Workplace Homicides: Reconsidering the Role of Firearms

Occupational Injury;Firearm Violence;Workplace Violence;Public Policy;Policy Analysis;not listed

Doucette, Mitchell LLees, Peter SJ ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: Occupational Injury;    Firearm Violence;    Workplace Violence;    Public Policy;    Policy Analysis;    not listed;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/61053/DOUCETTE-DISSERTATION-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

Abstract The number of fatal, intentional workplace shootings rose 15% in 2015 from 2014. Workplace homicides remain a leading cause of occupational death, fourth among males and second among females. Workplaces that allow employees to carry a firearm are at 5-times greater odds of having a workplace homicide compared to workplaces that do not. Prevention efforts largely focus on preventing robbery-motivated crimes, which constitute between 55% to 60% of deaths each year. Workplace homicides are largely a firearms issue, as perpetrators use firearms in nearly 80% of all deaths. There is a need to understand firearm exposure at work, laws that restrict employers’ ability to govern firearm exposure at work, and how state laws designed to affect firearm exposure impact firearm-related workplace homicides. This dissertation contains six chapters. Chapter one provides an introduction to occupational safety and health, workplace homicide trends, and state-level firearm policy. It also provides a rationale for this research and offers specific research questions. Chapter two epidemiologically examines how perpetrators accessed firearms to commit workplace homicides from 2011-2015. Among the firearm-related workplace homicides where firearm access points were able to be categorized, proximal and distal firearm access played a large role in escalating arguments into argumentative workplace homicides, particularly for customers and employees. Chapter three is a legal analysis of a set of state laws that restrict employers’ ability to limit employee firearm storage in motor vehicles at work, referred to as parking lot laws. The 16 existing parking lot laws displayed similar characteristics. More than half of the laws released employers from civil liability for events resulting from an employee storing a firearm in their car at work. Chapter four is a longitudinal panel analysis of the impact of state-level laws on firearm-related workplace homicides from 1992-2015. Right-to-carry laws were associated with a 32% increase in the rate of firearm-related workplace homicides. Chapter five provides additional methodologic detail for Chapters two, three, and four. Chapter six provides a summary of findings, areas of future research, and implications. Customer and employee firearm access plays a large role in escalating arguments to argumentative workplace deaths. Given right-to-carry laws’ impact on loaded handgun carrying, it is unsurprising that states with these laws have greater rates of firearm-related workplace homicides. Right-to-carry laws generally allow private property owners to prohibit firearms from their premises. Yet, parking lot laws limit the ability of employers to prohibit employee firearm access within parking lots. Overall, firearm exposure within the workplace is likely detrimental to workers’ safety and health and efforts to restrict employee firearm exposure are needed.