Interesting, but sometimes contradictory resultsThe studies under review were divided into two distinct categories consisting of:

• declared acts, that is, data from statements to employers and organizations managing compensation programs related to workplace violence;

• self-reported acts, that is, data from victimization surveys in which respondents can anonymously reveal acts of violence against them, including those that were not officially reported.

As we will see later, it is particularly interesting to note that the results of these two types of studies sometimes lead to different conclusions.

For the past 30 years or so, violence at work has been the focus of growing interest in the scientific community. In fact, the number of publications on the subject nearly doubled between 2000 and 20051. The problem of workplace violence and its consequences has become so significant that several research teams have started studying the issue from different angles. However, it must be noted that, despite all this research, a great number of grey areas continue to exist. For instance, we know very little about men and women’s risk of exposure to violence in the workplace: are there differences and, if so, how can they be explained? Answers to these questions will be particularly useful in developing better-targeted prevention strategies.

The knowledge available, especially about the risk of serious violent acts2 (SVA) in the workplace by sex and gender, is fragmentary. To fill this gap, the VISAGE research team undertook a systematic review to better docu-

ment exposure to serious violence by sex and gender in different sectors of activity. This review was based on 45 scientific articles, all selected accor- ding to rigorous methodological criteria.

Of these, 31 were related to research carried out in the health sector, while the other studies involved the social work and retail sectors or subsume several sectors of activity.

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A first systematic review

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FACING VIOLENCE AT WORK:

1 Tragno, M., Duveau, A., & Tarquinio, C. (2007). Les violences et agressions physiques au travail : analyse de la littérature. Revue européenne de psychologie appliquée / European Review of Applied Psychology, 57(4), 237-255.

2 Serious violent acts and threats of violence are behaviours that carry the risk of physical injuries. They can include, for instance, assaults, sexual aggressions, armed robberies or death threats.

MEN AND WOMEN

THE RISKS OF EXPOSURE

VIOLENCE AT WORKIMPROVING CARE

FOR VICTIMS

2Data from official statements

The eight studies grouped into this first category were all carried out using official data from statements made to employers and organizations managing compensation programs for victims of violent acts at work, including homi-cide. Out of eight studies, seven were from the United States while another was conducted in Finland. Two observations were made following analysis of the studies' results.

Data from victimization surveys

As for the second category, 37 studies based on self-reported data were reviewed. In general, these studies produced different, sometimes contradictory, results from research based on official statements.

Seven out of eight studies show that women are more often victims of SVA at work (representing between 53% and 75% of cases, according to studies under review). However, homicide victims are largely men (approximately 82% of homicide cases at work, according to two studies). This difference is explained in part by the fact that men are more often victims of armed attacks. In fact, according to a study, they represent 93% of victims of armed attacks with a knife and 97% with a firearm. Women, on the other hand, are at a greater risk of being victims of simple assault (84% of victims, according to the same study).

The studies from this category also reveal that the average amount of the total cost of claims, including compensation paid out, is higher in the case of violent acts affecting men compared with events affecting women. This could be related to differences in the type of SVA suffered by men and women.

Although different sectors of activity are not compared according to victims’ sex, it is clear that workers in certain environments are at a much greater risk of exposure to SVA in the workplace than others. This is the case for the healthcare as well as the public safety, education, social work, and transportation sectors.

Observation

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Observation

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Observation

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There are differences between men and women according to the type of SVA.

Some sectors of activity appear to be particularly at risk.

In the healthcare sector in general, there are no significant differences between men and women.

Out of 31 studies specifically concerning the healthcare sector, 19 concluded that there are no significant differences between men and women regarding exposure to SVA. However, for certain categories of employment, differences are observed.

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The gap between declared and self-reported acts

Why is it that official statements suggest that women are more often victims of SVA than men, while victimization surveys imply the opposite or suggest that there is no difference?

