Violence

Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation";<ref>Template:Cite book‌</ref> it recognizes the need to include violence not resulting in injury or death.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:TOC limit

Categories

Typology of violence<ref name="WHO2002" />

The World Health Organization (WHO) divides violence into three broad categories: self-directed, interpersonal, and collective.<ref name="WHO2002" /> This categorization differentiates between violence inflicted to and by oneself, by another individual or a small group, and by larger groups such as states. Alternatively, violence can primarily be classified as either instrumental or hostile.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Self-inflicted

Self-inflicted violence comes in two forms. The first is suicidal behaviour, which includes suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. The second is self-harm, which includes acts such as self-mutilation.

Cain slaying Abel, by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1600

Collective

Massacre of Polish civilians during Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland, December 1939

According to WHO, collective violence refers to "the instrumental use of violence by people who identify themselves as members of a group – whether this group is transitory or has a more permanent identity – against another group or set of individuals in order to achieve political, economic or social objectives".<ref name=WHO2014/>Template:Rp Collective violence may be "targeted"<ref>Fein, R.A., Vossekuil, B. & Holden, G. Threat Assessment: an approach to prevent targeted violence. NCJ 155000. Research in Action, September 1995, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C.</ref><ref>Fein, R.A. & Vossekuil, B. "Assassination in the United States: an operational study of recent assassins, attackers, and near-lethal approaches". Journal of Forensic Sciences, 1999. 50: pp. 321–33</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Fein, R.A., Vossekuil, B., Pollack, W., Borum, R., Reddy, M.,& Modzeleski, W. Threat assessment in schools: A guide to managing threatening situations and creating safe school climates. U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Secret Service, May 2002</ref><ref>Reddy, M., Borum, R., Vossekuil, B., Fein, R.A., Berglund, J., & Modzeleski, W. "Evaluating risk for targeted violence in schools: Comparing risk assessment, threat assessment, and other approaches" in Psychology in the Schools, 2001. 38 (2): pp. 157–72</ref><ref>Borum, R., Fein, R.A., Vossekuil, B. & Berglund, J. "Threat assessment: Defining an approach for evaluating risk of targeted violence". Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 1999. 17: pp. 323–37</ref> or stochastic.

Political violence includes conflicts led by communities, by states, and by other kinds of groups. The most extreme form of collective violence is when conflicts are prolonged, large-scale, and political: war.<ref>Šmihula, Daniel (2013): The Use of Force in International Relations, p. 64, Template:ISBN.</ref> Explaining wars requires multi-factorial analysis.<ref name="Balcells">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Economic violence includes attacks motivated by economic gain—such as attacks carried out with the purpose of disrupting economic activity, denying access to essential services, or creating economic division and fragmentation.

Slow violence is often invisible, gradual, and structural; it obtains through degradation, attrition, and pollution.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Structural violence is a form of violence wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or rights.

Interpersonal

Saul attacks David (who had been playing music to help Saul feel better), 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld

Interpersonal violence can be subdivided in many ways: types of abuse (physical, emotional, etc); locations where it occurs (home, work, etc); age disparity between the persons in the relationship (child, elder). It can affect the victims' other relationships in the short- and long-terms.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Location

Template:See also Intimate partner violence (or domestic violence) involves physical, sexual and emotional violence by an intimate partner or ex-partner. Although males can also be victims, intimate partner violence disproportionately affects females. It commonly occurs against girls within child marriages and early/forced marriages. Among romantically involved but unmarried adolescents it is sometimes called "dating violence".<ref name=WHOViolenceagainstchildrenFactSheet/>

A recent theory named "The Criminal Spin" suggests a mutual flywheel effect between partners that is manifested by an escalation in the violence.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A violent spin may occur in any other forms of violence, but in Intimate partner violence the added value is the mutual spin, based on the unique situation and characteristics of intimate relationship.

