WORKPLACE VIOLENCE IN PRIVATE SECURITY OCCUPATIONS - A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND A SURVEY STUDY IN FINNISH CONTEXT

Occupations in private security industry are among the riskiest occupations in terms of workplace violence. Online survey was sent to private security companies and related organisations to collect data on prevalence and forms of workplace violence in private security occupations. Sample consisted of 539 respondents. Systematic literature review was conducted to explore previous research. Descriptive statistics was used to study prevalence and forms of workplace violence and chi-square test for independence was used to reveal significant differences between background variables and exposure to workplace violence. The findings indicate that private security employees experience a lot of verbal and physical violence as well as threats of violence. Results also indicate that some environments have higher prevalence of violence than others. Finally, these results were compared to very limited previous research and the results indicate that prevalence is similar or higher (physical violence) among this sample than what is reported in other similar studies