The prevalence of victimization and perceptions of job neighborhood safety in a social service agency and the need for screening

Abstract

Because staff attitudes and affects are impediments or strengths in appropriately assessing and managing traumatized or violent patients, the authors discuss the need to explore staff's experience with trauma and violence. A survey of social service field and administrative office-based staff revealed that numerous staff had experienced traumatic events. Compared with staff based in a downtown administrative office, significantly more field-based staff were dissatisfied with their job's neighborhood and perceived their job's neighborhood as a dangerous place to work. Further, significantly more field staff perceived that their job's neighbors would be "unlikely" to intervene in observed antisocial behaviors. In our sample of primarily female, African-American, social service staff, the ratio of victimization was higher than rates in other studies. Screening social service staff for experiences of trauma and victimization and asking about their perceptions about their job's neighborhood will help leadership shape efforts to address these dynamics. By addressing staff's perceptions of their job's neighborhood, leadership can influence staff's willingness to participate in proactive community organizing and prevention activities designed to reduce violence and increase safety. Several recommendations to reduce violence in the workplace are presented.