ABSTRACT
Staff violence against those in their care is one of the last of the taboo areas revealed in workplace violence discourse. It is paradoxical that those whose overriding responsibility is to provide care and promote an environment in which the human rights, values, customs and spiritual beliefs of those in their care should be respected, should at the same time be also potentially capable of violent actions against those they are committed to care for. Furthermore, those who are targeted have the potential to have traumatic experiences similar to victims of violent crime in other contexts.
