The causes of violence are multifold and include many social as well as economic forces. But the prevailing factor that shapes violence is socio-cultural. What causes this drive in human beings to want to dominate other human beings? There are many theories on this subject but the bottom line is that some of these factors are psychological in nature and some are environmental.
Basically, violence can be psychological: threatening words, insulting or even beating someone else; physical: fighting, injuring or killing another person; psychological: voluntarily participating in violence or voluntarily causing physical harm to others; sexual: rape, sexual harassment or other forms of sexual violence. It can also be cultural: sanctioned, encouraged, or even legalized by law or custom. Sexual violence is a form of gender-based violence as it often targets women. This is because many cultures, in particular the patriarchal societies of the Middle East and Asia, see women as the weaker sex and treat them as commodities. The sexual violence in these societies can be motivated by sexualized notions of women as objects of desire and sexual satisfaction.
All forms of violence have the same underlying motive – to achieve political, economical and religious domination over others. And these motives are not only external – the drive to violence has a strong internal motivation as well. The drive to violence is considered a religious and a nationalistic drive. The basis for this is that human beings live in a universe governed by a set of values that have been shaped and directed by human beings throughout history. And these values are usually understood and oriented around the most basic need of survival – maintaining the existence and freedom of human beings and their communal group.
There is also the typology of the structural violence that is different in nature from the other two. This typology is closely linked with the two types of violence that we have already discussed. Structural violence is the result of deliberate and intentional use of physical force against another person. The intentional use here refers to acts such as torture, forcing another to submit or to kill him/her, or to inflict serious physical harm. The unintentional use refers to actions like extortion, blackmail, false imprisonment, libel and slander.
These three typologies have broad overlaps. However, they differ when it comes to the depth and the applicability of the violence. We can speak of white-collar or blue collar type of violence. White-collar violence may not necessarily affect humans as directly as the other types of violence. For instance, physical violence may be inflicted upon another person in the course of another ordinary day’s activity (e.g., in the workplace). Such physical violence is not considered as “white collar” violence because it does not cause lasting damage.
Blue-collar violence on the other hand is the kind of violent action that results in lasting physical harm, especially physical force (e.g., inflicting bodily injury upon another person). It is usually the result of one person’s unwillingness to comply with another person’s requests or commands. In addition, it does not necessarily need to cause any tangible harm on the target (e.g., blackmail, extortion, false imprisonment, rape, kidnapping). It is usually the result of another person’s failure to respect another person’s free will or to obey commands that a human being should not ignore (e.g., harassment, abuse, battery, bullying).
When it comes to “involuntary violence”, it refers to violence that is not the product of any kind of mutual agreement or offer of peace between the parties to the violence. Such violence is sometimes resorted to by the victims or the representatives of another group or community against the will of the victims (e.g., an indigenous community against members of a dominant state who are attempting to colonize the community). It is also sometimes resorted to by political organizations and by religious and cultural groups in order to impose social rules against the people who don’t conform to these rules (e.g., slavery, discrimination, torture, forced labor, and execution). Although this form of violence is usually the result of the victims’ refusal to accord another person’s request or demand, the use of such violence can sometimes be motivated by the desire to control the other person or community.
There are many factors that trigger violent actions or reactions. These include but are not limited to: societal norms, history, race, national origin, religious beliefs, social biases, psychological factors, and interpersonal relationships. There have been many campaigns and projects that have been designed to prevent and reduce violence. However, many countries have been experiencing an increase in violent acts as a result of conflicts and emergencies such as natural disasters and conflicts abroad. To prevent the occurrence and the spread of violence, the international community must address the problems that contribute to its occurrence and solutions that it could implement to reduce and eliminate it.
