
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                   TAG: 9406210121
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WORKPLACE HOMICIDES EXPLOITED?

Dr. Park E. Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who is one of the nation's leading behavioral experts on serial killers and mass killings, blames the media for the proliferation of workplace homicides in recent years. But he says employers and employees need to take a more active role in preventing such tragedies.

Dietz was at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel Friday leading a daylong seminar, "Workplace Violence," which was sponsored by several organizations, including the Management Association of Western Virginia.

"Mass killings in the workplace are on the rise entirely because of the marketing of this phenomenon as a suicide fad by the media," he said. "It will go away and decrease as soon as the media decides it's done enough."

When people who are suicidal and displeased at work see accounts of workplace killings, it gives them another option for resolving their conflict, he explained: revenge.

"There is no beneficial purpose for national stories about single-site murders. Each time one becomes a national story, more will follow."

Speaking about what companies can do to prevent workplace violence, Dietz said they "need to have a lot of flexibility and get away from the old ways of doing things" when handling disputes among employees.

To that end, he recommends "therapeutic termination" as one possibility for employees who may pose a threat to others. He said company-provided psychiatric treatment after firing, as well as counseling about nonviolent ways to solve problems, can be a big help.

Also, he said, most disputes can be defused easily with early intervention, increased communication with employees about problem workers, and a pre-established system for dealing with disgruntled employees.

"A lot of these cases arise from people who feel no one's willing to listen to them. The mere act of listening [by management] can be one of the most effective preventions" of violence.

A former professor of law, behavioral medicine and psychiatry at the University of Virginia, Dietz now is a clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine. He also directs the Threat Assessment Group, an independent consulting firm that evaluates potential workplace threats for Fortune 500 companies.

Dietz, subject of a recent profile in The New Yorker magazine, was a member of former Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography. He has been consulted in the cases of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley.

Dietz also says that Dr. Hannibal Lechter, the fictional serial killer/psychiatrist from the film "Silence of the Lambs," is rumored to have been based, in part, on him. But he demurs. "I don't share his tastes in anything. Not even the fine food and good music he likes. I like barbecue and rock 'n' roll."

by CNB