Verbal violence in the workplace according to victims' sex—a systematic review of the literature

•This review assesses verbal violence according to sex across occupational domains.•A majority of studies do not show differences between men and women.•In studies with significant sex differences, men are more often at risk.

Verbal abuse is the most prevalent form of workplace violence. Its impacts on organizations as well as on victims' health are numerous. Several studies have emphasized the need to take into consideration victims' characteristics, in particular sex, to better understand rates of verbal violence in the workplace. Indeed, study results are contradictory, as some show women to be more at risk while others indicate that men would be more exposed. These variations could in part be explained by other factors that influence the prevalence of workplace violence, such as occupational domain and job characteristics. This review of literature thus aimed to describe the prevalence of verbal violence according to sex across occupational domains. Results showed that a majority of studies concluded to no significant sex differences. Among the studies with significant results, men tended to be more at risk than women. However, due to several limitations, it was not possible to draw conclusions as regards specific occupations. Conclusions of this review lead to specific recommendations for future research.