essay on violence

Essays About Violence: Top 5 Examples and 7 Prompts

Violence is a broad topic and can be sensitive for many; read our guide for help writing essays about violence.

The world has grown considerably more chaotic in recent decades, and with chaos comes violence. We have heard countless stories of police brutality, mass shootings, and injustices carried out by governments; these repeating occurrences show that the world is only becoming more violent.

Violence refers to the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy . From punching a friend due to disagreement to a massacre of innocent civilians, a broad range of actions can be considered violent. Many say that violence is intrinsic to humanity, but others promote peace and believe that we must do better to improve society.

If you are writing essays about violence, go over the essay example, and writing prompts featured below.

Are you looking for more? Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

1. Videogames, Violence, and Vulgarity by Jared Lovins

2. street culture, schools, and the risk of youth violence by lorine hughes, ekaterina botchkovar, olena antonaccio, and anastasiia timmer, 3. violence in media: no problem or promotes violence in society by albert miles, 4. my experience of domestic violence by ruth stewart, 5. a few thoughts about violence by jason schmidt, writing prompts on essays about violence, 1. what is violence, 2. different types of violence, 3. can social media cause people to be violent, 4. is violence truly intrinsic to humankind, 5. causes of violence, 6. violence among the youth, 7. race-based violence.

“Parents allow themselves to be ignorant of the video games their children are playing. Players allow themselves to act recklessly when they believe that playing video games for ten, twenty, or even thirty hours on end won’t have an adverse effect on their mental and physical health. People allow themselves to act foolishly by blaming video games for much of the violence in the world when in truth they should be blaming themselves.”

Lovins discusses the widespread belief that video games cause violence and ” corrupt our society.” There is conflicting evidence on this issue; some studies prove this statement, while others show that playing violent video games may produce a calming effect. Lovins concludes that it is not the games themselves that make people violent; instead, some people’s mental health issues allow the games to inspire them to commit violence.

“The risk of violence was not higher (or lower) in schools with more pervasive street culture values. Higher concentrations of street culture values within schools did not increase the likelihood of violence above and beyond the effects of the street culture values of individual students. Our results also showed that attending schools with more pervasive street culture values did not magnify the risk of violence among individual students who had internalized these same values.”

In this essay, the authors discuss the results of their study regarding “street culture” and violence. Street culture promotes toughness and dominance by using “physical force and aggression,” so one would think that students who embrace street culture would be more violent; however, the research reveals that there is no higher risk of violent behavior in schools with more “street culture”-following students.

“We have had a violent society before media was even around, and violence is just in our nature as human beings. Those who happen to stand against this are deceived by society, due to the fact that we live in a dangerous world, which will stay this way due to the inability to create proper reasoning.”

Miles writes about people blaming the media for violence in society. He believes that government media regulations, including age-based ratings, are sufficient. If these restrictions and guidelines are taken seriously, there should be no problem with violence. Miles also states that violence has existed as long as humankind has, so it is unreasonable to blame the media.

“It was when I was in the bath, and I looked down at my body and there were no bruises on it. None at all. I was shocked; it was the first time I had lived in a non-bruised body in many years. I don’t know if any other women who got out of violent situations felt their moment. The point at which they realised it was over, they could now get on with recovering. I promised myself that I would never stay with a violent partner ever, ever again. I have kept that promise to myself.”

Stewart reflects on her time with an ex-boyfriend who was violent towards her. Even though he kept hitting her, she stayed because she was used to it; her mother and stepfather were both violent during her childhood. Thankfully, she decided to leave and freed herself from the torture. She promises never to get into a similar situation and gives tips on avoiding staying with a violent partner.

“I went back and replayed the burglar scenario in my head. Suppose I’d had a gun. When would I have pulled it? When he ran out of the apartment? What were the chances I would have killed him in a panic, without ever knowing he was armed? Stupidly high. And for what? Because he tried to steal someone’s TV? No.”

In his essay, Schmidt recalls an instance in which a man pulled a gun on him, threatening him with violence. He chased a burglar down the street, but the burglar pulled a gun on him, leaving him stunned and confused enough to escape. Schmidt was so bothered by the incident that he got his own concealed carry permit; however, after reading statistics regarding gun accidents, he decided to reject violence outright and pursue peace.

As stated previously, violence is quite a broad topic, so it can be challenging to understand fully. Define the word violence and briefly overview some of its probable causes, how it manifests itself, and its effects. You can also include statistics related to violence and your own opinions on if violence is a good or bad thing.

Essays About Violence: Different types of violence

There are many types of violence, such as domestic violence, gun violence, and war. List down the commonly occurring forms of violence and explain each of them briefly. How are they connected, if they are? To keep your essay exciting and readable, do not go too in-depth; you can reserve a more detailed discussion for future essays that are specifically about one type of violence.

Social media is quite explicit and can show viewers almost anything, including violent content. Some sample essays above discuss the media’s effect on violence; based on this, is social media any different? Research this connection, if it exists, and decide whether social media can cause violence. Can social media-based pressure lead to violence? Answer this question in your essay citing data and interview research.

Many argue that humans are innately violent, and each of us has an “inner beast.” In your essay, discuss what makes people violent and whether you believe we have tendencies towards violence. Be sure to support your points with ample evidence; there are many sources you can find online.

Violence arises from many common problems, whether it be depression, poverty, or greed. Discuss one or more causes of violence and how they are interconnected. Explain how these factors arise and how they manifest violence. With an understanding of the causes of violence, your essay can also propose solutions to help prevent future violence.

Youth violence is becoming a more severe problem. News of school shootings in the U.S. has set public discourse aflame, saying that more should be done to prevent them. For your essay, give a background of youth violence in the U.S. and focus on school shootings. What motivates these school shooters? Give examples of children whose upbringing led them to commit violent acts in the future

Another issue in the U.S. today is race-based violence, most notably police brutality against African-Americans. Is there a race issue in policing in America? Or do they target offenders regardless of race? Can both be true at the same time? You decide, and make sure to explain your argument in detail.

If you’d like to learn more, in this guide our writer explains how to write an argumentative essay .Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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How to Identify and Prevent School Violence

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified pediatric psychologist, parent coach, author, speaker, and owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology, PLLC.

Yasser Chalid / Getty Images

Recognizing the Signs of School Violence

School violence refers to violence that takes place in a school setting. This includes violence on school property, on the way to or from school, and at school trips and events. It may be committed by students, teachers, or other members of the school staff; however, violence by fellow students is the most common.

An estimated 246 million children experience school violence every year; however, girls and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately affected.

"School violence can be anything that involves a real or implied threat—it can be verbal, sexual, or physical, and perpetrated with or without weapons. If someone is deliberately harming someone or acting in a way that leaves someone feeling threatened, that‘s school violence,” says Aimee Daramus , PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist.

This article explores the types, causes, and impact of school violence and suggests some steps that can help prevent it.

Types of School Violence

School violence can take many forms. These are some of the types of school violence:

Physical violence , which includes any kind of physical aggression, the use of weapons, as well as criminal acts like theft or arson.
Psychological violence , which includes emotional and verbal abuse . This may involve insulting, threatening, ignoring, isolating, rejecting, name-calling, humiliating, ridiculing, rumor-mongering, lying, or punishing another person.
Sexual violence , which includes sexual harrassment, sexual intimidation, unwanted touching, sexual coercion, and rape .
Bullying , which can take physical, psychological, or sexual forms and is characterized by repeated and intentional aggression toward another person.
Cyberbullying , which includes sexual or psychological abuse by people connected through school on social media or other online platforms. This may involve posting false information, hurtful comments, malicious rumors, or embarrassing photos or videos online. Cyberbullying can also take the form of excluding someone from online groups or networks.

Causes of School Violence

There often isn’t a simple, straightforward reason why someone engages in school violence. A child may have been bullied or rejected by a peer, may be under a lot of academic pressure, or may be enacting something they’ve seen at home, in their neighborhood, on television, or in a video game.

These are some of the risk factors that can make a child more likely to commit school violence:

Poor academic performance
Prior history of violence
Hyperactive or impulsive personality
Mental health conditions
Witnessing or being a victim of violence
Alcohol, drug, or tobacco use
Dysfunctional family dynamic
Domestic violence or abuse
Access to weapons
Delinquent peers
Poverty or high crime rates in the community

It’s important to note that the presence of these factors doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will engage in violent behavior.

Impact of School Violence

Below, Dr. Daramus explains how school violence can affect children who commit, experience, and witness it, as well as their parents.

Impact on Children Committing Violence

Children who have been victims of violence or exposed to it in some capacity sometimes believe that becoming violent is the only way they‘ll ever be safe.

When they commit violence, they may experience a sense of satisfaction when their emotional need for strength or safety is satisfied. That‘s short-lived however, because they start to fear punishment or retribution, which triggers anger that can sometimes lead to more violence if they’re scared of what might happen to them if they don’t protect themselves.

Children need help to try and break the cycle; they need to understand that violence can be temporarily satisfying but that it leads to more problems.

Impact on Children Victimized by School Violence

Victims of school violence may get physically injured and experience cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, gunshot wounds, concussions, physical disability, or death.

Emotionally speaking, the child might experience depression , anxiety, or rage. Their academic performance may suffer because it can be hard to focus in school when all you can think about is how to avoid being hurt again.

School violence is traumatic and can cause considerable psychological distress. Traumatic experiences can be difficult for adults too; however, when someone whose brain is not fully developed yet experiences trauma, especially if it’s over a long time, their brain can switch to survival mode, which can affect their attention, concentration, emotional control, and long-term health.

According to a 2019 study, children who have experienced school violence are at risk for long-term mental and physical health conditions, including attachment disorders, substance abuse, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.