The primary prevention strategy with the best evidence for effectiveness for intimate partner violence is school-based programming for adolescents to prevent violence within dating relationships.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Evidence is emerging for the effectiveness of several other primary prevention strategies—those that: combine microfinance with gender equality training;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> promote communication and relationship skills within communities; reduce access to, and the harmful use of alcohol; and change cultural gender norms.<ref name="who">WHO(2010)."Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: Taking action and generating evidence" Template:Webarchive World Health Organization: Geneva</ref>

Age disparity

Violence against children includes all forms of violence against people under 18 years old, whether perpetrated by parents or other caregivers, peers, romantic partners, or strangers.<ref name=WHOViolenceagainstchildrenFactSheet>Template:Cite web</ref> Maltreatment (including violent punishment) involves physical, sexual and psychological/emotional violence; and neglect of infants, children and adolescents by parents, caregivers and other authority figures, most often in the home but also in settings such as schools and orphanages. It includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other child exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust, or power. Exposure to intimate partner violence is also sometimes included as a form of child maltreatment.<ref>World Health Organization (2006). "Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence" Template:Webarchive Geneva: WHO and International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.</ref>

There are no reliable global estimates for the prevalence of child maltreatment. Data for many countries, especially low- and middle-income countries, are lacking. Current estimates vary widely depending on the country and the method of research used. Approximately 20% of women and 5–10% of men report being sexually abused as children, while 25–50% of all children report being physically abused.<ref name=WHO2002/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Exposure to any form of trauma, particularly in childhood, can increase the risk of mental illness and suicide; smoking, alcohol and substance abuse; chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer; and social problems such as poverty, crime and violence.<ref name=WHOInjuriesandviolenceFactSheet/> Child maltreatment is a global problem with serious lifelong consequences.<ref name=Shechter2009>Schechter DS, Willheim E (2009). The Effects of Violent Experience and Maltreatment on Infants and Young Children. In CH Zeanah (Ed.). Handbook of Infant Mental Health, 3rd Edition. New York: Guilford Press, Inc. pp. 197–214.</ref> It is complex and difficult to study.<ref name=Shechter2009/> Consequences of child maltreatment include impaired lifelong physical and mental health, and social and occupational functioning (e.g. school, job, and relationship difficulties). These can ultimately slow a country's economic and social development.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Preventing child maltreatment before it starts is possible and requires a multisectoral approach. Effective prevention programmes support parents and teach positive parenting skills. Ongoing care of children and families can reduce the risk of maltreatment reoccurring and can minimize its consequences.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Elder maltreatment is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person. While there is little information regarding the extent of maltreatment in elderly populations, especially in developing countries, it is estimated that 4–6% of elderly people in high-income countries have experienced some form of maltreatment at home<ref>Sethi et al. "WHO European report on preventing elder maltreatment" Template:Webarchive, 2011</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, older people are often afraid to report cases of maltreatment to family, friends, or to the authorities. Data on the extent of the problem in institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are scarce. Elder maltreatment can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences. Elder maltreatment is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations.

Types of abuse

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall (JBM-HH) roundtable addressing digital stalking, ties to intimate partner violence

Psychological (or emotional) violence includes restricting a person's movements, denigration, ridicule, threats and intimidation, discrimination, rejection and other non-physical forms of hostile treatment.<ref name=WHOViolenceagainstchildrenFactSheet/>

Meeting of victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed against a person's sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with a penis, other body part or object.<ref>Krug et al.,"World report on violence and health" Template:Webarchive, World Health Organization, 2002, p. 149.</ref>

An anthropological concept,"everyday violence" may refer to the incorporation of different forms of violence (mainly political violence) into daily practices.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sexual violence has serious short- and long-term consequences on physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health for victims and for their children as described in the section on intimate partner violence. If perpetrated during childhood, sexual violence can lead to increased smoking,<ref>Ford, S.E. et al. (2011). "Adverse childhood experiences and smoking status in five states". Preventive Medicine: 43, 3, 188–93.</ref> drug and alcohol misuse, and risky sexual behaviors in later life. It is also associated with perpetration of violence and being a victim of violence.

Many of the risk factors for sexual violence are the same as for domestic violence. Risk factors specific to sexual violence perpetration include beliefs in family honor and sexual purity, ideologies of male sexual entitlement and weak legal sanctions for sexual violence.

