Violence in the workplace is widely recognized as a major public health issue. Occupational homicide rates have continued to rise throughout the 1990s, despite declining rates of occupational death from all major unintentional causes. The majority of occupational homicides are the result of robbery, or attempted robbery, of the workplace. This case-control study will focus on workplace and event-phase risk factors for workplace robbery- homicide. The study will compare workplace robberies which result in homicide (cases) to robberies which do not result in homicide (controls). Cases will be defined as all occupational homicides, as a result of robbery or attempted robbery, in the state of North Carolina for the period 1994-99 and will be identified through the state medical examiner system. For every case, two controls will be selected from investigations of workplace robberies, not resulting in homicide, conducted by the same law enforcement agency that investigated the case. Controls will be identified using the Uniform Crime Reporting System maintained by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Approximately 90 cases and 180 controls will be enrolled in this 2.5 year study. This study will utilize and extend the successful methodologies, collaborations, and databases developed in connection with recent studies of occupational injury and homicide. The study will make a significant contribution to our knowledge about how best to reduce the incidence of occupational robbery-homicide.
