por The social violence It is a set of behaviors by people or society towards one or more individuals that produces psychological or physical damage. In general, these behaviors are evidenced by threats, offenses and even by means of physical force and their purpose is to obtain an action that the victim would not carry out voluntarily.
This type of behavior is not typical of the current era; On the contrary, it has existed for many years, only in different forms and with different magnitudes, and in some cases they have been escalating and have been transforming into a more serious scenario.
Social violence is not always evident in the same way in all countries. The causes that originate it can be very diverse: they can be derived from political, social or cultural reasons. Likewise, the way in which it is externalized can also vary, since it does not always follow the same pattern.
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Characteristics
-Subjects involved
This type of behavior that is detrimental to the physical and/or mental health of the people who become victims is usually characterized by the presence of an aggressor, a victim, and bystanders.
Aggressor
The aggressor may correspond to a group of people who carry out violent acts against one or several individuals in order to subdue and control them in order to obtain from them something that they would not do on their own and voluntarily.
Victim
The victim is the person who receives the aggression and can be both an adult and a minor. In the case of minors, the laws are more rigorous to punish the aggressor.
Victims of aggression are diminished in their physical or psychological faculties due to the pressure that the aggressor exerts on them.
Observers
The observers are part of the environment in which the victim or the aggressor operates and are not directly involved because they are not the ones who encourage the aggressor behavior, but rather they are aware of the situation but do nothing to stop it. They stay out of the matter.
-Abuse of power
One of the main characteristics of violence is the abuse of power. The aggressor imposes himself by virtue of his position of dominance over the victim.
Historically, abuse is committed against people with less power. Examples of this can be the power of a father in front of his son or that of a teacher in front of a student.
-Intentional
Another characteristic is that social violence is intentional. The aggressor carries out the aggression with a specific purpose, consciously and intentionally, using different means such as abuse, manipulation, submission, psychological pressure and physical or verbal abuse.
-Directed
The aggressor chooses his victim consciously. He does not do it indiscriminately and seeks to obtain something from that person or conglomerate of people.
-Variations
The characteristics of each type of social violence may vary. For example, gender-based violence is different from economic violence: while in the former the purpose is the submission of a person in order to achieve recognition and respect, in the economic one the objective is damage to the victim’s property.
Causes
The causes of social violence are usually very varied. They can be linked to upbringing, the repetition of patterns, injustice, economic factors, ideological, social, political or religious beliefs and even psychological illnesses.
They may also be related to social exclusion, inequality and drugs, alcohol or any type of addiction. In this sense, the causes of social violence can be divided into subjective and objective.
subjective causes
These causes are related to the rationality of being and instincts, impulses, feelings and emotions. Some psychologists argue that these types of causes are not by themselves the triggers for violence, but rather are the ones that accompany the objective causes.
objective causes
The objective causes are those that are related to social, political and cultural aspects. This is indicative that aggressive and violent behavior is learned, acquired and developed throughout the development of the human being.
Due to the values instilled and perhaps because they had a role model with this type of behavior, a person can be aggressive or perpetrate acts that are detrimental to the physical or psychological health of the victim, all in order to subdue it.
In this sense, the causes may vary according to the type of violence, since what leads the aggressor to generate social violence is not always the same.
Guys
psychological
It is aimed at attacking the victim’s self-esteem and emotions. There is no physical contact, but the aggressor seeks to generate a state of vulnerability on the person who receives it in order to control it.
Psychological violence is a continuous act that involves insults, threats, blackmail, contempt and rejection by the aggressor towards the victim.
Within this type of violence there is the so-called verbal violence, which is what is externalized through the word or in writing. It also highlights emotional violence, whose objective is to make the person feel inferior.
Physical
Corresponds to the action of inflicting physical and notorious damage to one or more people, through blows that can cause wounds, bruises or fractures.
Sometimes the attacker can use some type of object to hit. This type of violence is visible because the results are evident in the body of the person who receives it.
Usually, with this type of violence, the aggressor seeks to obtain an action from the victim that the latter would not carry out voluntarily.
Sexual
Sexual violence is considered to be those acts of an intimate nature carried out by one person or several to another without their consent. These acts can be advances, touching or harassment.
When this type of aggression is directed at minors, they are more serious and can have serious psychological implications. Child pornography and prostitution are contemplated within these aggressions.
Cultural
Cultural violence has to do with the practices of particular characteristics carried out by a person or a group of people belonging to a certain culture.
These practices may be considered violent by people outside the culture in question, but those who carry them out perceive them as a normal act because they form part of their beliefs and those of the social circle to which they belong.
due to negligence
This type of social violence arises from the lack of attention on the part of people who have been entrusted with the care of another individual who cannot fend for themselves, either because of their advanced age (elderly), because they are children or because they are sick.
It occurs when the physical, safety, cleanliness, hygiene or food needs of those who are under the care of another person are not met, which negatively affects the health of the person under care.
Religious
Religious social violence is evidenced when people of a certain religion are forced to perform acts that they would not do voluntarily. In this scenario, religion is used to manipulate and control people.
By exploitation
This type of violence mostly concerns minors. An example of this context is when the exploiter-aggressor makes a child beg for money from strangers under the pretext of needing it to buy food, medicine or any other excuse.
Within this type of violence are those derived from sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, robbery and any other type in which a person is used to obtain some economic benefit or some advantage.
Economic
Economic violence arises when the property or money of a certain person is used without their consent, always to the detriment of the victim or owner of the money.
Of genre
It refers to when violence is exerted by one sex on another, in search of recognition and respect. This type of violence is marked by an ideology since it comes from the conception of the favored patriarchal figure and the traditional idea that supports the fact that there is inequality between the sexes.
A characteristic of this type of violence is discrimination based on sex, according to which preference is given to some individuals over others by virtue of their gender.
Consequences and social impact
The consequences of social violence will depend to a large extent on the type of violence and its characteristics. For example, the consequences of gender violence are usually not the same as those of religious violence; each type has its own characteristics and consequences.
However, the most notable consequences of violence in general have to do with the degree of affectation or damage that it generates in the victims directly. These damages can be to their physical integrity (which is often notorious) or to their emotional and psychological integrity.
Likewise, third parties who have been observers may also be affected indirectly. For example, let’s imagine a situation of domestic violence in which one of the children witnesses episodes of this type; in this case, the son will undoubtedly be affected by the scenario.
Regarding the social impact, the consequences can lead to the disarticulation of social ties, the creation of social distrust, disorganization and social isolation, and sometimes the appearance of a spiral of violence, as a result of which social development may be compromised. and economic of the population.
examples
– Among the most drastic examples of social violence that involve a group of people, the cases of civil wars due to political or ideological reasons stand out.
– Wars against organized crime are very violent social scenarios. For example, this type of violence has occurred in Mexico for many years, and has derived from fights between drug cartels that have claimed many human lives. In addition, they affect the economy and the quality of life of the population.
– An example of cultural violence is the practice of cutting or mutilating the genital organs of girls that is traditionally carried out in more than 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. This practice is considered a violation of the human rights of women and girls by the World Health Organization.
– In the case of psychological violence, an example could be the disproportionate pressure exerted by a father on his son to make him play a certain sport against the child’s will. It often happens that he agrees to do it by virtue of the fear and threats that his father makes.
– Regarding the type of social violence due to negligence, it can occur in the case of the elderly whose care has been entrusted to relatives or even to specialized institutions (nursing homes), without them really assisting the elderly person who cannot fend for himself…