Despite widespread recognition of the harm caused by workplace aggression, there remains a significant gap between academic evidence and the way prevention is conceptualised and operationalised in policy. While international and national efforts—such as ILO conventions and national health and safety regulations—signal increasing commitment to addressing workplace violence, policy frameworks often fall short in translating scientific insights into actionable prevention strategies. One major gap is the lack of conceptual clarity around what "prevention" entails in the context of workplace aggression. Academic research has long emphasised that aggression at work is a dynamic and relational phenomenon involving not only targets, but also perpetrators and bystanders, with distinct responsibilities and vulnerabilities.
However, this multi-actor and multi-level understanding is rarely reflected in existing statutory or soft policies. The narrow focus on reactive interventions and individualised solutions neglects the structural and relational drivers of aggression, undermining the potential for sustainable change. Prevention is frequently reduced to vague compliance measures or generic training, rather than differentiated interventions aligned with primary, secondary, and tertiary levels across different actors.
In this invited panel, we aim to advance a more nuanced, evidence-informed conversation about workplace aggression prevention by drawing on findings from a comprehensive policy mapping of statutory hard and soft regulations in the UK, Italy, and the EU. The mapping critically examined how policies define workplace aggression, conceptualise prevention, and incorporate (or fail to incorporate) relational and systemic dimensions.
By bringing together applied psychologists and policy researchers, this panel will explore how to reframe prevention in policy through a multi-actor lens. In doing so, we seek to bridge the gap between regulatory intention and practical implementation, and to promote the integration of robust, evidence-based frameworks that reflect the social complexity of workplace aggression.