A city parks crew builds a consequence scale that jumps from 'scratch' straight to 'death,' with no bands for serious injury or lost-time harm. What is missing from this scale?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A scale that only knows 'scratch' and 'death' is like a speedometer with two marks. Real work sits in the middle bands—broken bones, lost time, serious injury. Graduated levels let teams rate harm honestly instead of forcing everything into extremes.
Full Explanation
Consequence scales support consistent comparison when they define graduated severity bands, not only endpoints. Omitting intermediate levels forces raters to overstate or understate harm and weakens prioritization. Civic operations need shared definitions for minor through catastrophic outcomes so dissimilar incidents remain comparable. Anchored mid-levels also improve register narrative quality and treatment decisions.