Violence: Difference between revisions
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'''Violence''' is the use of physical force to by people or institutions to cause harm to other living beings, including pain, injury, maiming (inducing a disability), death, or other physical damage. Understood more broadly in a political and philosophical context, the definition of violence is often understood to include the ''threat'' of violence, overtly or covertly, as well as coercion, the use of the threat of violence to subject a person or people to one's will. 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"; it recognizes the need to include violence not resulting in injury or death.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Krug |first1=Etienne G.|last2=Dahlberg|first2=Linda L.|last3=Mercy|first3=James A.|last4=Zwi|first4=Anthony B.|last5=Lozano|first5=Rafael|date=3 October 2002|publication-date=2002|title=World report on violence and health|url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9241545615|hdl=10665/42495|location=Geneva|publisher=World Health Organization|page=360|isbn=92-4-154561-5|hdl-access=free}}</ref> |
'''Violence''' is the use of physical force to by people or institutions to cause harm to other living beings, including pain, injury, maiming (inducing a disability), death, or other physical damage. Understood more broadly in a political and philosophical context, the definition of violence is often understood to include the ''threat'' of violence, overtly or covertly, as well as coercion, the use of the threat of violence to subject a person or people to one's will. 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"; it recognizes the need to include violence not resulting in injury or death.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Krug |first1=Etienne G.|last2=Dahlberg|first2=Linda L.|last3=Mercy|first3=James A.|last4=Zwi|first4=Anthony B.|last5=Lozano|first5=Rafael|date=3 October 2002|publication-date=2002|title=World report on violence and health|url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9241545615|hdl=10665/42495|location=Geneva|publisher=World Health Organization|page=360|isbn=92-4-154561-5|hdl-access=free}}</ref> |
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== Types of violence == |
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The WHO has three categories to describe violence: ''self-inflicted, collective'', and ''interpersonal''. Self-inflicted violence includes matters of self-harm and suicide, which is sometimes performed as a form of protest. Collective violence occurs between two ''groups'' of people, such as communities and states, and is generally associated with political, social, or economic motivations. War is the most extreme example of collective violence. Interpersonal violence occurs at the scale of one person to another.<ref name=":0" /> |
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=== Collective violence === |
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In addition to war, there are many forms of collective violence. One form is structural violence: in which institutions or the structure of society harms people by preventing them from exercising their basic rights or meeting their basic needs. Another sort of collective violence is "slow violence": the violence, for example, of pollution, which exposes its victims to harm over long periods of time. Many forms of violence can be inter-related, for example the [[Global South]]'s experience of [[climate change]] is best understood through the lens of slow violence and structural violence (and in many other respects besides).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nixon |first=Rob |title=Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-674-06119-4 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref> |
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== State violence == |
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One of the key defining characteristics of a state is that it is said to possess the "monopoly on violence". Quoting German sociologist Max Weber:<blockquote>A compulsory political organization with continuous operations will be called a 'state' [if and] insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds a claim to the ''monopoly'' of the ''legitimate'' use of physical force in the enforcement of its order.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |title=Economy and Society |publisher=Berkeley: University of California Press |year=1978 |pages=54}}</ref></blockquote>The monopoloy on violence is the means by which a state maintains its privileges, such as taxation, and the means by which it enforces the social order, i.e. laws. These conditions are only possible through some form of coercion, to legitimize and enforce obedience with the rules defined by the state under the threat of violent retaliation, such as detainment, imprisonment, or even execution ([[capital punishment]]). |
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=== Police violence === |
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Organized [[police]] forces are an example of the state employing its monopoly on violence. Police officers are empowered by the state to use violence to enact the policies of the state. Police are inherently violent - that is the purpose of their role in society, and the violence is ''legitimized'' by the state. However, [[police brutality]] often exists on a scale which exceeds the legitimized extent of violence the state affords to the police. The extent to which ''illegitimate'' police violence is permitted (or overlooked) by the state allows for forms of systemic or structural violence to exist. The consequences of this can be unintentional, but may also allow the police to enact "unofficial" policies of the state, such as the repression of [[Race|racialized]] people, without being directly accountable.<references /> |
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[[Category:Theory]] |
[[Category:Theory]] |
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Revision as of 10:19, 19 April 2026
Violence is the use of physical force to by people or institutions to cause harm to other living beings, including pain, injury, maiming (inducing a disability), death, or other physical damage. Understood more broadly in a political and philosophical context, the definition of violence is often understood to include the threat of violence, overtly or covertly, as well as coercion, the use of the threat of violence to subject a person or people to one's will. 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"; it recognizes the need to include violence not resulting in injury or death.[1]
Types of violence
The WHO has three categories to describe violence: self-inflicted, collective, and interpersonal. Self-inflicted violence includes matters of self-harm and suicide, which is sometimes performed as a form of protest. Collective violence occurs between two groups of people, such as communities and states, and is generally associated with political, social, or economic motivations. War is the most extreme example of collective violence. Interpersonal violence occurs at the scale of one person to another.[1]
Collective violence
In addition to war, there are many forms of collective violence. One form is structural violence: in which institutions or the structure of society harms people by preventing them from exercising their basic rights or meeting their basic needs. Another sort of collective violence is "slow violence": the violence, for example, of pollution, which exposes its victims to harm over long periods of time. Many forms of violence can be inter-related, for example the Global South's experience of climate change is best understood through the lens of slow violence and structural violence (and in many other respects besides).[2]
State violence
One of the key defining characteristics of a state is that it is said to possess the "monopoly on violence". Quoting German sociologist Max Weber:
A compulsory political organization with continuous operations will be called a 'state' [if and] insofar as its administrative staff successfully upholds a claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in the enforcement of its order.[3]
The monopoloy on violence is the means by which a state maintains its privileges, such as taxation, and the means by which it enforces the social order, i.e. laws. These conditions are only possible through some form of coercion, to legitimize and enforce obedience with the rules defined by the state under the threat of violent retaliation, such as detainment, imprisonment, or even execution (capital punishment).
Police violence
Organized police forces are an example of the state employing its monopoly on violence. Police officers are empowered by the state to use violence to enact the policies of the state. Police are inherently violent - that is the purpose of their role in society, and the violence is legitimized by the state. However, police brutality often exists on a scale which exceeds the legitimized extent of violence the state affords to the police. The extent to which illegitimate police violence is permitted (or overlooked) by the state allows for forms of systemic or structural violence to exist. The consequences of this can be unintentional, but may also allow the police to enact "unofficial" policies of the state, such as the repression of racialized people, without being directly accountable.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Krug, Etienne G.; Dahlberg, Linda L.; Mercy, James A.; Zwi, Anthony B.; Lozano, Rafael (3 October 2002). World report on violence and health. Geneva: World Health Organization (published 2002). p. 360. hdl:10665/42495. ISBN 92-4-154561-5.
- ↑ Nixon, Rob (2011). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06119-4.
- ↑ Weber, Max (1978). Economy and Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 54.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)