Workplace violence covers a broad range of situations, including robberies of service employees such as sales clerks and taxi drivers, assaults on police officers, prison guards, and other public safety personnel, attacks on healthcare workers by patients, fights between co-workers or "revenge attacks" by former or current employees, and assaults by strangers that are not related to any particular type of work.

OSHA regulates workplace violence under the General Duty Clause. It is viewed as a serious safety and health issue because:

• Homicide is the third leading cause of work-related deaths.
• According to studies, as many as 1 million Americans each year are the victims of nonfatal work-related assaults.
• While the highest percentage of workplace assaults are in the service, healthcare, and retail industries, incidents of violence occur in all industries regardless of race, age, or gender.