The more adverse childhood experiences someone has, the greater the risk to their physical and mental health as an adult.

Impact on Children Who Witness School Violence

Children who witness school violence may feel guilty about seeing it and being too afraid to stop it. They may also feel threatened, and their brain may react in a similar way to a child who has faced school violence.

Additionally, when children experience or witness trauma , their basic beliefs about life and other people are often changed. They no longer believe that the world is safe, which can be damaging to their mental health.

For a child to be able to take care of themselves as they get older, they need to first feel safe and cared for. Learning to cope with threats is an advanced lesson that has to be built on a foundation of feeling safe and self-confident.

Children who have experienced or witnessed school violence can benefit from therapy, which can help them process the trauma, regulate their emotions, and learn coping skills to help them heal.

Impact on Parents

Parents react to school violence in all kinds of ways. Some parents encourage their children to bully others, believing that violence is strength. Some try to teach their children how to act in a way that won’t attract bullying or other violence, but that never works and it may teach the child to blame themselves for being bullied.

Others are proactive and try to work with the school or challenge the school if necessary, to try and keep their child safe.

It can be helpful to look out for warning signs of violence, which can include:

Talking about or playing with weapons of any kind
Harming pets or other animals
Threatening or bullying others
Talking about violence, violent movies, or violent games
Speaking or acting aggressively

It’s important to report these signs to parents, teachers, or school authorities. The child may need help and support, and benefit from intervention .

Preventing School Violence

Dr. Daramus shares some steps that can help prevent school violence:

Report it to the school: Report any hint of violent behavior to school authorities. Tips can be a huge help in fighting school violence. Many schools allow students to report tips anonymously.
Inform adults: Children who witness or experience violence should keep telling adults (parents, teachers, and counselors) until someone does something. If an adult hears complaints about a specific child from multiple people, they may be able to protect other students and possibly help the child engaging in violence to learn different ways.
Reach out to people: Reach out to children or other people at the school who seem to be angry or upset, or appear fascinated with violence. Reach out to any child, whether bullied, bullying, or neither, who seems to have anxiety, depression, or trouble managing emotions. Most of the time the child won’t be violent, but you’ll have helped them anyway by being supportive.

A Word From Verywell

School violence can be traumatic for everyone involved, particularly children. It’s important to take steps to prevent it because children who witness or experience school violence may suffer physical and mental health consequences that can persist well into adulthood.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing school violence .

UNESCO. What you need to know about school violence and bullying .

UNESCO. School violence and bullying .

Nemours Foundation. School violence: what students can do .

Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA. Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence . Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding school violence .

Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G. Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children . Italian Journal of Pediatrics . 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Essay on Violence

Students are often asked to write an essay on Violence in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Violence

Understanding violence.

Violence refers to acts that cause harm to others. It can be physical like hitting, or emotional like bullying. It’s a serious issue that can lead to pain, fear, and even death.

Types of Violence

There are various types of violence such as domestic, school, or gang violence. Each type is harmful and can negatively affect a person’s life.

Effects of Violence

Violence can cause physical injuries and mental trauma. It can also lead to societal problems like crime and unrest.

Preventing Violence

Education and understanding are key to preventing violence. It’s important to treat others with respect and kindness.

Violence is a harmful act that we should strive to prevent. By promoting peace and understanding, we can make a difference.

Also check:

10 Lines on Violence
Paragraph on Violence
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250 Words Essay on Violence

Introduction.

Violence, an act of physical force resulting in harm or damage, is a pervasive and complex issue in society. It manifests in various forms, from interpersonal violence in families to mass violence in wars, affecting individuals and societies at large.

Forms of Violence

Violence takes multiple forms, including physical, mental, and emotional. Physical violence is the most visible, involving direct harm or threat. Mental and emotional violence, though less apparent, can be equally devastating, involving manipulation, coercion, and psychological abuse.

The Roots of Violence

The roots of violence often lie in power dynamics, socio-economic factors, and cultural norms. Factors such as poverty, social inequality, and cultural practices can perpetuate violent behaviors. Moreover, exposure to violence in early life often leads to a cycle of violence, as victims may become perpetrators.

Impact of Violence

Violence has far-reaching impacts, not only causing immediate harm but also long-term physical, mental, and social consequences. It hinders social development and economic growth, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.

Addressing Violence

Addressing violence requires a comprehensive approach that involves legal, educational, and social measures. Legal measures include laws and regulations to prevent and punish violence. Educational measures involve teaching empathy and conflict resolution skills. Social measures, such as economic empowerment and social support, can help address underlying factors.

In conclusion, violence is a significant issue with deep roots and broad impacts. Addressing it requires concerted efforts from individuals, communities, and societies to create a world free from violence.

500 Words Essay on Violence

The concept of violence.

Violence, a pervasive element in society, is a complex, multifaceted issue that demands careful examination. It is characterized by behaviors involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Violence has been a part of human history since time immemorial, with its roots deeply embedded in the human psyche, societal norms, and cultural practices.

The Manifestations of Violence

Violence manifests in numerous forms, from physical aggression and verbal abuse to systemic oppression and psychological harm. It can be categorized into interpersonal violence, collective violence, and self-directed violence. Interpersonal violence includes domestic abuse and child maltreatment, while collective violence involves social, political, or economic conflicts such as wars or terrorism. Self-directed violence, on the other hand, includes self-harm and suicidal behaviors.

The Psychological Underpinnings of Violence

Psychologically, violence can be viewed as an outcome of a complex interplay of individual, relational, and societal factors. At the individual level, factors such as personality disorders, low self-esteem, or a history of violence can predispose a person towards violent behavior. Relational factors include family dynamics, peer influence, and intimate relationships. Societal factors encompass broader issues like economic disparities, social inequality, and cultural norms that perpetuate violence.

The Impact of Violence

The impact of violence extends beyond the immediate harm to the victim. It has far-reaching consequences on the mental, physical, and social well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Victims of violence often experience psychological trauma, physical injuries, and in severe cases, death. The societal consequences include a cycle of violence passed down generations, increased healthcare costs, and reduced social cohesion.

Preventing violence requires a comprehensive, multi-level approach. At the individual level, interventions include mental health support and skill development programs. At the relational level, family and community-based interventions can help create a supportive environment. At the societal level, policy measures aimed at reducing social inequalities and promoting cultural change are crucial.

Concluding Thoughts

Violence is a complex issue that cannot be reduced to a single cause or solution. Its roots lie in the intricate web of individual, relational, and societal factors. Understanding these factors is crucial for effective interventions. As we move forward, it is essential to foster a culture of empathy, respect, and non-violence, promoting a more peaceful and inclusive society for all.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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Essay: VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

M an and society are born out of both: violence and gentle cooperation.” That is how Psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim defines a paradoxical but inescapable fact touching the whole history of “the children of Cain.” How the two forces are balanced in an individual helps determine his behavior, even his sanity. How they are balanced in society helps determine its political organization, the degree and condition of its civilization. In the U.S. today, it seems to many that violence is in the ascendant over cooperation, disruption over order, and anger over reason.

The greatest single source of this fear lies in the Negro riots that keep tearing at American cities. What is alarming about them is not merely the frustration and bitterness they proclaim, not merely the physical and psychological damage they cause, but also the fact that a few Negro leaders are deliberately trying to justify the riots with a violent and vengeful ideology. This in turn can all too easily be seen as just one aspect of a whole American panorama of violence.

The crime rate keeps rising, or seems to, especially in senseless killings and wanton attacks. Fear of the darkened city streets has become a fact of urban life. The memories of bizarre multiple murders linger in the mind—13 people dead in Austin from a sniper’s rifle, eight nurses in Chicago killed by a demented drifter. The recollection of the Kennedy assassination remains part of the scene. A burgeoning, largely uncontrolled traffic in guns has put firearms into some 50 million American homes, many of their owners insisting that the weapons are needed for self-defense. In the movies and on television, murder and torture seem to be turning Americans into parlor sadists. A recent trend on the stage is the “theater of cruelty,” and a growing number of books delve into the pornography of violence.

The rest of the world is ready to adjudge America as an excessively violent country in which brutal, irrational force can erupt any minute on a massive scale. This view is reinforced by the sheer driving energy of the U.S. It seems confirmed by the American folklore of violence—the Western and the gangster saga—which audiences all over the world worship as epic entertainment and as a safe refuge for dreams of lawless freedom. In a very different way, the view of America the Violent is also reinforced by the Vietnamese war, in which critics both at home and abroad profess to see a growing strain of American brutality.

Comparative Mayhem

Violence is so universal and elusive that sociology and psychology can only approximate a complex truth. Comparisons with other countries are illuminating but hardly conclusive. The U.S. has certainly experienced nothing like the massacre of 400,000 Communists in Indonesia; nor have Watts or Newark approached the lethal fury of an Indian or an Arab mob. But these are countries at vastly different levels of civilization. In the industrialized world, the U.S. undeniably ranks high in violence. The U.S. homicide rate stands at around five deaths for 100,000 people. This compares with .7 in England, 1.4 in Canada, 1.5 in France, 1.5 in Japan (but 32 in Mexico). Within the U.S., the rate varies widely, from about 11 per 100,000 in Georgia and Alabama to 6.1 in New York and .5 in Vermont. Not that homicide or any other statistics can tell the complete story.

The U.S. is in the grip of a semipermanent revolution, constantly undergoing social and economic changes that in Europe might send people to the barricades. Occasionally, Americans may still try to re-enact the two-fisted frontiersman, but the real source of much American violence is the swift pace of social change, which can be deeply disturbing to the less stable personalities in a society. Europe has usually experienced its revolutions spasmodically, at fairly long intervals, while in between it tends to defer to official authority far more than do Americans.

