AUTHOR
Gopika K.P is a member of LJRF Trivandrum chapter and she has been part of the Probation Fortnight Celebrations organized by District Probation Office, pathanamthitta and DLSA pathanamthitta in association with LJRF and Nervazhi. she is an MSW post graduate specialized in community development from Government College, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram.
INTRODUCTION
Society constituted by individual members, laid down by certain ground rules of guidelines and regulation, in thoughts, actions, and freedom for maintaining law and order society. Deviation from expected social behavior leads to criminality. Violence has always been the concern of every society from the primitive to the modern times. Crime constitutes a distinct kind of deviation which has far reaching consequences, it is an act done in with criminal intent or malice with positive or negative state of mind.
Crimes are public wrong that affect the whole community which can occur at anywhere at any time. There are psychological and social factors constituting a criminal behavior, certain groups more vulnerable to become victim or perpetrator, identifying and reformation of these groups is a primary prevention intervention method.
We know that conditions alone don’t actually cause people to become violent, those people who live in certain kinds of neighbor hood more susceptible to engaging in certain types of deviant behaviors and activities that then lead to being more criminal. Global violence is so important because it effects every single person who’s ever lived or really probably who will live in the many futures.
Definition of violence encompasses interpersonal violence, armed conflict, suicide also includes threats, intimidation. Besides death and injury, the definition also includes the myriad and often less obvious consequences of violent behavior such as psychological harm, deprivation and maldevelopment that compromise the well-being of individuals, families and communities.
1. Types of violence
1.1 Intimate partner violence/ domestic violence: Intimate partner violence is a pattern of coercive behavior that leads to abuse this includes physical abuse, such as hitting or kicking, sexual abuse, rape and psychological abuse which includes intimidation or threats. It is the common cause of injury in united states. Kids can be involved as actual victims of violence or witnessing it.
Studies found that one in forth women had been abused in their life time. Suicide attempt and depression very much associated with partner violence. Someone experiences all three type of violence, physical, mental, emotional violence, 18- fold increase in chances of having suicidal symptoms, 9th times more likely to have PTSD. Prevention of intimate partner violence help to prevent sequence of violence like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, sexually transmitted disease and medical conditions such as asthma, high blood pressure ,pain, physical injuries.
1.2 Gang violence: they are mobile, not living in one place at times. Street criminals have a great deal of antipathy towards formal system of governance. they were very sensitive to any sort of insult comes there way. In gang violence most the time offenders are fighting against offenders. Three kind of condition that cause the violence are, • Antecedent condition: back ground risk factors • Instigating condition • Encapsulating condition Gang violence are forming a cycle by looking at violence as a disease where it’s infecting others through retaliation.
1.3 Child maltreatment: child maltreatment involves physical, sexual, emotional abuse.
Child Sexual abuse: any sexual activity that is perpetrated against a child, by threat, force, intimidation or manipulation.
Physically abuse: Acts include a whole lot of things like kick, or burning, or choking, or stomping on a child.
Child neglect: Occurs restricting child’s basic need. There are different types of neglect including lack of appropriate supervision, emotional neglect, Physical, medical, and educational neglect. And often there’s more than one type of neglect in a family.
Emotional abuse: There are different types of neglect including lack of appropriate supervision, emotional neglect. Physical, medical, and educational neglect. And often there’s more than one type of neglect, neglect in a family.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 23% of the world’s population are victims of child physical abuse. In one multinational study, the prevalence of sexual abuse was 18% for girls and nearly 8% for boys abuse is often intergenerational.
So, an adult who has been abused as a child is at increased risk of having a child who themselves are abused. But it’s important to remember that some abused kids have no risk factors, none at all. Child maltreatment crosses all socioeconomic, religious, national, racial and ethnic boundaries. There is no community, state or country that is immune from child abuse and neglect. Those who suffer from childhood abuse substantially increase the chance of developing emotional, physical, behavioral problems as adults.
1.4 Youth violence: violence committed by a young person aged 10- 24 years against a person, group, or a community. With the youth’s behavior likely to cause physical or psychological harm. Bullying, gang violence, physical fighting. Damage caused from youth violence extend beyond the perpetrator, distrusting social services and degrading future human resources. Youth violence is characterized by three factors
1) Aggression.
2) Repetition or the potential for repetition: So, for example, something is posted on a website, and has the potential to be viewed over and over again.
3)A power differential. This power differential can be one of physical size Method of youth crime prevention
Strategies for youth crime prevention:
Community-based strategy for crime prevention involves Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design or CPTED. CPTED focuses on reducing crime opportunities and Promoting positive social behaviour. It does not change the motivation of individual perpetrators. Rather, it involves modifying the physical environment.
For example, improving lighting, decreasing the height of trees. Establishing a positive social environment through artwork, creation of murals, and so.