Few interventions to prevent sexual violence have been demonstrated to be effective. School-based programmes to prevent child sexual abuse by teaching children to recognize and avoid potentially sexually abusive situations are run in many parts of the world and appear promising, but require further research. To achieve lasting change, it is important to enact legislation and develop policies that protect women; address discrimination against women and promote gender equality; and help to move the culture away from violence.<ref name="who" />

Impact

A sculpture in Petah Tikva, Israel of a padlock on the warped barrel of a semi-automatic pistol, with the inscription "stop violence!" in (Template:Langx)

The Institute for Economics and Peace, estimated that the economic impact of violence and conflict on the global economy, the total economic impact of violence on the world economy in 2024 was estimated to be $17.5 trillion.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

The incidence of violence can lead to adverse health effects. Mental health issues include depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Physical health issues include cardiovascular diseases and premature mortality. Health effects can be cumulative.<ref>Template:Cite journal‌</ref>

Intimate partner and sexual violence have serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for victims and for their children, and lead to high social and economic costs. These include both fatal and non-fatal injuries, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Prevalence

Injuries and violence are a significant cause of death and burden of disease in all countries; however, they are not evenly distributed across or within countries.<ref name=WHOInjuriesandviolenceFactSheet>Template:Cite web</ref> Violence-related injuries kill 1.25 million people every year, as of 2024.<ref name=WHOInjuriesandviolenceFactSheet/> This is relatively similar to 2014 (1.3 million people or 2.5% of global mortality), 2013 (1.28 million people) and 1990 (1.13 million people).<ref name=WHO2014>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref name=GDB2013>Template:Cite journal</ref> For people aged 15–44 years, violence is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, as of 2014.<ref name=WHO2014/>Template:Rp Between 1990 and 2013, age-standardised death rates fell for self-harm and interpersonal violence.<ref name=GDB2013 />Template:Rp Of the deaths in 2013, roughly 842,000 were attributed to suicide, 405,000 to interpersonal violence, and 31,000 to collective violence and legal intervention.<ref name=GDB2013 /> For each single death due to violence, there are dozens of hospitalizations, hundreds of emergency department visits, and thousands of doctors' appointments.<ref>"Global Burden of Disease" Template:Webarchive, World Health Organization, 2008.</ref> Furthermore, violence often has lifelong consequences for physical and mental health and social functioning and can slow economic and social development. It's particularly the case if it happened in childhood.<ref name=WHOInjuriesandviolenceFactSheet/>

In 2013, of the estimated 405,000 deaths due to interpersonal violence globally, assault by firearm was the cause in 180,000 deaths, assault by sharp object was the cause in 114,000 deaths, and the remaining 110,000 deaths from other causes.<ref name=GDB2013 />

Estimates of disability-adjusted life years from physical violence, per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Div col Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Div col end

Deaths due to interpersonal violence per million persons in 2012 Template:Div colTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:LegendTemplate:Div col end

As of 2010, all forms of violence resulted in about 1.34 million deaths up from about 1 million in 1990.<ref name=Loz2012>Template:Cite journal</ref> Suicide accounts for about 883,000, interpersonal violence for 456,000 and collective violence for 18,000.<ref name=Loz2012 /> Deaths due to collective violence have decreased from 64,000 in 1990.<ref name=Loz2012 />

By way of comparison, the 1.5 millions deaths a year due to violence is greater than the number of deaths due to tuberculosis (1.34 million), road traffic injuries (1.21 million), and malaria (830'000), but slightly less than the number of people who die from HIV/AIDS (1.77 million).<ref>"Global Burden of Disease, Disease and injury regional estimates" Template:Webarchive, World Health Organization, 2008.</ref>

For every death due to violence, there are numerous nonfatal injuries. In 2008, over 16 million cases of non-fatal violence-related injuries were severe enough to require medical attention. Beyond deaths and injuries, forms of violence such as child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and elder maltreatment have been found to be highly prevalent.

In the last 45 years, suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide.<ref name="Suicide">Template:Cite web</ref> Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15–44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10–24 years age group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These figures do not include suicide attempts which are up to 20 times more frequent than suicide.<ref name="Suicide"/> Suicide was the 16th leading cause of death worldwide in 2004 and is projected to increase to the 12th in 2030.<ref>"World Health Statistics" Template:Webarchive World Health Organization, 2008.</ref> Although suicide rates have traditionally been highest among the male elderly, rates among young people have been increasing to such an extent that they are now the group at highest risk in a third of countries, in both developed and developing countries.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Rates and patterns of violent death vary by country and region. In recent years, homicide rates have been highest in developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean and lowest in East Asia, the western Pacific, and some countries in northern Africa.<ref>"Global Burden of Disease" Template:Webarchive, World Health Organization, 2008.</ref> Studies show a strong, inverse relationship between homicide rates and both economic development and economic equality. Poorer countries, especially those with large gaps between the rich and the poor, tend to have higher rates of homicide than wealthier countries. Homicide rates differ markedly by age and sex. Gender differences are least marked for children. For the 15 to 29 age group, male rates were nearly six times those for female rates; for the remaining age groups, male rates were from two to four times those for females.<ref>Rosenberg ML, Butchart A, Mercy J, Narasimhan V, Waters H, Marshall MS. Interpersonal violence. In Jamison DT, Breman JG, Measham AR, Alleyne G, Claeson M, Evans DB, Prabhat J, Mills A, Musgrove P (eds.) Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd Edition. Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press and The World Bank, 2006: 755–70.</ref>