Measuring itself not against others but against its own past, the U.S. has good reason to believe that the country as a whole is growing less violent. The roots of violence in the American past are obvious: the Revolution, the Indian wars, slavery, the Civil War, that crucial and necessary test between two societies (when Fort Sumter was fired on, Emerson said: “Now we have a country again. Sometimes gunpowder smells good”). Race riots erupted almost as soon as the Negroes were emancipated, the worst being the New York draft riots of 1863. The Ku Klux Klan relied on raw violence to keep the Negroes from exercising the rights they had gained. In its way, frontier violence was also the result of social change: new, transplanted populations, new sources of wealth, new elites struggling for power. The wonder, perhaps, was not that the frontier was violent, but that its people tried so quickly to establish some sort of law.

Changing Pattern

In the cities, each wave of new immigration evoked violent reactions, many of which were instigated in the mid-1800s by the original Know-Nothings and their many later imitators. Immigrant groups themselves battled with one another, caught up in ethnic feuds. Above all, the American labor movement was the most violent in the world. From the 1870s to the 1930s, bloody battles between strikers and company cops or state militia were frequent. Labor leaders often deliberately used violence to dramatize the workers’ plight—and, in time, they succeeded. On the fringes of the movement were some odd secret organizations, including the Molly Maguires, a band of Pennsylvania miners who assassinated fellow workers and bosses alike in an attempt to win better pay and working conditions. The Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) sang the praises of violence and provided numerous labor saints and martyrs. The great gangs that appeared in Chicago, New York and elsewhere in the 1920s were also social symptoms: not merely the fiefdoms of “little Caesars” bent on money and power, but the expression of a moral vacuum in the U.S.

Against this background, violence on the American scene today is still alarming, but it scarcely suggests a disastrous deterioration. Public tolerance of violence seems lower than ever before in U.S. life, and public respect for law far higher. Above all, there is evidence to show that—some statistics to the contrary—violent crime in the U.S. is not really growing relative to the population. After massive researches, the President’s Crime Commission admits that crime trends cannot be conclusively proven out by available figures. According to FBI reckoning, crimes of violence have risen about 35% so far in the 1960s. But these figures fail to consider two important factors: population growth and changes in crime reporting. Experts believe that part of the apparent increase is caused by the fact that each year the police grow more thorough—and the poor are less reluctant—about reporting crime that previously went unrecorded. Says Sociologist Marvin Wolfgang, president of the American Society of Criminology: “Contrary to the rise in public fear, crimes of violence are not significantly increasing.”

But their pattern is changing. The incidence of murder and robbery relative to population has decreased by 30% in the past three decades. On the other hand, rape has tripled. Males are seven times more likely to commit violent crimes than women, but the women are catching up: in five years, arrests of women for crimes of violence rose 62% above 1960 v. 18% for men. From the newest figures, certain other patterns emerge. Despite widespread fear of strangers, most crimes of violence are committed by a member of the family or an acquaintance. The arrest rate for murder among Negroes is ten times that among whites, but most of the violent crimes committed by Negroes are against other Negroes. Violence is increasingly an urban phenomenon: 26 large cities containing less than one-fifth of the U.S. population account for more than half of all major crimes against the person. Poets sometimes have sociological insights, and Robert Lowell knew what he was talking about in his lines:

When Cain beat out his brother Abel’s brains

The Maker laid great cities in his soul.

Innate or Learned

Violence is not only an urban but overwhelmingly a lower-class phenomenon. In Atlanta, for example, neighborhoods with family incomes below $3,000 show a violent-crime rate eight times higher than among $9,000 families. In the middle class, violence is perhaps sublimated increasingly in sport or other pursuits. Says Sociologist Wolfgang: “The gun and fist have been substantially replaced by financial ability, by the capacity to manipulate others in complex organizations, and by intellectual talent. The thoughtful wit, the easy verbalizer, even the striving musician and artist are equivalents of male assertiveness, where broad shoulders and fighting fists were once the major symbols.”

What are the seeds of violence? Freud found “a powerful measure of desire for aggression” in human instincts. He added: “The very emphasis of the commandment ‘Thou shall not kill’ makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood, as it is perhaps also in ours.” Further, Freud held that man possesses a death instinct which, since it cannot be satisfied except in suicide, is instead turned outward as aggression against others. Dr. Fredric Wertham, noted crusader against violence, disagrees sharply and argues that violence is learned behavior, not a product of nature but of society: “The violent man is not the natural but the socially alienated man.”

The fact is that if violence is not innate, it is a basic component of human behavior. The German naturalist Konrad Lorenz believes that, unlike other carnivores, man did not at an early stage develop inhibitions against killing members of his own species—because he was too weak. As he developed weapons, he learned to kill, and he also learned moral restraints, but these never penetrated far enough. Writes Lorenz: “The deep emotional layers of our personality simply do not register the fact that the cocking of a forefinger to release a shot tears the entrails of another man.”

The yearning for nonviolence is as real as the yearning for love but, East or West, no religion has succeeded in establishing a society based on it. When trying to point to a really nonviolent community, anthropologists are usually forced to resort to the Arapesh of New Guinea or the Pygmies of the Ituri rain forest in the Congo. The human impulse to violence cannot be completely denied or suppressed. When that is tried, the result is often an inner violence in man that can burst out all the more fiercely later. At times the U.S. displays a kind of false prudery about violence to the point where, in the words of Psychiatrist Robert Coles, “almost anything related to forcefulness and the tensions between people is called violent.” While this attitude (including Dr. Wertham’s frequent blasts at anything from military toys to Batman) is plainly unrealistic, there is no denying that a gruesome violence on screens and in print is threatening to get out of hand. According to one theory, such vicarious experience of violence is healthy because it relieves the viewer’s own aggressions. But recent tests suggest the opposite.

Violence can be a simple, rational reaching for a goal, in its legal form of war or its illegal form of crime. It can often be irrational, as in a seemingly senseless killing or quarrel. But the distinction between irrational and rational violence is not easily drawn. Even the insane murderer kills to satisfy a need entirely real to him. Violence is often caused by “displaced aggression,” when anger is forced to aim at a substitute target. Every psychologist knows that a man might beat his child because he cannot beat his boss. And a man may even murder because he feels rejected or “alienated.” But what leads one man in such a situation to kill and another merely to get drunk is a question psychologists have never really answered. There is no doubt that violence has a cathartic effect, and the pressures that cause it must find an outlet of one kind or another. (Japan’s Matsushita Electric Co. has set up a dummy of the foreman that workers can beat up on a given day once a week, thereby presumably releasing their aggressions.)

But the aims of violence are usually mixed. Several violent codes combine a functional purpose with an emotional mystique. This was true of the aristocratic dueling code, which served to maintain a social hierarchy that became enshrouded in trappings of honor and death. It is true of the city gang, which functions as a rough and ready community but also includes a mystique in which violence is equated with courage and crime with merit. It is, finally, true of revolutionary ideology, which combines the brutal but often practical belief that only violence can pull down the existing order through a crude poetry about the purifying properties of blood and fire. “I believe in the cutting off of heads,” proclaimed Marat during the French Revolution, and his contemporary, the Marquis de Sade, preached, in the duller pages of his books, the virtue of murder as policy. Explains Brandeis University Sociologist Lewis Coser: “The act of violence commits a man symbolically to the revolutionary movement and breaks his ties with his previous life. He is, so to speak, reborn.” The late Frantz Fanon, a polemicist for anticolonial revolution, wrote: “Violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex.”

Cutting Edge

It is something resembling this revolutionary mystique that Stokely Carmichael and a few others are trying to impose on the Amerian Negro movement. Mixed with the anarchical slogans of “Burn, baby, burn!” and “Tear down the courthouses,” there is a calculated conviction that violence is above all else a language, and that this language, through fear, will persuade white society to give things to the Negro that it would not otherwise give. Says Lester Mc-Kinney, Washington head of S.N.C.C.: “In the minds of the people, history has proved that any meaningful social change has come through a bloody revolution.” Many Negro leaders point to the violent tactics of the labor movement in gaining its ends. Even Negro Sociologist Kenneth Clark, no advocate of black power, calls violence “the cutting edge of justice.” Social change for Negroes is moving faster than at any time in 100 years; for that very reason, Negroes were able to decide that things were still moving too slowly. The riots, as the President’s Crime Commission report puts it, are a way to “let America know.”

But the language of violence is crude and dangerous for those who use it. As Hannah Arendt notes, the Western tradition is full of violence and its legend seems to say, “whatever brotherhood human beings may be capable of has grown out of fratricide”; yet she also points out that neither wars nor revolutions are “ever completely determined by violence. Where violence rules absolutely, everything and everybody must fall silent.” Violence is not power. In the last analysis it is an admission of failure, a desire for a magical shortcut, an act of despair. Shameful though conditions in the Negro ghettos are, violence is not really the only language left in which to appeal for improvement.

Dealing with violence, the U.S. faces several tasks, none easy. One is to provide more intelligent, effective law enforcement and, through legislation, to do away with the dangerous unfettered sale of firearms. Another is nothing less than the elimination of the ghetto and what it stands for: an increasingly disaffected population. Though probably there will always be violence—out of anger or greed, love or madness—large-scale, socially significant violence is usually caused by authentic grievances, and the U.S. should be able to narrow if not eliminate these. But that leaves, finally, the individual flash or explosion of violence; and to deal with this, man must learn more about man—the mystery that can turn creative energy into brute force, a peaceful crowd into a mob, and an ineffectual weakling into a mass murderer.

