Exploring Violent Deaths Among Georgia Workers by Occupation, 2006-2009

BACKGROUND: Nearly 6,800 persons aged 16 years and older died from a violent death (homicide or suicide) in Georgia during 2006-2009.  The potential relationships between violent deaths and victims’ occupation have not been thoroughly examined in Georgia.  The Georgia Violent Death Reporting System (GVDRS), which is a part of the national VDRS, collects data on violent deaths from death certificates, medical examiner and/or coroner records, police reports, supplemental homicide reports, and crime laboratory records. Use of GVDRS data provides a unique opportunity to explore violent deaths among Georgia workers.

METHODS: The occupational text fields available in the GVDRS database were recoded into the 20 major occupation categories based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2010 Standard Occupational Classification to determine rates of violent deaths that occurred during 2006-2009 among Georgia workers aged 16 years and older.  Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic characteristics and event circumstances of persons working in the leading violent death occupations.

RESULTS: A total of 4,836 Georgia workers aged 16 years and older were victims of a violent death during 2006-2009. Of these deaths, 2,996 were suicides and 1,840 were homicides. From 2006-2009, construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of violent deaths of all occupations. Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had the highest rate of violent deaths at 83.5 per 100,000 workers followed by construction and extraction occupations at 69.7 per 100,000. Males working in construction had a higher rate of violent death (70.9 per 100,000) than males in the overall Georgia population aged 16 years and older (39.6 per 100,000). Female construction workers had a three times higher rate of being a victim of a violent death (26.9 per 100,000) compared to females overall in Georgia (9.2 per 100,000). Farming and construction occupations remained the leading occupations for violent deaths among each sex and race/ethnicity category. The top three circumstances surrounding a violent death for construction workers were:  1) having an argument, abuse, or conflict; 2) experiencing intimate partner violence; and, 3) having a crisis in the past two weeks.

CONCLUSIONS: Georgia workers in farming, forestry, fishing and construction occupations were more frequently the victims of a violent death than persons in all other occupations.  This analysis shows the need to ensure that workers in occupations with high rates of violent deaths have access to suicide prevention services and interventions for intimate partner violence.