er, Patrick H. Sherrill, facing possible dismissal after a troubled work history, walked into the Edmond Oklahoma post office where he worked and shot 14 people to death before killing himself [ CITATION Bal16 l 1033 ]. This tragedy was not the first act of violence of its kind during that time period. Within three years of this incident there were four postal employees shot to death by present and former coworkers in different shootings. Although these shootings all occurred within a similar timespan, the Edmond homicides raised public awareness. Postal shootings continued into the mid-1990s when the coined epigram "going postal" was introduced. The popularization of this phrase along with the continued shootings focused attention on organizations and research on the concept of workplace violence. Furthermore, the timing of the postal shootings coincided with the APA-NIOSH initiative on occupational health psychology and the inauguration of the APA-NIOSH Work, Stress, and Health Conferences [ CITATION Sau99 l 1033 ]. Media attention highlighted the problem at the same time as researchers concerned with health and safety in the workplace were beginning to come together in a more organized fashion. Workplace Violence emerged as an issue at the first conference, and by the second conference it was the main focus and would result in the influential collection of papers on the topic [CITATION Van96 l 1033 ].
It’s important to highlight differences between the types of workplace violence. The FBI recognizes four categories of workplace violence. Type 1 is violent acts by criminals who don't have a connection to the workplace but enter to commit robbery or another crime [ CITATION Rug03 l 1033 ]. Criminals unconnected to the workplace accounts for the vast majority of workplace violence and is associated with 80% of all violent acts [CITATION Bur13 l 1033 ]. On November 14, 1996, my brother was nearly a victim of this type of c...