It is possible that gender-related aspects influence the rate of reporting. Social stereotypes generally attribute domi-nant characteristics to men and fragility to women. So, men could be more hesitant than women to officially report violent acts of which they were victims due to these stereotypes. Besides, the perception of violent acts could be different for men and women, with men less often interpreting certain acts as being violent. Finally, we can postulate that women’s official statements more frequently give rise to claims, which are more frequently accepted than those of men, also because of gender stereotypes.

Moreover, regarding victimization surveys, it is possible that anonymity as well as the absence of statement or claim processes partially explain the higher number of violent acts reported by men. They could, in fact, be more often exposed to such acts because of their social roles, which also come into play in task allocation. For instance, they would be called on more often to intervene in situations where violence is imminent or assigned to high-risk depart-ments. Finally, it is important to specify that research results which point to an absence of significant differences between the two sexes must be interpreted carefully because of several methodological limitations.

Men are more often victims of SVA than women among nurses (five out of six studies conducted among nursing staff suggest this), while a sixth study comes to the conclusion that a significant difference is absent.

The results are less clear for doctors as two studies indicate that women are at a greater risk, three studies show that men are at greater risk, and four studies conclude that there are no significant differences. It is therefore difficult to determine whether male doctors are at a greater risk of SVA than their female counterparts or vice versa.

The six studies concerning other sectors show that men are at a greater risk than women of being victims of SVA at work. However, to this conclusion must be added results from a study on the police force and the transportation sector: women working in these sectors are at a greater risk for assault than their male counterparts.

A single study grouping several sectors of activity details the injuries and costs related to SVA at work according to workers' sex. Results indicate that men are at a greater risk of suffering injuries, but women lose more time from work.

In other sectors, men are generally more often victims of SVA than women.

Men suffer more injuries, but women lose more time from work.

Observation

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Observation

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?

Nurses

Doctors

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Funded by the Institute of Gender and Health of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the VISAGE research team at the Trauma Studies Centre of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal develops partnerships with targeted professional sectors in order to enhance clinical and organizational aspects of care for workers exposed to, or at high risk of being exposed to, serious violent acts. The team's goal is to develop and share knowledge on workplace violence with a view to recommending strategies that take into account differences in gender-based needs.

Collaborators: Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail, secteur affaires municipales (APSAM), Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail, secteur administration provinciale (APSSAP), Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail du secteur des affaires sociales (ASSTSAS)

A body of research to be followed upThese first few systematic reviews on the prevalence of workplace vio- lence by sex and gender once again confirm the importance of continuing research into this subject. Given that such a large gap is observed between the results of studies based on official statements and those of studies based on self- reported data, and considering their limitations, it is not possible at this stage to draw a clear picture of the issue.

To solidify this body of scientific knowledge, recommendations for future research include in particular the following three factors:

1) A common study framework should be established using specific definitions to distinguish between different acts of violence.

2) Employment categories and conditions should be systematically differentiated to detect specific cases or certain aspects related to social roles.

3) It would be necessary to ensure a sufficient number of participants to be able to perform robust statistical analyses and obtain generalizable results.

Better measurements would facilitate the implementation of adapted prevention measures, taking into account possible differences bet- ween men and women where expo- sure to acts of violence and their reporting are concerned.

The VISAGE research team has con- ducted another literature review on the subject of violence at work by sex and gender. This review specifi-cally addresses verbal violence (that is, the use of threats, verbal abuse or humiliation of an employee) based on self-reported data. The results of 29 studies were analyzed, of which 24 concern the healthcare sector.

They indicate that, contrary to recei- ved opinion, women are not more often victims of verbal violence than men. In fact, of the 14 studies reporting significant statistical diffe- rences between the sexes, a majority (11 studies) show that men are more often victims of verbal violence. It was, however, not possible to deter-mine the employment sectors in

which workers are at a greater risk of being victims of verbal violence due to methodological limitations. The prevalence of verbal violence as well as other forms of psychological vio- lence among men and women should be further studied in order to promote adapted prevention strategies.

Verbal violence

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