly differences

Months	n	%	Seasons	n	%
March	9	6,4	Spring	43	30,7
April	18	12,9
May	16	11,4
June	26	18,6	Summer	52	37,2
July	12	8,6
August	14	10,0
September	5	3,6	Autumn	26	18,6
October	9	6,4
November	12	8,6
December	8	5,7	Winter	19	13,5
January	6	4,2
February	5	3,6
TOTAL	140	100	TOTAL	140	100

Table-6Distribution of the cases according to the injury types

Injury Types	N	%
Caused by cutting/piercing/ cutting-piercing devices	37	29,6
Caused by firearms	27	21,6
Blunt trauma	49	39,2
Sexual assault	12	9,6
TOTAL	125	100

Table-7Distribution on the cases according the intimacy degree of victimsand offenders

Victim-offender relations	N	%
Neighbour/neighbouring jobs	29	23,4
Friends/co-workers	16	12,9
Spouses	2	1,6
Close relatives	6	4,8
Distant relatives	21	16,9
Acquainted	30	24,2
Unacquainted	11	8,9
Unclassifiable/other	9	7,3
TOTAL	124	100

Table-8Distribution of the cases according to alcoholic beverage consumptionof victims and offenders

Alcoholic beverage	Victim(n)	%	Offender(n)	%
Consumed	8	7,9	10	11,6
Unconsumed	93	92,1	76	88,4
TOTAL	101	100	86	100

SUMMARY:

This study aims at investigating the frequency of nonfatal violance at workplaces and also identifying the social class in which the victims come from.

The study was based on data from the medical documents and files sent to the Department of Traumatology of the Council of Forensic Medicine between the dates January 1 and December 31, 1998. Of all the randomly chosen 1071 incidents, the ones having the place of occurance stated were sorted out and those demographic findings about offenders and victims were evaulated.

399 incidents out of those 1071 had records about the place of occurance, and among them 140 incidents (35.1 %) occured at workplaces. males accounted for 90.7 % of the victims and 98.5 % of the offenders. Comparing the age distiribution of both victims and offenders, age 20 to 29 had the highest rate group. Assaults were most frequently observed in summer (37.2 %). While 9.6% of them (12 incidents) claimed to be sexual assaults referred to the Council of Forensic Medicine, 39.2% of the victims injured due to blunt trauma and 51.2 % penetrating truma.

Apart from the sexual assaults, 31.2 % out of 109 trauma cases were found to be life-threatening and 69.8 % non -life-threatening.

The majority of victims (49.7 %) and offenders (51.2 %) were employed in agriculture followed by people who worked in self-employement sector ( 20.2 % of the victims, 24.0 % of the offenders).

Studies showed that 8.9% of the cases did not know each other at all, 36.3 % are neigbours or workmates, 24.2 % were intimates and 23.3 % were close or distant relatives.

Key Words: Violence, workplace, nonfatal injuries.