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Macbeth and Violence — Example A Grade Essay

Here’s an essay on Macbeth’s violent nature that I wrote as a mock exam practice with students. Feel free to read and analyse it, use the quotes and context for your own essays too!

It’s also useful for anyone studying Macbeth in general, especially with the following exam boards: CAIE / Cambridge, Edexcel, OCR, CCEA, WJEC / Eduqas.

Thanks for reading! If you find this resource useful, you can take a look at our full online Macbeth course here . Use the code “SHAKESPEARE” to receive a 50% discount!

This course includes:

A full set of video lessons on each key element of the text: summary, themes, setting, characters, context, attitudes, analysis of key quotes, essay questions, essay examples
Downloadable documents for each video lesson
A range of example B-A* / L7-L9 grade essays, both at GCSE (ages 14-16) and A-Level (age 16+) with teacher comments and mark scheme feedback
A bonus Macbeth workbook designed to guide you through each scene of the play!

For more help with Macbeth and Tragedy, read our article here .

THE QUESTION

Starting with this speech, explore how far shakespeare presents macbeth as a violent character. (act 1 scene 2).

Debate: How far is Macbeth violent? (AGREE / DISAGREE)

Themes: Violence (break into different types of violence)

Focus: Character of Macbeth (what he says/does, other character’s actions towards him and speech about him)

PLAN — 6–8 mins

Thesis – Shakespeare uses Macbeth to make us question the nature of violence and whether any kind of violent behaviour is ever appropriate

Point 1 : Macbeth has an enjoyment of violence

‘Brandished steel’ ‘smoked with bloody execution’

‘Unseam’d him from the nave to’th’chops’ ‘fixed his head upon the battlements’

Context — Thou shalt not kill / Tragic hero

Point 2 : Macbeth is a violent character from the offset, but this violence is acceptable at first

‘Disdaining Fortune’ ‘valiant cousin/ worthy gentleman’

‘Worthy to be a rebel’

Context: Divine Right of Kings / James I legacy

Point 3: The witches and Lady Macbeth manipulate that violent power

‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’

‘Will these hands never be clean?’ ‘incarnadine’

‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’

Context: Psychological power — Machiavelli / Demonology

(Point 4) Ultimately, Macbeth is undone by violence in the end

Hubris — ‘Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d’

‘Traitor’ ‘Tyrant’

‘Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’

Context: Violence for evil means is unsustainable, political unrest equally is negative and unsustainable — support James

Macbeth is certainly portrayed as a violent character from the offset, but initially this seems a positive trait: the Captain, Ross and others herald him as a great warrior, both an ally and valuable asset to Duncan and his kingdom. Furthermore, Duncan himself is overjoyed at Macbeth’s skill in battle. Yet, as the play progresses and Macbeth embarks upon his tragic fall, Shakespeare encourages us to question the nature of violence itself, and whether any kind of violence is truly good. Ultimately, Shakespeare demonstrates that Macbeth’s enjoyment of violence works against him, as it is manipulated by the evil forces at work in the play, and it ends in destroying not only himself but his entire life’s work, reputation and legacy.

Firstly, Macbeth is established as a character who embraces violence, though he uses it as a force for good in the sense that he defends Duncan and his Kingdom against traitors and the King of Norway’s attack. In the play, it is interesting to note that Macbeth’s reputation precedes him — despite being the central focus of the tragedy, we do not meet him until Act 1 Scene 3, and so this extract occurs before we have seen the man himself. The Captain’s speech begins with the dramatic utterance ‘Doubtful it stood’, creating a sense of tension and uncertainty as he recounts the events of the battle to Duncan and the others. Yet, the tone of the speech becomes increasingly full of praise and confidence as he explains how Macbeth and Banquo overcame ‘Fortune’, the luck that went against them, and their strong willpower enabled them to defeat ‘the merciless Macdonwald’, the alliteration serving to underscore the Captain’s dislike of the man, while the adjective ‘merciless’ implies that the traitor himself was also cruel and violent. The sense that Macbeth enjoys the violence he enacts upon the traitor is conveyed through visual imagery, which is graphic and quite repellent: ‘his brandish’d steel… smoked with bloody execution’ and ‘he unseam’d [Macdonwald] from the nave to th’chops’. The dynamic verb ‘smoked’ suggests the intense action of the scene and the amount of fresh blood that had stained Macbeth’s sword. Furthermore, the verb ‘unseam’d’ suggests the skill with which Macbeth is able to kill — he does not simply stab the traitor, he delicately and expertly destroys him, almost as if he’s a butcher who takes pleasure in his profession, and indeed at the end of the play Macduff does call him by this same term: ‘the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’. Interestingly, much of the violence that occurs in the play happens offstage, Duncan is murdered in between Acts 2.1 and 2.2., as are Banquo and Macduff’s family. Even in this early scene, the audience hear about the violence rather than experiencing it directly. This suggests perhaps that for a Jacobean audience at a time of political instability, Shakespeare wanted to discourage the idea or enjoyment of violence whilst still exploring the idea of it in human nature and psychology. Furthermore, a contemporary audience would be aware of the Biblical commandment ‘thou shall not kill’, which expressed that violence and murder of any kind was a sinful act against God. Therefore, we can see that Macbeth is established as a tragic hero from the offset, though he is a successful character and increasing his power within the feudal world, this power is built upon his capacity for and enjoyment of violence, which will ultimately cause him to fail and in turn warn the Jacobean audience against any kind of violence in their own lives.

We could also interpret Macbeth as inherently violent, but under control of his own power at the beginning of the play, an aspect of himself which degenerates under the influence of evil. Though he is physically great, he is easily manipulated by the witches and Lady Macbeth, all of whom are arguably psychologically stronger. The use of chiasmus in the opening scene — ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ is echoed by Macbeth’s first line in Act One Scene 3: ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’. Delving deeper into the meaning of these lines also reveals more about Shakespeare’s opinions on the inherent nature of violence; though the language is equivocal and can be interpreted in many ways, we can assume that the witches are implying that the world has become inverted, that ugliness and evil are now ‘fair’, what is seen as right or normal in Macbeth’s violent world. Macbeth uses similar lines, but with a different meaning, he is stating that he has never seen a day so ‘foul’, so full of gore and death, that was at the same time so ‘fair’, so good in terms of outcome, and positive for the future. Shakespeare is perhaps exposing an inherent paradox in violence here, that war and murder is thought by many to be noble if it leads to a positive political outcome. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth encourages and appeals to Macbeth’s sense for violence by directly associating it with masculinity and male traits that were considered noble or desirable in the Jacobean era. She questions him just prior to Duncan’s death, stating ‘I fear thy nature is too full o’th’milk of human kindness / to catch the nearest way’, using ‘milk’ as a symbol of femininity to imply his womanly and cowardly nature, while in turn asking evil spirits to ‘unsex’ her and fill her with ‘direst cruelty’. In this sense, it could be argued that Shakespeare is commenting on the connections between nature and violence, perhaps a Jacobean audience would have understood that Macbeth fighting for the king was an acceptable outlet for his violence, whereas Macbeth using violence for personal gain and Lady Macbeth’s wish to become more masculine, and therefore more violent, are all against the perceived view of natural gender and social roles of the time. Overall, we could say that the culture itself, which encourages Machievellian disruption and political vying for power through both women and men stepping out of the social norms of their society, encourages more violence and evil to enter the world.

Alternatively, it could be argued that Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s success through violence to criticise the nature of the Early Modern world, and so it is not Macbeth’s violence itself which is at fault, but the world which embraces and encourages this in him. Duncan responds to the Captain’s speech by exclaiming ‘valiant cousin’ ‘worthy gentleman!’, demonstrating his extreme faith in Macbeth’s powers. The Captain additionally terms him ‘Brave Macbeth’, stating ‘well he deserves that name’, suggesting that the general structure of the world supports violent and potentially unstable characters such as Macbeth, enabling them to rise to power beyond their means. Interestingly the downfall of Macbeth is foreshadowed early on in this extract, as the term ‘worthy’ is also applied to the traitor in the Captain’s speech, when he states Macdonwald is ‘worthy to be a rebel’, the repetition of this adjective perhaps subtly compares Macdonwald’s position to Macbeth’s own, as Macbeth’s own death also is similar to the initial traitors, with his own head being ‘fixed…upon the battlements’ of Inverness castle. Through this repetition of staging and terminology, we realise that the world is perhaps at fault more than Macbeth himself, as it encourages a cycle of violence and political instability. Though there is a sense of positivity in extract as Duncan has succeeded in securing the throne and defeating the traitor, the violent context in which this action occurs, being set in 11th century feudal Scotland, suggests the underlying political unrest that mirrors the political instability of Shakespeare’s own time. The play was first performed in 1606, three years after James I had been made King of England (though he was already King of Scotland at this time), and in 1605 there had been a violent attempt on his life with the Gunpowder Plot from a group of secret Catholics who felt they were being underrepresented. Shakespeare’s own family were known associates of some of the perpetrators, so it is likely that he intended to clear suspicion of his own name by creating a play that strongly supported James I’s Divine Right to rule. In this sense, we can see that the concept of a cycle of violence that is created through political instability is integral to Shakespeare’s overall purpose, he is strongly conveying to the audience that not only is Macbeth’s personal violence sinful, but the way in which society encourages people to become violent is terrible and must be stopped, for the good of everyone.

In summary, Macbeth is established from the offset as a violent character, who takes pride and pleasure in fighting and killing. However, Shakespeare is careful not to make this violent action central to the enjoyment of the play (until the very end, when Macbeth himself is defeated), to force us to engage with the psychology of violence more than the physical nature of it. Though the women in the play are passive, Lady Macbeth and the witches prove to incite violence in Macbeth’s nature and lead ultimately to more evil entering the world. Finally, we can interpret the violence of the play as a criticism of the political and social instability of Jacobean times, rather than it being purely Macbeth’s fault, Shakespeare is exploring how the society itself encourages instability through the encouragement of Machiavellian ideas such as power grabbing, nepotism, greed and ambition.