Studies in a number of countries show that, for every homicide among young people age 10 to 24, 20 to 40 other young people receive hospital treatment for a violent injury.<ref name=WHO2002/>

Forms of violence such as child maltreatment and intimate partner violence are highly prevalent. Approximately 20% of women and 5–10% of men report being sexually abused as children, while 25–50% of all children report being physically abused.<ref>WHO, "Child maltreatment" Template:Webarchive, 2010.</ref> A WHO multi-country study found that between 15 and 71% of women reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lives.<ref>WHO, "Violence against women" Template:Webarchive, 2011.</ref>

Wars grab headlines, but the individual risk of dying violently in an armed conflict is today relatively low—much lower than the risk of violent death in many countries that are not suffering from an armed conflict. For example, between 1976 and 2008, African Americans were victims of 329,825 homicides.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although there is a widespread perception that war is the most dangerous form of armed violence in the world, the average person living in a conflict-affected country had a risk of dying violently in the conflict of about 2.0 per 100,000 population between 2004 and 2007. This can be compared to the average world homicide rate of 7.6 per 100,000 people. This illustration highlights the value of accounting for all forms of armed violence rather than an exclusive focus on conflict related violence. Certainly, there are huge variations in the risk of dying from armed conflict at the national and subnational level, and the risk of dying violently in a conflict in specific countries remains extremely high. In Iraq, for example, the direct conflict death rate for 2004–07 was 65 per 100,000 people per year and, in Somalia, 24 per 100,000 people. This rate even reached peaks of 91 per 100,000 in Iraq in 2006 and 74 per 100,000 in Somalia in 2007.<ref>Keith Krause, Robert Muggah, and Achim Wennmann, "Global Burden of Armed Violence," Geneva Declaration Secretariat, 2008.</ref>

Population-level surveys based on reports from victims estimate that between 0.3 and 11.5% of women reported experiencing sexual violence.<ref>Garcia-Moreno, C. et al. (2005)."WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women" Template:Webarchive Geneva: WHO</ref>

Factors

Violence can be attributed to protective and risk factors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The social ecological model divides factors into four levels: individual, relational, communal, and social.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Individual

Individual risk factors include poor behavioral control, high emotional stress, low IQ, and antisocial beliefs or attitudes.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Individual protective factors include an intolerance towards deviance, higher IQ and GPA, elevated popularity and social skills, as well as religious beliefs.<ref name=":0" /> Family protective factors include a connectedness and ability to discuss issues with family members or adults, parent/family use of constructive coping strategies, and consistent parental presence during at least one of the following: when awakening, when arriving home from school, at dinner time, or when going to bed.<ref name=":0" /> Social protective factors include quality school relationships, close relationships with non-deviant peers, involvement in prosocial activities, and exposure to school climates that are: well supervised, use clear behavior rules and disciplinary approaches, and engage parents with teachers.<ref name=":0" />

Relational

Relational risk factors include authoritarian childrearing attitudes, inconsistent disciplinary practices, low emotional attachment to parents or caregivers, and low parental income and involvement.<ref name=":0" /> A number of longitudinal studies suggest that the experience of physical punishment has a direct causal effect on later aggressive behaviors.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Cross-cultural studies have shown that greater prevalence of corporal punishment of children tends to predict higher levels of violence in societies. For instance, a 2005 analysis of 186 pre-industrial societies found that corporal punishment was more prevalent in societies which also had higher rates of homicide, assault, and war.<ref>"Corporal Punishment" Template:Webarchive (2008). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.</ref> In the United States, domestic corporal punishment has been linked to later violent acts against family members and spouses.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The American family violence researcher Murray A. Straus believes that disciplinary spanking forms "the most prevalent and important form of violence in American families", whose effects contribute to several major societal problems, including later domestic violence and crime.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Communal