1.5 Sexual violence: any form sexual contact or exposure without consent. Rape is defined as forced penetration. There are certain health consequences occurs like headaches, back aches fatigue.
Chest pain, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath dizziness. From a mental health perspective, we often see anxiety, depression, PTSD, alcohol use, substance use, this is a major crisis. Academically, what we see in students is decreased concentration, inability to attend classes, major changes, disruptions in life routine.
1.6 Violence towards elderly: Elder mistreatment has three distinct forms, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Elder mistreatment includes under abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. Elder mistreatment includes under abuse, emotional and Under neglect, we have to consider both the withholding of care or services that cause harm or injury to the victim Or the willful abandonment of a victim by the perpetrator.
Exploitation includes the use of property counter to the victim’s needs or benefits. So can include property or can include finances. Elder mistreatment is a global problem. One in ten older adults across the world will report that they have been the victim of mistreatment within their lifetime. And 70% of those cases are not reported to an authority.
2. Theories of violence
Sociological theories focus on these features of the social environment that lead to violent behaviour.
2.1 Strain theory: There are certain strain or stressors making individual prone to violence. Strain theorists have found that a number of strains increase the likelihood of violence. Child abuse and neglect, school failure, negative relations with teachers, economic problems of various sorts, like chronic unemployment. factors increase the likelihood of a violent response. One factor, poor coping skills and resources. Some people, for example, have poor social skills, have poor problem-solving skills, limited financial resources. They’re more likely to cope with strains through violence. Another factor, low levels of social support. So some people when they experience problems, don’t have anyone they can turn to for support, for emotional support, for advice, for direct assistance with coping.
2.2 Social learning theory: According to social learning theory, some individuals more likely than any others to engage in violence. Because they learn to engage in violence from the others. These others may include family members, parents in some cases. They may include peers or friends. They may include people in the community, media.
The individuals learn to engage in violence from these others, and three major ways 1.Reinforce or reward for behavior
2.learning the violence from others
3. commencing violence as response to certain problems
2.3 Control theory: control theory somewhat different from Strain and social learning theory ask why the individuals engage in violence. Control theory says, we don’t need to ask why individuals engage in violence. Violence is often the easiest, most expedient way to get what we want to satisfy our needs and desires Control theorists say that we refrain from violent behavior because of the controls and restraints to which we are subject. Control theorists list four major types of control, four major restraints to violence
3. Violence and criminal justice system
The goal of the criminal justice system is ultimately to protect society, To protect residents in a community from crime. And protect the people from violence. Now, one definition of violence by the CDC, the Centre for disease Control, is that the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual against another person or a group or community that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. Overcoming the impact of an arrest or conviction has grown more and more difficult, that elongates the deleterious influence of the criminal justice system.
Employment is the biggest predictor of recidivism, people who are in the system and come back to the criminal justice system. In the last five years, the rate of employers conducting criminal background checks has increased over 90%. 63% of those employers admit to considering arrests that did not lead to conviction. A criminal record, an arrest or conviction, reduces the chance of a call back by an employer by more than 50%. Having an arrest or a conviction has an enormous impact on whether someone who has had a brush with the law will be able to be employed.
We know that these conditions don’t actually cause people to become violent or they don’t because people go become criminals. What they do is they make those people who live in these kinds of neighborhoods more susceptible to engaging in certain types of behaviors and activities that then lead to being more criminal.
4. Influence of media over violence
“Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching proportion that are dangerous,” said Emanuel Tanay, MD, a retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University.
First approach is behavioral psychologist Bandura’s 1963 Bobo Doll experiment. He divided 48 girls and 48 boys ages three to six into four groups. One of which was a control group. Of the three experimental groups, one watched an adult in person verbally and physically abuse the Bobo doll.
One watched a film version of this abuse, and one watched a cartoon of a cat attacking the Bobo doll. Afterwards, the children were placed in a room with toys that included the doll.
Researchers observed their interaction with it, and found that the groups that witnessed the violent behavior in real life, and on screen as live action and animation, were almost twice as aggressive as the control group. These results led some to conclude that the observation of violent media can cause children to learn violent behavior. More recent studies have incorporated video games.
February 11th, 2013 New York Times article by Benedict Carey for instance reported that new research suggests that playing violent games quote can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short-term end quote. But he cautions that it’s not proven that a gaming habit increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime. And he notes that, quote, the proliferation of violent video games has not coincided with statistical spikes in violent crime, end quote, among young children.
5. Illicit drug and interpersonal violence
Illicit drug use are the major cause of interpersonal violence. Involvement in drug can increase the risk of being victim/ perpetrator of crime. The drug related interpersonal violence can be substantial damaging individual health, cohesion and development of society. Globally interpersonal violence accounts for half a million death per year. for every death there are many more victims affected by physically, psychologically, emotionally, and financially.