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How To Craft a Top-Tier Violence Essay Easy-Peasy

Are you looking forward to a straight A-grade in your violence essay assignment?

Well, use our excellent writing prompts and expert tips below.

Definition of an Essay About Violence

As the name suggests, this is a writing piece that seeks to present an author’s argument on violent activities in society. Such an essay may contain one of the following aspects:

Intentional use of physical force
Emotional abuse
Self-violence

These actions may result in any of the effects mentioned below:

Psychological harm
Deprivation
Mal-development

Now that we are well-informed on the topic let us explore the structure of essays on violence.

Outline of an Essay on Violence

The sensitivity of such a paper requires maximum precision on the part of the student. The diction, format, style, and general outline will play a vital role in the delivery of your essay.

Let’s brush through the main parts of your future essays about violence:

Introduction: Present the issue at hand (force), its importance, and why your reader should pay attention. The thesis statement will appear here to give the focus of the paper. Body: In this section, develop your argument present in the intro with convincing facts and examples. Ensure that the topic sentences of your paragraphs answer the thesis statement. Conclusion: Reiterate the most important evidence supporting the arguments as a reminder to your reader. You can have a call-to-action in this section, which may be a warning against the perpetrators of violence or how to report a case of abuse.

Remember that violence can take different forms. Thus, it would help if you endeavored to address the way you chose in detail to feed the reader’s curiosity as much as possible.

Now, let’s take a look at some violence essay samples.

Violence Against Women Essay To many, it remains remarkable that violence against women persists in modern, Western cultures. Women have achieved a great deal of equality, if mainly legal, which in turn supports shifting social thinking that condemns the violence. In plain terms, it makes little sense that society should still in some way enable the abuses. However, sociological theories help to clarify the issue just as Western logic does little to defy or address the violence. It may in fact be, for example, that the abuse was lesser in a past when women enjoyed fewer freedoms, and because men did not perceive them as threats to masculine authority. Not unexpectedly, any patriarchy enables the violence, just males tend to be increasingly dominant when women seek independence (McDermott, Cowden, 2014, p. 1768). This then reinforces that male resentment is likely an influence in abuse of women. As men feel increasingly challenged, they will then use their generally superior physicality to punish such women, and the patriarchal society adds an exponential effect; more exactly, the more women suffer violence, the more the violence is supported as a norm. Then, given the complex nature of the highly developed patriarchy, other elements impact on the subject. An important factor of the subject is that, in Western and other cultures, violence against women is usually intergenerational. This in turn reinforces the impacts of observational learning; in families or in social arenas, societies often support the violence (Michalski, 2004, p. 658). If it is often challenged or condemned, the greater reality is that male dominance is so deeply embedded in a culture like the American, it essentially exists as an intensely powerful force. Despite advances in women’s movements and activism, it must be remembered that this goes back only a few decades. This equates to men holding great power for long centuries, and a trait in any population holding power is a disinclination to surrender any. These traditions then link to the male’s as having the “right” to abuse women as they choose, just as sexual violence against women is still extremely common. Times have changed but it takes a great deal to reverse ethics and gender values so implanted in the culture. Moreover, such changes, again, rely on a male willingness to alter male perceptions. This is unlikely. In plain terms, American men have traditionally enjoyed the socially supported validation of abusing women, which reality has long existed with marriage and external to it. This may be supported by how, today, campus sexual violence and date rape remain at high levels. Little more may be expected in a society that has so long perceived women property. It may then be wondered why changing laws offer minimal protection for female victims of violence. This, however, suggests a reverse logic. Laws of themselves rarely impact on society unless that society is insisting on the law. The U.S., for example, may enact severe penalties on men who abuse women. As noted, many such laws exist. Nonetheless, the current administration strongly reflects gender value which may easily be described as blatantly sexist, which in turn promotes the male empowerment to abuse. Legislation is then no answer unless the society radically revises its views of gender roles. It is true that women today have opportunities to empower themselves to unprecedented degrees. Even this, however, is relatively meaningless in a patriarchy determined to retain its authority. As long as the society’s control largely rests in male hands, then, it is the tragic reality that violence against women will be ongoing. This also reflect how, generally speaking, males who are violent or abusive so often support one another. As noted, then, the answer is not legal; rather, it lies within the culture’s ability to redefine itself.

Domestic Violence Essay Sample Domestic violence is prevalent throughout the world, including Northern America. While the victims may include men, women are by far the most common targets. There are several types of domestic violence, which in turn often lead to a deadly cycle of violence with other, external factors that often play a large role and greatly influence domestic violence, such as patriarchy and power. Fear is perhaps the most basic element in regards to domestic violence, as it is at the core of how most perpetrators attempt to control their victim(s). Fear can be created either explicitly or implicitly, and can be given off through merely a subtle look or gesture. Additionally, one may possess weapons to create fear, destroy another’s property, or show any type of behavior that would intimidate their victim (Johnson, 2008). Intimidation can include a number of different tactics, such as destroying things, handling weapons, raising one’s voice, or hostile treatment overall towards the victim. A perpetrator may even drive recklessly with the victim in the car, or harass him or her at their workplace. Additionally, they may intimidate through communication, such as texting or emailing. Intimidating communication also extends to verbal abuse, which can cause great damage in the victim (Johnson, 2008). Screaming, putting down the other, swearing, or deriding someone are all part of verbal abuse, and is often a precursor to physical abuse (Johnson, 2008). Physical abuse is often a form of domestic violence, and includes measures such as slapping, hitting, pushing, shoving, strangling, hair pulling, and others. Additionally, physical abuse can also encompass the use of weapons. Physical abuse may also, in a less obvious sense, include threats to destroy the other’s possessions, and thus ranges from lack of consideration, to permanent injury or even death (Wilson, 2009). Emotional abuse is perhaps the most common type of domestic violence. This includes any behavior that purposely undermines another’s confidence, thus leading the victim to believe that they are stupid, useless, a ‘bad person,’ or even that the victim is insane (Wilson, 2009). This type of domestic violence can have long lasting consequences, as it demeans and degrades the victim. The perpetrator can also threaten the victim with harm, along with threatening their family. They may even threaten to commit suicide, or use the silent treatment as a form of emotional abuse (Johnson, 2008). Other forms of domestic violence include sexual abuse and domestic homicide. Sexual abuse includes any unwanted advances or sexual behaviors, such as rape, forcing the other to perform sexual acts that are either painful or humiliating, or even causing injury to the other’s sexual organs (Johnson, 2008). In addition, domestic homicide is not extended to only the partner, but also the children. This is, sadly, often a result of ongoing domestic violence that leads to a culmination of killing the other (Wilson, 2009). Domestic violence often follows a common pattern, or cycle. While every relationship varies, they typically undergo similar events based on three parts: the tension building phase, an acute battering episode, and the honeymoon phase. These can all occur in one day, or they may be spread out over a period of months. In the tension-building phase, tension will rise over common, smaller issues, such as money or jobs. Then the verbal abuse may begin, in which the victim tries to please the abuser, and may even give into a form of abuse (Johnson, 2008). The verbal abuse usually escalates to physical abuse at this point. The second phase is the acute battering episode, in which tension peaks and physical violence ensues. This is most often triggered not by the victim’s behavior, but by the abuser’s own emotional state. The last phase is the honeymoon phase, in which the tension has been released. The abuser will become ashamed of their behavior at this point, and try to make amends or either blame the partner for the abuse. The abuser may also try to be kind and loving at this point, and exhibit uncharacteristic helpfulness (Johnson, 2008). Often, the abuser will try to convince the victim that it will not happen again, and thus the victim will not want to leave the relationship. This cycle of abuse can occur over and over again, as the relief gained and promises made during the honeymoon phase provide the abused victim with the false belief that they and their partner are ‘ok.’ There are other, less obvious factors that also greatly influence domestic violence and aid in analyzing violence against women, such as patriarchy, power, and systemic gender oppression, which are deeply entrenched into societies and cultures worldwide. Systemic gender oppression refers to violence against women, which may be carried out not only by romantic partners, but also within communities, civic, and legal institutions. Perpetrators may unconsciously endorse physical abuse as a result of systemic gender oppression (“Patriarchy,” 2015). This is closely tied to the influence of patriarchy towards domestic violence, which refers to the social relations between women and men. Patriarchy is a means of sustaining gender, racial, or class privileges over another, which may be outright, such as violence, or subtle, like the formation of laws, which perpetuate gender inequality. Patriarchy, in this way, is a structural force that sways the relations between men and women (“Patriarchy,” 2015). Additionally, power often sets the course for patriarchy. Often, abusers will combine their masculinity with entrenched feelings of patriarchy, thus making the cycle of abuse more severe (“Patriarchy,” 2015). As a result, power forms relationships based on only one of the individuals maintaining the authority, while the other is at their mercy. Culture and racial oppression are two other factors that come into play when analyzing domestic violence against women. Culture is often utilized to rationalize gender inequality and, consequently, violence, by integrating cultural beliefs as to how women must or should be treated (“Patriarchy,” 2015). When the defense of a place, particular society or culture, religion, or country are integrated into justifying one’s belief on the maltreatment of women, this is also a defense of the culture of patriarchy within said entity. This is closely related to the factor of racial oppression in domestic violence against women. Studies have shown that men of color typically overemphasize how racial oppression influences violence towards women. Additionally, race and gender often overlap within this realm; however, race is “all too often privileged over gender” (“Patriarchy,” 2015). In summary, domestic violence comes in many shapes and forms, which often form a pattern, or cycle of violence. Domestic violence, in turn, can be greatly influenced by other external factors, such as power, patriarchy, culture, and racial oppression, as discussed. Sadly, domestic violence is not merely a result of an individual’s own behavioral issues, but also an offshoot of the implicit and explicit ways that societies and cultures influence the relationships between men and women.