Community risk factors include poverty, low community participation, and diminished economic opportunities.<ref name=":0" /> Since violence is a matter of perception as well as a measurable phenomenon, psychologists have found variability in whether people perceive certain physical acts as "violent". For example, in a state where execution is a legalized punishment we do not typically perceive the executioner as "violent", though we may talk, in a more metaphorical way, of the state acting violently. Likewise, understandings of violence are linked to a perceived aggressor-victim relationship: hence psychologists have shown that people may not recognise defensive use of force as violent, even in cases where the amount of force used is significantly greater than in the original aggression.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The concept of violence normalization is known as socially sanctioned, or structural violence and is a topic of increasing interest to researchers trying to understand violent behavior,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> medical anthropology,<ref>Farmer, Paul, M. Connors, and J. Simmons, eds. Women, Poverty, and Aids: Sex, Drugs, and Structural Violence. Monroe: Common Courage Press, 1996.</ref><ref>Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.</ref> psychology,<ref>Winter, Deborah DuNann, and Dana C. Leighton. "Section II: Structural Violence." Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century. Eds. Christie, Daniel J., Richard V. Wagner and Deborah DuNann Winter. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2001. 99–101.</ref> psychiatry,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> philosophy,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and bioarchaeology.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Martin, Debra L., Ryan P. Harrod, and Ventura R. Pérez, eds. 2012. The Bioarchaeology of Violence. Edited by C. S. Larsen, Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, regional, and global perspectives Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Template:Cite web</ref> An environment of great inequalities between people may cause those at the bottom to use more violence in attempts to gain status.<ref name=EP>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Social

Social risk factors include social rejection, poor academic performance and commitment to school, and gang involvement or association with delinquent peers.<ref name=":0" /> Research into the media and violence examines whether links between consuming media violence and subsequent aggressive and violent behaviour exists. Although some scholars had claimed media violence may increase aggression,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> this view is coming increasingly in doubt both in the scholarly community<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and was rejected by the US Supreme Court in the Brown v EMA case, as well as in a review of video game violence by the Australian Government (2010) which concluded evidence for harmful effects were inconclusive at best and the rhetoric of some scholars was not matched by good data.

Prevention

Scientific evidence about the effectiveness of interventions to prevent collective violence is lacking.<ref name="WHO2002">Template:Cite book</ref> However, policies that facilitate reductions in poverty, that make decision-making more accountable, that reduce inequalities between groups, as well as policies that reduce access to biological, chemical, nuclear and other weapons have been recommended. When planning responses to violent conflicts, recommended approaches include assessing at an early stage who is most vulnerable and what their needs are, co-ordination of activities between various players and working towards global, national and local capabilities so as to deliver effective health services during the various stages of an emergency.<ref name="WHO2002" />

The criminal justice approach sees its main task as enforcing laws that proscribe violence and ensuring that "justice is done". The notions of individual blame, responsibility, guilt, and culpability are central to criminal justice's approach to violence and one of the criminal justice system's main tasks is to "do justice", i.e. to ensure that offenders are properly identified, that the degree of their guilt is as accurately ascertained as possible, and that they are punished appropriately. To prevent and respond to violence, the criminal justice approach relies primarily on deterrence, incarceration and the punishment and rehabilitation of perpetrators.<ref>M. Moore "Public Health and Criminal Justice Approaches to Prevention."1992. In Vol. 16 of Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, edited by M. Tonry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press</ref>

Criminal justice

A sign that calls to stop violence

The threat and enforcement of physical punishment has been a tried and tested method of preventing some violence since civilisation began.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It is used in various degrees in most countries. The criminal justice approach, beyond justice and punishment, has traditionally emphasized indicated interventions, aimed at those who have already been involved in violence, either as victims or as perpetrators. One of the main reasons offenders are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted is to prevent further crimes—through deterrence (threatening potential offenders with criminal sanctions if they commit crimes), incapacitation (physically preventing offenders from committing further crimes by locking them up) and through rehabilitation (using time spent under state supervision to develop skills or change one's psychological make-up to reduce the likelihood of future offences).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In recent decades in many countries in the world, the criminal justice system has taken an increasing interest in preventing violence before it occurs. For instance, much of community and problem-oriented policing aims to reduce crime and violence by altering the conditions that foster it—and not to increase the number of arrests. Indeed, some police leaders have gone so far as to say the police should primarily be a crime prevention agency.<ref>Bratton W (with Knobler P). Turnaround: how America's top cop reversed the crime epidemic. New York: Random House, 1998</ref> Juvenile justice systems—an important component of criminal justice systems—are largely based on the belief in rehabilitation and prevention. In the US, the criminal justice system has, for instance, funded school- and community-based initiatives to reduce children's access to guns and teach conflict resolution. Despite this, force is used routinely against juveniles by police.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1974, the US Department of Justice assumed primary responsibility for delinquency prevention programmes and created the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which has supported the "Blueprints for violence prevention" programme at the University of Colorado Boulder.<ref>Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence "Blueprints for violence prevention/ Template:Webarchive</ref>

