School and Workplace Violence

First and the main reason is the growing rate of school violence. The changing definition of the school violence has also become the subject of concern is. If only several decades ago chewing gun could have been considered as school violence, nowadays brining a gun to school is a usual thing. Schools, which aim to teach children not only basic knowledge on different subjects but also give them moral and ethical values and behavioral patterns, become the places where children meet violence and crime. Nowadays school authorities have to deal such serious problems as sexual assault, rape, drug and alcohol use, verbal threat and abuse, suicide, gun possession, assault with a gun or a knife and many others. In 1999–2000, 20 % of all public schools experienced one or more serious violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Seventy one percent of public schools reported violent incidents and 46 % reported thefts. Schools have to choose different methods to deal with the problem as statistics shows that the methods used before do not justify themselves as the school violence rate increases with the flow of time. School-management–based programs become more and more popular as they let to deal with the problem in each separate school taking into account all peculiarities of the situation. Schools use punitive and preventive measures dealing with this problem. Preventive measures include timely informing students about the different types of school violence and means to confront it. These activities should include not only pupils, but also their families and close surrounding. Teachers should also undergo special training in order to learn how to deal with different kinds of school violence.

Workplace violence is another serious problem of the modern society. Very often people work in stressful conditions and workplace violence is one of the main reasons of the stress experienced as the work place. Workplace violence can be defined as any kind of threat, abuse, assault or intimidation, which occurs at the work place. Threatening behavior can include threatening gestures or damage to the physical objects. Verbal or written threats usually include insults, condescending language, using obscenity or swearing. Harassment can take the form of any actions unwelcome by another person. Workplace violence can range from rumors and arguments to rape or murder at the workplace. Workplace violence prevention should become the object of concern of every organization. Nowadays, special violence prevention programs are developed in order to prevent or limit the workplace violence. The main aim of these programs is to inform employees about the different forms of workplace violence and about their rights to defense themselves. Prevention programs should also inform about the consequences of turning to violence at the workplace. They should also include the list of preventive measures, such as lectures, training and meetings dedicated to the problem of workplace violence. Different Employee Assistance Programs and Committees are created in order to help employees.