So, what are some of the writing prompts that you can use for such kind of paper? Read on.

Essay on Violence in Society

The society has become a scary world with recent happenings. Here are some prompts for your inspiration:

Causes of violence in society
The impact of crime on teenagers
Forms of violence between nations
Organizational abuse and how to deal with it
People don’t just become evildoers in society
Violence and genetic inheritance: What is the connection?
Development of aggression in a person
Age and violence: Which is the most aggressive age?
A power fueled society is a violent society. Discuss
How the crave for knowledge cause violence

Gun Violence Essay Topics for High School Students

Below are some great ideas that high school students can use for their essay on gun violence assignment:

How to reduce school gun violence
Traumatic experiences of gunfire and killings in schools
Gun violence amongst adolescents in high schools
Gang violence groups in schools
How teachers can contribute to a reduction in gun violence in school
Should gun control be introduced in the high school curriculum?
The role of peer provocation
Parenting practices to reduce gun violence
Schoolyard bullying and gun violence
How troubled teens end up with guns

Gun Violence in America Essay

Are you stuck on your essay on gun violence in America? Well, here are some professional ideas to get you jam-started:

Political debates and gun control in America
Gun violence in poor American urban cities
The rise of highly organized mass killings in America
Post 9/11 gun control measures
Who is to blame for gun violence in America?
Victims of gun attacks in the US
Gun control policies
Social issues in the US lead to gun violence
Security measures in the US
Justice for victims

General Essays About Gun Violence

Mental health
Human trafficking
Domestic violence
Gun control laws
Religious violence
Gang violence
Education on gun control
Role of psychiatric services
Prediction of gun violence
The purpose of the National Rifle Association

From the insights, violence is indeed both an individual and societal issue of concern. Therefore, writing on such a topic needs extensive research and elaborate facts.

Do you still have a question on domestic, mental, school, or gun violence essays? Our professional custom writing help is all you need! Just tell us your writing need, and we will do the rest for you!

Essay On Domestic Violence

500 words essay on domestic violence.

Domestic violence refers to the violence and abuse which happens in a domestic setting like cohabitation or marriage. It is important to remember that domestic violence is not just physical but any kind of behaviour that tries to gain power and control over the victim. It can affect people from all walks of life and it basically subjects towards a partner, spouse or intimate family member. Through an essay on domestic violence, we will go through its causes and effects.

Causes of Domestic Violence

Often women and children are the soft targets of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a gruesome crime that also causes a number of deaths. Some of the most common causes of domestic violence are illiteracy and economical dependency on the menfolk.

The male-dominated society plays an important role in this problem. Further, dowry is also one of the leading causes which have the consequence of violence against newly-wed brides. In many parts of the world, physically assaulting women and passing horrendous remarks is common.

Moreover, children also become victims of this inhuman behaviour more than often. It is important to recognize the double standards and hypocrisy of society. A lot of the times, the abuser is either psychotic or requires psychological counselling.

However, in a more general term, domestic violence is the outcome of cumulative irresponsible behaviour which a section of society demonstrates. It is also important to note that solely the abuser is not just responsible but also those who allow this to happen and act as mere mute spectators.

Types of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence has many ill-effects which depend on the kind of domestic violence happening. It ranges from being physical to emotional and sexual to economic. A physical abuser uses physical force which injures the victim or endangers their life.

It includes hitting, punching, choking, slapping, and other kinds of violence. Moreover, the abuser also denies the victim medical care. Further, there is emotional abuse in which the person threatens and intimidates the victim. It also includes undermining their self-worth.

It includes threatening them with harm or public humiliation. Similarly, constant name-calling and criticism also count as emotional abuse. After that, we have sexual abuse in which the perpetrator uses force for unwanted sexual activity.

If your partner does not consent to it, it is forced which makes it sexual abuse. Finally, we have economic abuse where the abuser controls the victim’s money and their economic resources.

They do this to exert control on them and make them dependent solely on them. If your partner has to beg you for money, then it counts as economic abuse. This damages the self-esteem of the victim.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Domestic Violence

To conclude, domestic violence has many forms which include physical aggression like kicking and biting and it can also be sexual or emotional. It is essential to recognize the signs of domestic violence and report the abuser if it is happening around you or to you.

FAQ of Essay on Domestic Violence

Question 1: Why is domestic violence an issue?

Answer 1: Domestic violence has a major impact on the general health and wellbeing of individuals. It is because it causes physical injury, anxiety, depression. Moreover, it also impairs social skills and increases the likelihood that they will participate in practices harmful to their health, like self-harm or substance abuse.

Question 2: How does domestic violence affect a woman?

Answer 2: Domestic violence affects women in terms of ill health. It causes serious consequences on their mental and physical health which includes reproductive and sexual health. It also includes injuries, gynaecological problems, depression, suicide and more.

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The Effects of Violence on Communities: The Violence Matrix as a Tool for Advancing More Just Policies

Beth E. Richie is Head of the Department of Criminology, Law and Justice and Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation (2012) and Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women (1996) and editor of The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working toward Freedom (with Alice Kim, Erica Meiners, Jill Petty, et al., 2018).

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Beth E. Richie; The Effects of Violence on Communities: The Violence Matrix as a Tool for Advancing More Just Policies. Daedalus 2022; 151 (1): 84–96. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01890

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In this essay, I illustrate how discussions of the effects of violence on communities are enhanced by the use of a critical framework that links various microvariables with macro-institutional processes. Drawing upon my work on the issue of violent victimization toward African American women and how conventional justice policies have failed to bring effective remedy in situations of extreme danger and degradation, I argue that a broader conceptual framework is required to fully understand the profound and persistent impact that violence has on individuals embedded in communities that are experiencing the most adverse social injustices. I use my work as a case in point to illustrate how complex community dynamics, ineffective institutional responses, and broader societal forces of systemic violence intersect to further the impact of individual victimization. In the end, I argue that understanding the impact of all forms of violence would be better served by a more intersectional and critical interdisciplinary framework.

Rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship, public policy analyses, and the most conscientious popular discourse on the impact of violence point to the deleterious effects that violence has on both individual health and safety and community well-being. Comprehensive justice policy research on topics ranging from gun violence to intimate abuse support the premise that the physical injury, psychological distress, and fear that are typically associated with individual victimization are directly linked to subsequent social isolation, economic instability, erosion of neighborhood networks, group alienation, and mistrust of justice and other institutions. This literature also points to the ways that structural inequality, persistent disadvantages, and structural abandonment are some of the root causes of microlevel violent interactions and at the same time influence how effective macro-level justice policies are at responding to or preventing violent victimization. 1

The most exciting of these analyses have emerged from the subfields of feminist criminology, critical race theory, critical criminology, sociolegal theory, and other social science research that take seriously questions of race and culture, gender and sexuality, ethnic identity and class position, exploring with great interest how these factors influence the prevailing questions upon which practitioners in our field base their practice; questions such as how to increase access to justice, the role of punishment in desistance, the factors that lead to a disproportionate impact of institutional practices, and the perceptions about, and possibilities for, violence prevention and abolitionist practices. 2 Discussions about the future of justice policy would be well served by attending to this growing literature and the critical frameworks that are advanced from within it.

In this essay, I will attempt to illustrate how discussions of the effects of violence on communities are enhanced by the use of a critical framework that links various microvariables with macro-institutional processes. Drawing upon my work on the issue of violent victimization toward African American women and how conventional justice policies have failed to bring effective remedy in situations of extreme danger and degradation, I argue that a broader conceptual framework is required to fully understand the profound and persistent impact that violence has on individuals embedded in communities that are experiencing the most adverse social injustices. I use my work as a case in point to illustrate how complex community dynamics, ineffective institutional responses, and broader societal forces of systemic violence intersect to further the impact of individual victimization. In the end, I argue that understanding the impact of all forms of violence would be better served by a more intersectional and critical interdisciplinary framework.

Following a review of the data on violent victimization against African American women, I describe the violence matrix , a conceptual framework that I developed from analyzing data from several research projects on the topic. 3 I do so as a way to make concrete my earlier claim: that the effect of violence on communities must be understood from a critical intersectional framework. That is, my central argument here is an epistemological one, suggesting that in the future, the most effective and indeed “just” policies in response to violence necessitate the development of critical far-reaching systemic analysis and social change at multiple levels.

Violent victimization has been established as a major problem in contemporary society, resulting in long-term physical, social, emotional, and economic consequences for people of different racial/ethnic, class, religious, regional, and age groups and identities. 4 However, like most social problems, the impact is not equally felt across all subgroups, and even though the rates may be similar, the consequences of violent victimization follow other patterns of social inequality and disproportionately affect racial/ethnic minority groups. 5 When impact and consequences are taken into account, it becomes clear that African American women fare among the worst, in part because of the ways that individual experiences are impacted by negative institutional processes. 6

While qualitative data suggest that there is a link between social position in a racial hierarchy and Black women's subsequent vulnerability to violence, the specific mechanism of that relationship has yet to be described or tested. 7 However, despite new research that examines the effects of race/ethnicity and gender in combination, there has been a lack of systematic analysis of the intersection of race and gender with a specific focus on the situational factors, cultural dynamics, and neighborhood variables that lead to higher rates and/or more problematic outcomes of violent victimization in the lives of African American women. 8

These unanswered questions led to the years of fieldwork that informed the development of the violence matrix. I was interested in broadening the understanding of violence by analyzing the contextual and situational factors that correlate with multiple forms of violent victimization for African American women, incorporating the racial and community dynamics that influence their experiences. I was also concerned about the ways that state-sanctioned violence and systemic oppression contributed to the experience and impact of intimate partner abuse and looked for a way to incorporate “ordinary violence” and “the injustices of everyday life” into an analytic model. I offer this conceptual approach as a potential epistemological model because it proposes to enhance the scientific understanding of violent victimization of African American women by looking at gender and race, micro and macro, individual, community, and societal issues in the same analysis, whereas in most other research, rates of victimization are described either by gender or race, and typically not from within the contexts of household, neighborhood, and society.