Public health

In 1949, Gordon called for injury prevention efforts to be based on the understanding of causes, in a similar way to prevention efforts for communicable and other diseases.<ref>Gordon JE, "The epidemiology of accidents," American Journal of Public Health, 1949; 504–15.</ref> In 1962, Gomez, referring to the WHO definition of health, stated that it is obvious that violence does not contribute to "extending life" or to a "complete state of well-being". He defined violence as an issue that public health experts needed to address and stated that it should not be the primary domain of lawyers, military personnel, or politicians.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Public health has begun to address violence only 30 years later, and only in the last 15 has it done so at the global level.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1996, the World Health Assembly adopted Resolution WHA49.25<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which declared violence "a leading worldwide public health problem" and requested that the World Health Organization (WHO) initiate public health activities to (1) document and characterize the burden of violence, (2) assess the effectiveness of programmes, with particular attention to women and children and community-based initiatives, and (3) promote activities to tackle the problem at the international and national levels. The World Health Organization's initial response to this resolution was to create the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability and to publish the World report on violence and health (2002).<ref name=WHO2002/>

The case for the public health sector addressing interpersonal violence rests on four main arguments.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> First, the significant amount of time health care professionals dedicate to caring for victims and perpetrators of violence has made them familiar with the problem and has led many, particularly in emergency departments, to mobilize to address it. The information, resources, and infrastructures the health care sector has at its disposal are an important asset for research and prevention work. Second, the magnitude of the problem and its potentially severe lifelong consequences and high costs to individuals and wider society call for population-level interventions typical of the public health approach. Third, the criminal justice approach, the other main approach to addressing violence (link to entry above), has traditionally been more geared towards violence that occurs between male youths and adults in the street and other public places—which makes up the bulk of homicides in most countries—than towards violence occurring in private settings such as child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and elder abuse—which makes up the largest share of non-fatal violence. Fourth, evidence is beginning to accumulate that a science-based public health approach is effective at preventing interpersonal violence.

The World Health Organization has identified seven strategies to prevent violence supported by evidence:<ref>"Violence Prevention: the evidence" Template:Webarchive, World Health Organization/Liverpool John Moores University, 2009</ref>

1. Developing safe, stable and nurturing relationships between children and their parents and caregivers;
2. Developing life skills in children and adolescents;
3. Reducing the availability and harmful use of alcohol;
4. Reducing access to guns, knives and pesticides;
5. Promoting gender equality to prevent violence against women;
6. Changing cultural and social norms that support violence;
7. Victim identification, care and support programmes.

There is a strong relationship between levels of violence and modifiable factors in a country such as concentrated (regional) poverty, income and gender inequality, the harmful use of alcohol, and the absence of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and parents.

Evaluation studies are beginning to support community interventions that aim to prevent violence against women by promoting gender equality. For instance, evidence suggests that programmes that combine microfinance with gender equity training can reduce intimate partner violence.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> School-based programmes such as Safe Dates programme in the United States of America<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and the Youth Relationship Project in Canada<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> have been found to be effective for reducing dating violence.

Rules or expectations of behaviour – norms – within a cultural or social group can encourage violence. Interventions that challenge cultural and social norms supportive of violence can prevent acts of violence and have been widely used, but the evidence base for their effectiveness is currently weak. The effectiveness of interventions addressing dating violence and sexual abuse among teenagers and young adults by challenging social and cultural norms related to gender is supported by some evidence.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Bruce S. The "A Man" campaign: marketing social norms to men to prevent sexual assault. The report on social norms. Working paper number 5. July 2002. Little Falls, NJ, PaperClip Communications, 2002.</ref>

Interventions to identify victims of interpersonal violence and provide effective care and support are critical for protecting health and breaking cycles of violence from one generation to the next. Examples for which evidence of effectiveness is emerging includes: screening tools to identify victims of intimate partner violence and refer them to appropriate services;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> psychosocial interventions—such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy—to reduce mental health problems associated with violence, including post-traumatic stress disorder;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and protection orders, which prohibit a perpetrator from contacting the victim,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> to reduce repeat victimization among victims of intimate partner violence.

