What is the evidence? Preventing psychological violence in the workplace

Although criminology has actively engaged with psychological violence in the context of domestic violence and child abuse, it has been slower coming to the fore when it comes to such violence in the workplace. This is despite the well-documented human, organisational, community and service costs associated with such victimisation. As demonstrated in this review, the bulk of strategies that have been trialled to date has been devised from psychology, management and organisational development perspectives. However, there is a paucity of evidence that any of the interventions that are widely promoted have been subjected to robust evaluations or provided evidence of any long-term reduction in the incidence of violence as a consequence of such interventions. Acknowledging there no easy single recipe, it is timely to consider the potential of alternative approaches including the application of guardianship and related principles from the routine activity approach, which are well-established strategies for prevention of victimisation in a range of contexts as set out in this review.