More specifically, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence typically understood to be associated with household or familiar relationships are usually studied as a separate phenomenon constituting a gender violence subfield distinct from other forms of victimization that are captured in more general crime statistics. 9 The more general research that documents crimes of assault, homicide, and so on does not typically isolate analyses of the nature of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, even if it is noted. As a result, gender violence and other forms of violent victimization against women are studied separately, and their causes and consequences, the intervention and prevention strategies, and the needs for policy change are not linked analytically to each other. This leaves unexamined the significant influence of situational factors (such as intimacy) or contextual factors (such as negative images of African American women) on victimization, and on violence more generally.

Prior to describing the violence matrix, readers may benefit from a brief overview of the problems that it was designed to account for. African American women experience disproportionate impacts of violent victimization. 10 As the following review of the literature shows, the rates are high and the consequences are severe, firmly establishing the need to focus on this vulnerable group. The goal is not to suggest it is the only population group at risk or that racial/ethnic identity has a causal influence on victimization, but rather to look specifically at how race/ethnicity and gender interact to create significant disproportionality in rates of, perceptions about, and consequences of violence, and to develop an instrument to collect data that can be analyzed conceptually and discussed in terms of contextual particularities.

Assault . According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2005, Black women reported experiencing violent victimization at a rate of 25 per 1,000 persons aged twelve years or older. 11 In an earlier report, Black women reported experiencing simple assaults at 28.8 per 1,000 persons and serious violent crimes at 22.5 per 1,000 persons, twelve years or older. Black women are also more likely (53 percent) to report violent victimization to the police than their White or male counterparts. 12 Situational factors such as income, urban versus suburban residence, perception of street gang membership, and presence of a weapon influence Black women's violent victimization. Other variables are known to complicate this disproportionality, most notably income, age, neighborhood density, and other crimes in the community like gang-related events. However, few studies note or analyze their covariance. Additionally, reports after 2007 detail statistics on violent victimization for race or gender, but not race and gender; therefore, numbers regarding Black women's experiences are largely unknown.

Intimate partner violence . Intimate partner violence is a significant and persistent social problem with serious consequences for individual women, their families, and society as a whole. 13 The 1996 National Violence Against Women Survey suggested that 1.5 million women in the United States were physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year, while other studies provide much higher estimates. 14 For example, the Department of Justice estimates that 5.3 million incidents of violence against a current or former spouse or girlfriend occur annually. Estimates of violence against women in same sex partnerships indicate a similar rate of victimization. 15

According to most national studies, African American women are disproportionately represented in the data on physical violence against intimate partners. 16 In the Violence Against Women Survey, 25 percent of Black women had experienced abuse from their intimate partner, including “physical violence, sexual violence, threats of violence, economic exploitation, confinement and isolation from social activities, stalking, property destruction, burglary, theft, and homicide.” Rates of severe battering help to spotlight the disproportionate impact of direct physical assaults on Black women by intimate partners: homicide by an intimate partner is the second-leading cause of death for Black women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. 17 Black women are killed by a spouse at a rate twice that of White women. However, when the intimate partner is a boyfriend or girlfriend, this statistic increases to four times the rate of their White counterparts. 18 While the numbers are convincing, they are typically not embedded in an understanding of how situational factors like relationship history, religiosity, or availability of services impact these rates. 19

Sexual victimization . When race is considered a variable in some community samples, 7 to 30 percent of all Black women report having been raped as adults, and 14 percent report sexual abuse during their childhood. 20 This unusually wide range results from differences in definitions and sampling methods. However, as is true in most research on sexual victimization, it is widely accepted that rape, when self-reported, is underreported, and that Black women tend to underutilize crisis intervention and other supportive services that collect data. 21 Even though Black women from all segments of the African American community experience sexual violence, the pattern of vulnerability to rape and sexual assault mirrors that of direct physical assault by intimate partners. The data show that Black women from low-income communities, those with substance abuse problems or mental health concerns, and those in otherwise compromised social positions are most vulnerable to sexual violence from their intimate partners. 22 Not only is the incidence of rape higher, but a review of the qualitative research on Black women's experiences of rape also suggests that Black women are assaulted in more brutal and degrading ways than other women. 23 Weapons or objects are more often used, so Black women's injuries are typically worse than those of other groups of women. Black women are more likely to be raped repeatedly and to experience assaults that involve multiple perpetrators. 24

Beyond the physical, and sometimes lethal, consequences, the psychological literature documents the very serious mental health impact of sexual assault by intimate partners. For instance, 31 percent of all rape victims develop rape-related post-traumatic stress disorder. 25 Rape victims are three times more likely than nonvictims to experience a major depressive episode in their lives, and they attempt suicide at a rate thirteen times higher than nonvictims. Women who have been raped by a member of their household are ten times more likely to abuse illegal substances or alcohol than women who have not been raped. Black women experience the trauma of sexual abuse and aggression from their intimate partners in particular ways, as studies conducted by psychologists Victoria Banyard, Sandra Graham-Bermann, Carolyn West, and others have discussed. 26 It is also important to note the extent to which Black women are exposed to or coerced into participating in sexually exploitative intimate relationships with older men and men who violate commitments of fidelity by having multiple sexual partners. 27 Far from infrequent or benign, it can be hypothesized that these experiences serve to socialize young women into relationships characterized by unequal power, and they normalize subservient gender roles for women, although very little empirical research has been done to make this analytical case.

Community harassment . In addition to direct physical and sexual assaults, Black women experience a disproportionate number of unwanted comments, uninvited physical advances, and undesired exposure to pornography in their communities. Almost 75 percent of Black women sampled report some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, including being forced to live in, work in, attend school in, and even worship in degrading, dangerous, and hostile environments, where the threat of rape, public humiliation, and embarrassment is a defining aspect of their social environment. 28 They also experience trauma as a result of witnessing violence in their communities. 29

For some women, this sexual harassment escalates to rape. Even when it does not, community harassment creates an environment of fear, apprehension, shame, and anxiety that can be linked to women's vulnerability to violent victimization. It is important to understand this link because herein lie some of the most significant situational and contextual factors, like the diminished use of support services and reduced social capital on the part of African American women.

Social disenfranchisement . Less well-documented or quantified in the criminological data is the disproportionate harm caused to African American women because of the ways that violent victimization is linked to social disenfranchisement and the discrimination they face in the social sphere. Included here is what other researchers have called coercive control or structural violence. 30 The notion of social disenfranchisement goes beyond emotional abuse and psychological manipulation to include the regulation of emotional and social life in the private sphere in ways that are consistent with normative values about gender, race, and class. 31 These aspects of violence against African American women in particular are conceptualized in the violence matrix, and include being disrespected by microracial slurs from community members and agency officials, and having their experience of violent victimization denied by community leaders. 32 African American women are also disproportionately likely to be poor, rely on public services like welfare, and be under the control of state institutions like prisons, which means that they face discrimination and degradation in these settings at higher rates. 33 These situational and contextual factors that cause harm are indirectly related to violent victimization and must be considered part of the environment that disadvantages African American women. From this vantage point, it could be argued that when women experience disadvantages associated with racial and ethnic discrimination, dangerous and degrading situations, and social disenfranchisement, they are more at risk of victimization. 34

The violence matrix ( Table 1 ) is informed by the data reviewed above and by my interest in bringing a critical feminist criminological approach to the understanding of violent victimization of African American women. It asserts that intimate partner violence is worsened by some of the contextual variables and situational dynamics in their households, communities, and broader social sphere, and vice versa. The tool is not intended to infer causation, but rather to broaden the understanding of the factors that influence violence in order to create justice policy in the future.

The Violence Matrix

The violence matrix conceptualizes the forms of violent victimization that women experience as fitting into three overlapping categories, reflecting a sense that the forms are co-constituted and exist within a larger context and in multiple arenas: 35 1) direct physical assault against women; 2) sexual aggressions that range from harassment to rape; and 3) the emotional and structural dimensions of social disenfranchisement that characterize the lives of some African American women and leave them vulnerable to abuse. Embedded in the discussion of social disenfranchisement are issues related to social inequality, systemic abuse, and state violence.

