ABSTRACT
The first step in developing a personal safety strategy is for the organization to produce working definitions to clarify just what it is that is being addressed. Violence and aggression are often spoken of as if it is perfectly clear what they are, and indeed the two terms are often used interchangeably. Individual perceptions of violence and aggression differ, however. It is all too easy to assume that there is some shared, readily understood concept of such behaviour, as well as common knowledge of the scale of violence and aggression at work and elsewhere.
