England and US less violent than rest of world; Wild Speculation Activate!

A new International Labor Organization (which I don't think is part of the Communist Party but sure as hell sounds like it is) study shows that at-work violence is increasing in basically every country surveyed except England and the US:

A 2000 survey of the then-15 Member States of the European Union showed that bullying, harassment and intimidation were widespread in the region. In Germany, a 2002 study estimated that more than 800,000 workers were victims of mobbing, i.e a group of workers targeting an individual for psychological harassment. In Spain, an estimated 22 per cent of officials in public administration were victims of mobbing. In France, the number of acts of aggression against French transport workers, including taxicab drivers, rose from 3,051 in 2001 to 3,185 in 2002

In Japan, the number of cases brought before court counselors totaled 625,572 between April 2002 and March 2003. Of these, 5.1 per cent, or almost 32,000, were related to harassment and bullying, whereas, from April to September 2003 a 51,444 consultations requests, 9.6 per cent concerned bullying and harassment.

In developing countries, the most vulnerable workers include women, migrants and children, according to the report. In Malaysia, 11,851 rape and molestation cases at the workplace were reported between 1997 and May 2001. Widespread sexual harassment and abuse were major concerns in South Africa, Ukraine, Kuwait and Hong Kong, China, among others, the report said.

In South Africa, workers in the health care sector bear the brunt of workplace violence, according to the study. Over one 12-month period, a survey showed 9 per cent of those employed in the private health sector and up to 17 per cent of those in the public sector experienced physical violence.

On a more positive note, the study cited improvements in England, Wales and the United States. In England and Wales, the estimated 849,000 incidents of workplace violence in 2002-2003, including 431,000 physical assaults and 418,000 threats, represented a decline from 1.3 million such incidents cited in a previous survey. In the United States, where homicide is the third leading cause of death at work, the number of workplace murders has declined in recent years, with a similar trend for non-fatal assaults. The report says women represent approximately 61 per cent of all victimized workers because of their concentration in jobs considered high-risk for assault.

Go go gadget wild speculation. I hate stories like this if for no other reason than they encourage people to speculate where speculation is not particularly helpful. "Maybe it is because the English language pacifies people." "Maybe the War of Terror has people afraid." "Maybe the CIA is allied with MI-6 to put something in the water."

We saw similar speculation when a survey revealed that British people are on average dramatically healthier than Americans. The reflexive answer was "National Health Care!", but if you look closely at the data you find that British people still have a socioeconomic gradient in health even though they have a national health system. The issue probably has something to do with health care delivery, but it is also much more complicated than that.

The take home is that whenever you read something like this, try to avoid making too extreme a claim as to cause. Such claims need more evaluation before they can be proven true, and the reality is always more complicated than a single study.

Hat-tip: Daniel Drezner (who incidentally has a comments section on trying to explain the cause...I will be interested to see what gets posted)