1. Illicit drugs used by millions of individual through out the world and its effect place burden on health and society.
2.Different illicit drugs have different effects and as such some drugs may be related to violence more than others.
3.The effects of some drugs, including crack/cocaine, amphetamines and benzodiazepines have been found to increase aggressive and violent behaviour.
4.Experiencing violence and living in dysfunctional households (e.g. where illicit drugs are consumed amongst household members) during childhood is associated with drug use in later life.
5.Prenatal and perinatal drug use by parents have been shown to increase levels of stress amongst parents and may result in subsequent child maltreatment.
What is meant by interpersonal violence?
Interpersonal violence is the intentional use of physical force or power against another person that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, harm, death ,maldevelopment or deprivation. Interpersonal violence can be categorized into youth violence, child maltreatment, intimate partner abuse, sexual abuse , elder abuse.
There are three theoretical explanation for drug- violence relationship has founded.
1. Psychopharmacological level: as a result of short term or long-term ingestion of substances may cause psychological changes and leads deviated behavior.
2. Economic compulsive: that individuals addicted or dependent on illicit substances (e.g., cocaine and heroin) will commit crimes, including violent crimes, as a means to fund their drug use.
3. Systemic: with violence being an inherent part of the illicit drug market. Violence is used to enforce the payment of debts, to resolve competition between dealers, and to punish informants.
Males had a 20% higher rate of injury than females. Injuries resulting from falls or being struck by/against an object accounted for more than 44% of injuries. The rate of medically treated injuries declined by 15%.
Violence and movies
“You turn on the television, and violence is there. You go to a movie, and violence is there.” according to Nielsen Company. Nearly two-thirds of TV programs contain some physical violence. Most self-involving video games contain some violent content, even those for children.1 Through the appearance of violence against persons across all film genres, a message is being sent that such violence deserves to be watched. The huge gross from violent films shows that consumers around the globe support this notion. To meet public demand for their product, screenwriters and filmmakers continue making movies that portray violent actions. Viewers of the movie may believe that a given violent act against another human would not necessarily occur in the way it is shown on film. The professional specialities of stunt double, fight choreographer, and special effects coordinator are dedicated, however, to convincing movie audiences to believe otherwise.
Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behaviour, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed.
Over the past 50 years, a large number of studies conducted around the world have shown that watching violent television, watching violent films, or playing violent video games increases the likelihood for aggressive behaviour. Evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.
Global statistics upon violence
Each year over 1.6 million people lose their lives to violence. Violence is among the leading causes of death for people aged 15–44 years worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females. More over violence places a massive economic burden over countries economy. Cost in health care, law enforcement, and loss productivity.
Interpersonal violence violence inflicted by an individual or a small group of individuals – includes youth violence, violence between intimate partners, other forms of family violence such as abuse of children and the elderly, rape and sexual assault by strangers, and violence in institutional settings such as schools, workplaces, nursing homes and prisons. Interpersonal violence covers a wide range of acts and behaviours from physical, sexual and psychological violence to deprivation and neglect. In 2000, an estimated 520 000 people were killed as a result of interpersonal violence worldwide – a rate of 8.8 per 100 000 population.
Suicide and self harm Globally, an estimated 815 000 people killed themselves in 2000, making suicide the thirteenth leading cause of death. The highest rates of suicide are found in Eastern European countries. The lowest rates are found mainly in Latin America and in a few countries in Asia.
In general, suicide rates increase with age, with rates among people aged 75 years and older approximately three times the rates among people aged 15–24 years.
Collective violence During the 20th century, one of the most violent periods in human history, an estimated 191 million people lost their lives directly or indirectly as a result of armed conflict, and well over half of them were civilians. In 2000, about 310 000 people died as a direct result of conflict-related injuries – the majority of them in the poorer parts of the world.
CONCLUSION
Violence is like a disease which is spreading it can be often preventable and predictable. Identifying and measures factors that can cause violence, provide timely warning to decision-makers that action is required. There is a tendency worldwide for authorities to act only after violence has occurred, but investing in crime prevention activities maybe more cost effective and have more long-lasting effects. Violence had a multifaceted nature of violence requires of engagement of government and various fields of study. Collaboration between different sectors such as criminal justice, education, labor, health and social welfare sectors.
Promoting primary prevention intervention can reduce the crime down, prenatal and perinatal health care for mothers, as well as preschool enrichment and social development programmes for children and adolescents, training for good parenting practices and improved family functioning, improvements to urban infrastructure, both physical and socioeconomic, media campaigns to change attitudes, behavior and social norms.
EDITOR
Praveena.C, a member of LJRF Palakkad chapter. Graduated from Government Law College, Thrissur and done her Masters from Government Law college, Thrissur specializing in Administrative Law and is also the editor of lawexams.co.in and ljrfvoice.
