violence

n. Alternative definitions exist for describing the essence of violence; definitions differ particularly in their scope. Traditionally, definitions describe physical actions perpetrated with the deliberate intention of harming, violating, or damaging the victim. While historically the term violence has been used to refer to physical actions alone, there is a shift toward including abusive types of psychological and sexual actions within the definition.

Types of violence include individual and collective or group violence. Extreme cases of individual violence include murder, aggravated or physical assault, and rape. Extreme cases of group violence include ethnic cleansing, terrorism, and war. Controversy exists as to which lesser harmful events constitute violence, as well as whether events perpetrated against nonhuman entities, including animals and property, ought to be considered as acts of violence.

The term is also increasingly applied to oppressive social structures like the caste system or slavery (structural violence) and conditions like poverty or the prison system (institutional violence). Psychologists tend to focus on two approaches to study violence: prediction of violence and control of violence. The latter includes treatment of violence offenders and legal responses. – HLa