Employer-on-Employee Violence: Type V Workplace Violence

• NCJ Number: 219069
• Journal: Acta Criminologica Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 60-70
• Author(s): D. L. Kgosimore
• Date Published: 2004
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: South Africa
• Note: Downloaded July 3, 2007. To access the full text PDF: 1) select the provided PDF link; 2) from the Acta Criminologica Web site, select "Table of Contents"; 3) select the corresponding Volume and Issue (see the NCJRS abstract record for the exact Volume and Issue); 4) scroll the Table of Contents to the exact article; and 5) click on the "full text" icon.

Annotation

After a general overview of employer-on-employee workplace violence, this article reviews the literature on this type of workplace violence on farms and domestic settings in South Africa.

Abstract

Workplace violence is any form of physical or nonphysical violence committed by an employer that directly or indirectly negatively affects employees. Nonphysical violence includes abusive harassment and the creation of workplace conditions that have indirect adverse mental and physical effects on employees. In typing workplace violence, employer-on-employee violence has been classified as Type V workplace violence to distinguish it from the four traditional classifications of workplace violence: stranger, customers/clients, coworkers, and employee domestic or personal conflicts. In South Africa, much of the Type V workplace violence can be explained by the lingering effects of South Africa's sociopolitical structure of colonialism and apartheid. According to Ainslie 1991), the roots of apartheid are embedded in the White-owned farms, where interactions between White employers and Black employees are forged under a "master and servant" model. Human Rights Watch (2001) has noted that violent crime on South Africa's farms has recently become a high profile media and political issue. Some of this attention has focused on assaults on farm workers and their forced removal from their homes by White farm owners who are their employers. Domestic workers in private homes in South Africa perform tasks that include cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing, walking the children to the park, and doing shopping. Like on the farm, the domestic workplace reflects apartheid's "master servant model." In the privacy of the domestic setting, domestic workers are subjected to expressions of employers' anger/rage; harassment; verbal intimidation; and violence that include rape and physical assault. A 42-item bibliography