Prevalences of Attacks in Work Areas with Law-Enforcing and Helping Functions

Abstract

Violence against employees in helping and law-enforcing professions is regularly condemned in politics and the media. So far, there is no conclusive clarification of how often these events take place. Previous scientific studies on the prevalence of attacks are mainly limited to retrospective surveys with longer prevalence periods of one to two years or even the entire service period. In the present study, various types of attacks were documented for the first time over a period of four months through weekly queries. Helping and law-enforcing officials very regularly experience violence at a similarly high level. In particular, employees from occupational groups that have not been researched so far, such as regulatory agencies and transport companies, show a high prevalence.