Ticket Inspectors in Action: Body-worn Camera Analysis of Aggressive and Non-aggressive Passenger Encounters

Abstract

Objective: Workplace aggression is a harmful occupational hazard, which has been associated with individual and organizational level risk factors. By comparison, little is known about the face-to-face interactional dynamics that shape employee victimizations. To address this gap, we provide an interactional analysis of how ticket inspector actions are asso-ciated with the risk of passenger aggression. Method: Data was a video sample of 123 ticket fining events from public buses recorded by occupational body-worn cameras. We systemati-cally coded the inspector and passenger actions in each fining event. The individual and inter-actional risk factors associated with passenger aggression were estimated with a logistic re-gression model. Results: Our empirical analysis suggests that aggressive fining events unfold as “character contests,” in which the actions of the inspectors are associated with the aggres-sive outcome. Conclusions: These findings are in line with situational approaches to violence highlighting that aggressive incidents often develop as an interplay between victim and of-fender actions. We propose focusing on the behavioral actions of employees for prevention measures of workplace aggression.