NCJ Number
104740
Date Published
1986
Length
160 pages
Annotation
British national data and data from one social services department were used to determine the incidence and worker and situational correlates of client violence toward social workers, followed by suggestions for addressing such violence.
Abstract
A questionnaire sent to all social service departments in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (a 31-percent return rate) obtained a crude cumulative average incidence rate for physical assault by clients for 1978-1982. A scanning questionnaire sent to all social workers with direct client contact in one Shire County (62-percent response rate) collected data on worker and job characteristics as well as the incidence and severity of client physical assaults. Thirty of the field social workers were matched with 30 nonassaulted field social workers by sex, age, employment status, and workplace. The match was replicated for 30 assaulted and 30 nonassaulted residential social workers. Interviews with all 120 social workers focused on personal and situational correlates of client-worker violence. All those interviewed, whether assaulted or nonassaulted, had few skills in the prevention and management of violence. There were no significant worker correlates of violence. Assaulted field social workers were distinguished from residential assaulted workers by clients' sex, the number of mentally ill clients on caseload, assault location, injury severity, and effect on practice. A process model conceptualizes the range of factors that influence client-worker violence, and the key input points for training are indicated. 57 tables, 3 figures, and 67 references.