Structural Violence And Its Effects On Society

The organizational structures of political and economic systems cause and sustain the sort of hierarchical relations that enable dramatic differences between and across sectors of societies. Within these hierarchies, the people at the top have privilege, wealth, and power, while those at the bottom of the hierarchy are dominated, oppressed, and exploited (Christie, 1997). People are harmed and killed as a result of structural violence but, unlike direct violence, it occurs more slowly. The harm or death of oppressed people may come about because “some people are deprived of food, shelter, healthcare, and other resources” (Christie, 1997). Because structural violence is embedded in a society’s way of being, over the long-term, groups of people may not be able to meet their basic needs to the degree that normal development and growth is impacted.

Statistics state, “One out of every four women will go through domestic violence situations in life. (safehorizon.com) Domestic violence is aggressive behavior towards someone else at home or in a relationship. This can happen at home between spouses/partners or parents and children. Domestic violence should be given more acknowledgment in the media and in classrooms so that people are aware of what is happening. If we do not continue to advocate for victims and educate society, victims will continue to suffer physically,mentally, and emotionally, victims of this behavior go back to their abuser, leading victims to later become abusers themselves.

Society has been facing many difficulties for the past years that are contributing to the expansion of violence. In order to understand why some people practice violence behavior, it is extremely important to know and understand about the cycle of violence. According to Chauhan and Widom (2014), the cycle of violence can be defined as follow; the act that an individual who was previously physically, mentally and/or emotionally abused will repeat the same maltreatment to another person (s) in the future. In some words, the cycle of violence support the idea that people who were abused in any way when they were

Without denying that there is partner violence in all social strata, the author concludes that there are factors linked to the social structure and social area that contribute to a greater frequency of the problem. It should also be noted that the factors that contribute to partner violence may be the same as those that determine violence toward strangers. Although it implicitly assumes the role of political economy in the generation of structural contexts. Moreover, in the case of the couple, the traditional distribution of functions, pointing out that in the case of men, power deficits, and control and a devaluation of living conditions in impoverished communities, are high-risk factors for violence against the spouse or partner.

The violence committed at an institutionalized level that systemically hinders individuals is classified as structural violence. Since the structural violence is so deep-rooted, it can often be perceived as normal and inherently nonintrusive. However, as Bourgois unveils, structural violence is a “chronic, historically entrenched political-economic oppression and social

Violence is a necessary proponent to history. Without violence we as human species would struggle to evolve and the United States would currently not exist. In the decade preceding the civil war, sectional and political tensions regarding the expansion of slavery into new territories grew larger. With the emergence of the Republican Party in the mid ninetieth century, the United States experienced a sectional pull between those who were pro-slavery Democrats, and those who were anti-slavery expansion Republicans. Emotions regarding the expansion of slavery yielded barbaric acts across the country including the canning of Charles Sumner, the hanging of John Brown, and the violence that construed in the Kansas territory. Each of the victims were white, were antislavery, and fell victim to the violence of a pro-slavery Democrat outraged by their actions. These acts of violence swayed many Democrats voters to the Republican Party setting the platform for success for Republican Presidential Candidate Abraham Lincoln who won the election of 1860 with 180 electoral votes to Southern Democratic candidate Breckenridge 's 72.

The thesis of the article written by Aashika Damodar is; “Gender-based violence both in the developed and developing world are a complex blend of structural and cultural challenges, many of which are enhanced and enabled by communicative technology.” One example that is made in favor of the thesis is the “Mensajes De Paz”. Which is film documentary on gender-based violence in Guatemala. Where over 6000 women have been killed in last ten years and only two percent were convicted.

Chapter 4 informed me about Institutional Violence, what it means, and the types of institutional violence and how this form of violence affects society. Institutional violence has many aspects such as intimate partner violence, child abuse, educational, religious, corporate, media and environmental violence. I found the section on family violence interesting and I also learned a lot of new facts and disturbing details about dangerous consumer products that either cause major and widespread illness or even death. I was able to learn more in depth about the characteristics of corporate violence and who the founding father of corporate crime is, Edwin Sutherland, thanks to this man corporate violence was brought to the forefront and acknowledged in the corporate world.

Structural violence is when social structures inhibit individuals, groups, or society from getting their basic needs met or basically stops them from reaching their full potential. Some social structures include economic, political, religious, legal or cultural structures. For example, access to resources is one form of structural violence. Many individuals are unable to receive the resources they need to live well. The population, homeless individuals with mental illness, are affected by structural violence because they are unable to receive the resources they need to get back on their feet.

While many problems in civilization can be attributed to direct causes, underlying factors manipulate and play a large role towards determining a culture. Psychologists and scholars share a deep curiosity about these factors in order to understand society and its conflict. In his book Ender’s Game, author Orson Scott Card highlights the complications of structural violence, inciting the reader to confront the consequences of hierarchy, discrimination, and stratification. Furthermore, in the article “Structural Violence,” authors Deborah DuNann Winter and Dana C. Leighton examine the various causes of social inequalities and their impacts on violence and culture. In both the book and the article, inequities prevalent in institutions of

The central claim of the report is that the poorest people live in a context of recurrent cycles of violence whether criminal and political and in order to stop those cycles, legitimate institutions have to be implemented to ensure security, jobs and justice. The main idea then is to remodel institutions in order to reinforce people confidence. Those arguments are discussed by referring to the Post cold war political and criminal violence, with the explanation of their dramatic consequences on economic and social development. The report is influential in scope in a way that it attempts to rethink an international order but it is commonly critized that it provides only obvious conclusions and fails to engage with essential issues. Then,

“Five Faces of Oppression” by Iris M. Young tries to create an idea that we can critique the reality and stages of oppression of different groups. She argues that oppression is structural in the sense that injustices arise from systematic everyday activities, and not from policies or how people act. Since oppression is systematically reproduced and thus ingrained into culture, politics and economics, therefore it cannot be simply removed from our society. She separates the condition of oppression into five different forms: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Young states that exploitation is where oppression occurs in the transfer of one social group’s products of labor to benefit the wealthier class. She also argues that women are also exploited to through this from of

The theory that best connects with the issue of family violence is systems theory. This theory entails that the “family as a system is thought to be best understood through the recognition that family members (as the parts of the system) interact with one another in such a manner that, over time, these interactions become patterned behavior” (Sutphin, McDonough, Schrenkel, 2013) Every family member that is within this family are characterized as subsystems. The main sub-systems are parent-parent, parent-child, and child-child. In most cases, what happens in the parent-parent relationship impacts both the parent-child relationship and the child-child relationship. A type of violence that can occur between the parent and parent relationship

According to the WHO, there are many various definitions of violence and homicide, depending on who is analyzing it and what he or she wants to achieve. A definition for the aim of arrest and conviction, for instance, will not cover important points regarding social concept. As far as public health is considered, the problem is to define violence in such a way that it contains the range of acts by murders and the experiences of the victims without making it so overfilling that it loses meaning – or so broad that it describes all possible details of an every murder. Moreover, global agreement is required so that data can be compared between countries around the world and results of this comparison can create reliable base of knowledge. (WHO, 2002)

In America most cases of Domestic Violence are never actually reported, many times these cases go unheard and the victims suffer in silence. The worn out cries of a battered woman as she lays on the ground clutching herself and begging her significant other to just stop. The bruises and cuts that remain unreported due to the victim claiming they accidentally fell yet again. The abusers tend to make the victim almost entirely dependable on them. An abuser will do this to gain control and to create a weaker victim, “behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other” (Par. 1, Definition). Control. The abuser seeks control over their victims. When their control is threatened they act out in ways harmful to others. Domestic