Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, is a pioneer in the study of gun violence as a public health issue. In his latest report, he argues that background checks should be required for the 40 percent of firearms sales made by private parties, rather than licensed dealers.

To mark International Women’s Day this past March 8, which focused on “violence against women,” the International Labour Organization is highlighting the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace – an often subtle but disturbing form of aggression.

Violence is not just a law enforcement problem. It is a public health problem of vast proportions. Each year, violence kills 55,000 people in the United States. Violence takes a particular toll on youth. Every day, 13 young people between the ages of 10 and 24 are killed, making homicide the third leading cause of death in this age group.

President Obama on Wednesday announced his multi-prong campaign “to do the right thing” to protect the public from gun violence. Stated the White House in a prepared statement: “There are approximately 30,000 firearm-related homicides and suicides a year, a number large enough to make clear this is a public health crisis.

Despite widespread concern about work-related stress and workplace violence, most European companies still don’t have procedures in place for managing psychosocial risks, according to two new reports from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

A man reportedly seeking money for drugs walked into a Whip-In convenience store in Garland, Texas in May, allegedly doused 76-year-old Nancy Harris with a flammable liquid and then set her on fire – after cleaning out the cash register.

OSHA has cited ResCare Ohio Inc. for exposing employees to workplace violence at the company's Fairfield residential care facility, which operates as Camelot Lake. Proposed penalties total $8,700.
 

Increasingly violent attacks against workers at an Idaho group home have led to an OSHA citation and a penalty of $4,900. OSHA has cited South Park Inc., operating as Developmental Options in Pocatello, with one serious violation for failing to provide employees with adequate safeguards against workplace violence.

Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Injury Control Research Center at West Virginia University (WVU-ICRC) have found that intimate partner violence resulted in 142 homicides among women at work in the U.S. from 2003 to 2008, a figure which represents 22% of the 648 workplace homicides among women during the period.

The beating of a worker at a Wisconsin specialty hospital was only the tip of the iceberg, according to OSHA investigators,who discovered that staff members at the facility had been assaulted numerous times.