Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Aggression and Violent Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aggviobeh What is the evidence? Preventing psychological violence in the workplace Emily Schindeler a,⁎ , Danielle M. Reynald b a Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt, Queensland 4122, Australia b School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Psychological violence Workplace violence Guardianship Prevention Intervention ABSTRACT 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 victi- misation. 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 interven- tions. 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. 1. The problem Internationally there has been growing recognition that psycholo- gical violence has become a significant cause of workplace injury, with mounting costs not only for individual targets, but equally for busi- nesses, for governments and for the community. Although historically there has been limited attention to the injury done by such violence, increasing awareness of the social, legal and institutional costs of psy- chological violence has stimulated the interest of governments, reg- ulators, researchers and businesses. In recognition of the problem, there have been international efforts to determine the prevalence of such violence. However, global com- parisons have not been easily achieved. Part of the challenge has been the failure to establish a single internationally agreed definition 1 and unequivocal evidence of the difference between endorsed definitions and the perceptions and experience reported by those who have been targets or witnesses of such abuse (Way, Jimmieson, Bordie, and Hepworth, 2013; Bentley et al., 2009). A second obstacle has been a lack of consensus on the best means of measurement (that is how fre- quency is determined). Nonetheless, there is universal acknowl- edgement that a substantial number of victims will not report the abuse, whether due to fear of reprisals, or lack of confidence that action will be taken, or feeling compelled to resign due to the health injuries arising from such mistreatment. Despite the considerable variation in the methods employed to measure prevalence, international studies point, at a minimum, to the practical scope of the problem. For example, the 2015 European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound, 2013) survey involving 43,000 workers from 35 countries found an average of 16% of workers reported having experienced some form of verbal abuse, threats, humiliating behaviour and sexual atten- tion – an escalation from the previous survey 12 months prior. In the United States some 7% of workers reported experiencing such abuse (Alterman, Luckhaupt, Dahlhamer, Ward, & Calvert, 2013; Namie, Christensen and Phillips, 2014). Safe Work Australia (2014:33) esti- mated that 3.5% or 195,700 workers experienced psycho-social injuries during the 2012 year, with an estimated cost of $11.6 billion per year. Given the prevalence, the costs and the impact of psychological violence, efforts have been made to identify and implement responses intended to minimise risk and deliver more effective responses where the problem arises. Initiatives designed to address potential risk factors have been trialled in public, private and non-government organisations. These strategies have been developed primarily from the disciplinary frameworks of psychology and organisational development or man- agement. Elements or methods that have been promoted as effective in addressing risk factors for such violence have focused on issues such as promoting the use of organisational policy and procedures, adopting recommended management styles, addressing organisational culture, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2017.07.004 Received 3 November 2016; Received in revised form 3 May 2017; Accepted 6 July 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: e.schindeler@griffith.edu.au (E. Schindeler). 1 Psychological violence is taken to include behaviours which are harassing, bullying, threats, verbal abuse, isolating and alienating and are designed to intimidate the target of such abuse. 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