Bahrain's pro-democracy protesters killed by military, February 2011

Perspectives

Historical

Scientific evidence for warfare has come from settled, sedentary communities.<ref name="theverge.com">Template:Cite web</ref> Some studies argue humans have a predisposition for violence (chimpanzees, also great apes, have been known to kill members of competing groups for resources like food).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A comparison across mammal species found that humans have a Paleolithic adult homicide rate of about 2%. This would be lower than some other animals, but still high.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, this study took into account the infanticide rate by some other animals such as meerkats, but not of humans, where estimates of children killed by infanticide in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras vary from 15 to 50 percent.<ref>Birdsell, Joseph B. (1986). "Some predictions for the Pleistocene based on equilibrium systems among recent hunter gatherers". In Lee, Richard; DeVore, Irven (eds.). Man the Hunter. New York: Aldine Publishing Co. p. 239.</ref> Other evidence suggests that organized, large-scale, militaristic, or regular human-on-human violence was absent for the vast majority of the human timeline,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kelly">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and is first documented to have started only relatively recently in the Holocene, an epoch that began about 11,700 years ago, probably with the advent of higher population densities due to sedentism.<ref name="Kelly"/> Social anthropologist Douglas P. Fry writes that scholars are divided on the origins of possible increase of violence—in other words, war-like behavior: Template:Blockquote

Jared Diamond in his books Guns, Germs and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee posits that the rise of large-scale warfare is the result of advances in technology and city-states. For instance, the rise of agriculture provided a significant increase in the number of individuals that a region could sustain over hunter-gatherer societies, allowing for development of specialized classes such as soldiers, or weapons manufacturers.

The percentages of men killed in war in eight tribal societies. (Lawrence H. Keeley, Archeologist, War Before Civilization)

In academia, the idea of the peaceful pre-history and non-violent tribal societies gained popularity with the post-colonial perspective. The trend, starting in archaeology and spreading to anthropology reached its height in the late half of the 20th century.<ref name=Keely1>Keeley, Lawrence H. War before Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.</ref> However, some newer research in archaeology and bioarchaeology may provide evidence that violence within and among groups is not a recent phenomenon.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to the book "The Bioarchaeology of Violence" violence is a behavior that is found throughout human history.<ref>Martin, Debra L., Ryan P. Harrod, and Ventura R. Pérez, eds. 2012. The Bioarchaeology of Violence. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Template:Cite web</ref>

Lawrence H. Keeley at the University of Illinois writes in War Before Civilization that 87% of tribal societies were at war more than once per year, and that 65% of them were fighting continuously. He writes that the attrition rate of numerous close-quarter clashes, which characterize endemic warfare, produces casualty rates of up to 60%, compared to 1% of the combatants as is typical in modern warfare. "Primitive Warfare" of these small groups or tribes was driven by the basic need for sustenance and violent competition.<ref>Review of book "War Before Civilization" by Lawrence H. Keeley Template:Webarchive, July 2004.</ref>

Fry explores Keeley's argument in depth and counters that such sources erroneously focus on the ethnography of hunters and gatherers in the present, whose culture and values have been infiltrated externally by modern civilization, rather than the actual archaeological record spanning some two million years of human existence. Fry determines that all present ethnographically studied tribal societies, "by the very fact of having been described and published by anthropologists, have been irrevocably impacted by history and modern colonial nation states" and that "many have been affected by state societies for at least 5000 years."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The relatively peaceful period since World War II is known as the Long Peace.

