Reporting client violence

Much has been written about client violence against social workers; however , little attention has been given to reporting behavior of social workers w ho have been the target of such violence. The study discussed in this artic le documents the prevalence of client violence among a sample of social wor kers from a broad range of social work settings. It examines respondents' r easons for not reporting or for reporting client violence to management. A random sample of 300 social workers was mailed a questionnaire that examine d these issues. A total of 171 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 57 percent. The majority of respondents had experienced some form of violence from clients. Approximately one-quarter of respondents indicate d that they did not report an incident of violence perpetrated against them by a client.