Steven Pinker's 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, argued that modern society is less violent than in periods of the past, whether on the short scale of decades or long scale of centuries or millennia. He argues for a paleolithic homicide rate of 15%.<ref name=Pinker>Template:Cite book</ref> Pinker's analyses have also been criticized, concerning the statistical question of how to measure violence and whether it is in fact declining.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Laws">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Pinker's observation of the decline in interpersonal violence echoes the work of Norbert Elias, who attributes the decline to a "civilizing process", in which the state's monopolization of violence, the maintenance of socioeconomic interdependencies or "figurations", and the maintenance of behavioural codes in culture all contribute to the development of individual sensibilities, which increase the repugnance of individuals towards violent acts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to a 2010 study, non-lethal violence, such as assaults or bullying appear to be declining as well.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Some scholars disagree with the argument that all violence is decreasing arguing that not all types of violent behaviour are lower now than in the past. They suggest that research typically focuses on lethal violence, often looks at homicide rates of death due to warfare, but ignore the less obvious forms of violence.<ref>Gorelik, G., Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A., 2012. Resource Acquisition, Violence, and Evolutionary Consciousness. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes- Shackelford, V.A. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 506–524</ref>

Philosophical

Max Weber stated that the state claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of force to cause harm practised within the confines of a specific territory. Law enforcement is the main means of regulating nonmilitary violence in society. Governments regulate the use of violence through legal systems governing individuals and political authorities, including the police and military. Civil societies authorize some amount of violence, exercised through the police power, to maintain the status quo and enforce laws.

Hannah Arendt noted: "Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate [...] Its justification loses in plausibility the farther its intended end recedes into the future. No one questions the use of violence in self-defence, because the danger is not only clear but also present, and the end justifying the means is immediate".<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref> Arendt made a clear distinction between violence and power. Most political theorists regarded violence as an extreme manifestation of power whereas Arendt regarded the two concepts as opposites.<ref>Arendt, H. (1972) On Violence in Crises in the Republic, Florida, Harcourt, Brace and Company, pp. 134–55.</ref> Some philosophers have argued that any interpretation of reality is intrinsically violent.<ref name="foucault">Template:Cite book</ref> Slavoj Žižek, in his book Violence, stated that "something violent is the very symbolization of a thing."<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Johanna Oskala argues that while "the ontological violence of language does, in significant ways, sustain, enable, and encourage physical violence, it is a serious mistake to conflate them [...] Violence is understood to be ineliminable in the first sense, and this leads to its being treated as a fundamental in the second sense, too."<ref name="foucault" /> Both Foucault and Arendt considered the relationship between power and violence but concluded that while related they are distinct.<ref name="foucault" />Template:RpTemplate:Clarification needed

In feminist philosophy, epistemic violence is the act of causing harm by an inability to understand the conversation of others due to ignorance. Some philosophers think this will harm marginalized groups.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal

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Brad Evans states that violence "represents a violation in the very conditions constituting what it means to be human as such", "is always an attack upon a person's dignity, their sense of selfhood, and their future", and "is both an ontological crime ... and a form of political ruination".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Robert L. Holmes argues that however elusive its general definition may be, violence entails a moral wrong, insofar as "it is presumptively wrong to do violence to innocent persons."<ref>On War and Morality. Holmes, Robert L. Princeton University Press (1989) p. 44 "it is presumptively wrong to do violence to innocent persons."isbn 978-1-4008-6014-2 on Google Books</ref> He further argues that at least one necessary condition for the formulation of any potential moral alternative to violence in all its manifistations is the exploration of a philosophy of nonviolence which places a concern for the lives and the well being of individual persons at its moral center.<ref>On War and Morality. Holmes, Robert L. Princeton University Press (1989) p. 293 isbn 978-1-4008-6014-2 on Google Books</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Religious

Taliban beating woman in public

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants, 1572

See also

• Ahimsa
• De-escalation
• Fight-or-flight response
• Harm principle
• Hunting
• Legislative violence
• Non Violent Resistance (psychological intervention)
• Road rage
• Violence begets violence
• Violence in art

Sources

• Barzilai, Gad (2003). Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Template:ISBN.
• Benjamin, Walter, Critique of Violence
• Flannery, D.J., Vazsonyi, A.T. & Waldman, I.D. (Eds.) (2007). The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior and aggression. Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN.
• Template:Cite book
• Malešević, Siniša The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge University Press; 2010 [cited October 17, 2011]. Template:ISBN.
• Nazaretyan, A.P. (2007). Violence and Non-Violence at Different Stages of World History: A view from the hypothesis of techno-humanitarian balance. In: History & Mathematics. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. pp. 127–48. Template:ISBN.
• Template:Cite journal

External links

• Violence prevention at World Health Organization
• Violence prevention at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Violence prevention at American Psychological Association
• World Report on Violence Against Children Template:Webarchive at Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Hidden in Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children Template:Webarchive at UNICEF
• Heat and Violence Template:Webarchive