Consistent with ecological models of other social problems, the violence matrix shows that various forms of violent victimization happen in several contexts and are influenced by several variables. 36 First, violence occurs within households, including abuse from intimate partners as well as other family members and co-residents. Dynamics associated with household composition, relationship history, and patterns of household functioning can be isolated for consideration in this context. The second sphere is the community in which women live: the neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and public spaces where women routinely interact with peers and other people. This context has both a geographic and a cultural meaning. Community, in this context, is where women share a sense of belonging and physical space. An analysis of the community context focuses attention on issues like neighborhood social class, degree of social cohesion, and presence or absence of social services. The third is the social sphere, where legal processes, institutional policies, ineffective justice policies, and the nature of social conditions (such as population density, neighborhood disorder, patterns of incarceration, and other macrovariables) create conditions that cause harm to women and other victims of violence. 37 The harm caused by victimization in this context happens either through passive victimization (as in the case of bystanders not responding to calls for help because of the low priority put on women's safety) or active aggression (as in police use of excessive force in certain neighborhoods) that create structural disadvantage. 38

The analytic advantage of using a tool like the violence matrix to explain violent victimization is that it offers a way to move beyond statistical analyses of disproportionality to focus on a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between contextual factors that disadvantage African American women and the situational variables leading to violent victimization. Two important features of this conceptual framework allow for this. First, the violence matrix theoretical model considers both the forms and the contexts as dialectical and reinforcing (as opposed to discrete) categories of experience. Boundaries overlap, relationships shift over time, and situations change. It helps to show how gender violence and other forms of violent victimization intersect and reinforce each other. For example, sexual abuse has a physical component, community members move in and become intimate partners, and sexual harassment is sometimes a part of how institutions respond to victims. This theoretical model examines the simultaneity of forms and contexts, a feature that most paradigms do not have. 39 The possibility that gender violence (like marital rape) could be correlated with violence at the community level (like assault by a neighbor) holds important potential for a deeper understanding of violent victimization of vulnerable groups and therefore informs the future of justice policy.

A second distinguishing feature of this conceptual model is that it broadens the discussion about violent victimization beyond direct assaults within the household (Table 1, cells 1 and 2) and sexual assaults by acquaintances and strangers (cells 5 and 8), which are the focus of the majority of the research on violence against women. It includes social disenfranchisement as a form of violence and social sphere as a context (cells 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9). In this way, the violence matrix focuses specific attention on contextual and situational vulnerabilities in addition to the physical ones. More generally, this advantages research and justice praxis. This approach responds to the entrenched problem of gender violence as it relates to issues of structural racism and other forms of systematic advantage. Models like this therefore hold the potential to inform justice policy that is more comprehensive, more effective, and, ultimately, more “just.”

My hope is that the violence matrix will deepen the understanding of the specific problem of violence in the lives of Black women and serve as a model for intersectional analyses of other groups and their experiences of violence. I hope it points to the utility of moving beyond quantitative studies and single-dimension qualitative analyses of the impact of violence and instead encourages designing conceptual models that consider root causes and the ways that systemic factors complicate its impact. This would offer an opportunity for a deeper discussion around violence policy, one that would include attention to individual harm, and how it is created by, reinforced by, or worsened by structural forms of violence. It would bring neighborhood dynamics into the analytical framework and engage issues of improving community efficacy and reversing structural abandonment in considerations of potential options. Questions about where strategies of community development and how the politics of prison abolition might appear would become relevant. And in the end, it would advance critical justice frameworks that answer questions about what 1) we might invest in to keep individuals safe; 2) how we might help neighborhoods thrive; and 3) how we might create structural changes that shift power in our society such that violence and victimization are minimized. More than rhetorical questions and naively optimistic strategies, these are real issues that must inform any discussion of the future of justice policy. A model like the violence matrix, modified and improved upon by discussions at convenings like those hosted by the Square One Project, offer some insights into both the what and the how of future justice policy. I hope that this essay is helpful in moving that discussion forward.

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About Youth Violence
Risk and Protective Factors
School-Associated Violent Death Study
Youth Violence Prevention Centers
Youth violence is a serious public health problem.
Youth violence can have long-term impacts on health, opportunity, and well-being.

What is youth violence?

Youth violence is the intentional use of physical force or power to threaten or harm others by young people ages 10-24. 1

It can include things like fighting, bullying, threats with weapons, and gang-related violence. A young person can be involved with youth violence as a victim, offender, or witness.

Quick facts and stats

Thousands of people experience youth violence every day. Youth violence negatively impacts youth in all communities—urban, suburban, rural, and tribal. The following facts are based on data from the United States.

Youth violence is common. Homicide is the third leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24. It is the leading cause of death for non-Hispanic Black or African American youth. 2 3 Emergency departments treat over 800 young people for physical assault-related injuries each day. 2

Some youth are at greater risk than others. Sexual minority teens are more likely to experience multiple forms of violence compared to their heterosexual peers. 2 Black or African American youth and young adults are at higher risk for the most physically harmful forms of violence. This includes homicides, fights with injuries, and aggravated assaults. 3

Youth violence is costly. In 2020, youth homicides and nonfatal physical assault-related injuries resulted in an estimated $122 billion annually. These costs include medical care, lost work, and quality of life. This estimate does not include costs to the criminal justice system. 4

COVID-19 has impacted the economic burden of youth violence. Compared to 2019, the economic burden of youth violence was 17% higher in 2020 ($122 billion vs. $105 billion). 4

Youth violence can have serious and lasting effects on young people’s physical, mental, and social health. 1 It can harm development and contribute to impaired decision-making and learning challenges. It can also contribute to decreased connections to peers and adults, and trouble coping with stress. 2

Youth violence is linked to negative health and well-being outcomes and disproportionately impacts communities of color. 2 Violence increases the risk for behavioral and mental health difficulties. These can include future violence perpetration and victimization. Other outcomes include smoking, substance use, obesity, high-risk sexual behavior, depression, academic difficulties, school dropout, and suicide. 1 2

Violence increases health care costs, decreases property value, negatively impacts school attendance, and decreases access to community support services. Addressing the short- and long-term consequences of violence strains community resources. As a result, this limits the resources that states and communities can use to address other needs. 1

We can protect youth and support their growth into healthy adults. Certain factors may increase or decrease the risk of youth experiencing or perpetrating violence.

Preventing youth violence requires understanding and addressing the factors that put people at risk for or protect them from violence.

Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put many people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of violence. It is important for prevention efforts to consider societal conditions disproportionately experienced by Black or African American youth and young adults. This includes conditions like concentrated poverty and residential segregation. It also includes other forms of racism that limit opportunities to grow up in healthy, violence-free environments. Addressing the root causes of violence is critical to reducing high rates of violence in communities of color. 3

David-Ferdon, C., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Dahlberg, L. L., Marshall, K. J., Rainford, N. & Hall, J. E. (2016). Youth Violence Prevention Resource for Action: A Compilation of the Best Available Evidence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Note: The title of this document was changed in July 2023 to align with other Prevention Resources being developed by CDC's Injury Center. The document was previously cited as "A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors."
David-Ferdon C, Clayton HB, Dahlberg LL, et al. Vital Signs: Prevalence of Multiple Forms of Violence and Increased Health Risk Behaviors and Conditions Among Youths — United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:167–173. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7005a4
Sheats KJ, Irving SM, Mercy JA, Simon TR, Crosby AE, Ford DC. Merrick MT, Annor FB, Morgan RE. (2018). Violence-Related Disparities Experienced by Black Youth and Young Adults: Opportunities for Prevention, American Journal of Preventive Medicine ; 55(4): 462-469, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2018.05.017
Peterson C, Parker EM, D'Inverno AS, Haileyesus T. Economic Burden of US Youth Violence Injuries. JAMA Pediatr. Published online September 18, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.3235 .

Youth Violence Prevention

Youth violence affects thousands of young people each day, and in turn, their families, schools, and communities. CDC works to understand the problem of violence experienced by youth and prevent it.

For Everyone

Public health.

Violence Against Women Essay

Introduction, efforts in addressing violence against women at the global level, challenges in addressing violence against women at global level, conclusion and recommendations.

Violence against women is undoubtedly an international concern. Despite the numerous global legislations and policies on violence against women, different states have their own versions of laws that assist them in dealing with violation against women. These versions are in adherence to the international policies and laws that attempt to eradicate this evil. Several policies are in place to augment the global standardized laws.

To some extent, the individual states run advertisements that promote equality and campaign against unhealthy practices that undermine women’s rights at their local and international platforms. The inequality aspect cuts across the economic, social, and economic dynamics. The paper addresses how the violence targeting women in the parameters of ethnicity, nationality, race, and religion among others is quite traversed.

Violence against women is any action of aggression based on gender discrimination that by any account contravenes the rights of women. Such acts may entail threats and intimidations aimed at denying women autonomy in either private or public life.

Often, these actions likely result in physical, psychological, sexual harm, or distress to women. Internationally, people of all ages unanimously acknowledge that it is every person’s right to live free from violence. Yet, women of all ages, ranging from toddlers to old age, suffer excessively from violence both in peaceful regions as well as in war torn areas ( Violence against women , 2014). Notably, these violations could be witnessed at their homes, communities, or at the hands of officers envisioned to protect them.

Empirical research indicates that violence against women is not confined to a particular culture, country, community, region, or even to a specific group within a defined society, but rather is a global phenomenal (Fedorova & Wolf, 2005). Even though the act is prevalent to date, violence against women is a grave violation of human rights that requires an immediate solution.

Despite decades of marshal by women movements, civil societies, state agencies, and other stakeholders to end this nuisance, there are still numerous instances of violence targeting the womenfolk. Some of these cases go unreported to the relevant bodies. For these reasons, there is an effort to address this problem at a global level. According to Rao (2000), women of all ages, races, social status, as well as those women at the forefront in the fight against women violation too are abused.

Both scholars and gender experts alike share a similar estimation that violence against women has copious negative outcomes that vary from instantaneous, gradual, as well as long-term consequences to their lives. They may be of different forms such as sexual, psychological, physical, emotional, or economic, but are all interrelated in one way or another.

Subsequently, the situation impoverishes women and their families, thus affecting the fight against equality among communities, nations, and the world in general. Nevertheless, the challenges faced in addressing this issue globally are numerous, thus it cannot be solved from a sole intervention. Some of the most observed issues in addressing this problem are discussed below.

Creating awareness about violence against women

Even though violence against women has always existed, Newman and White (2006) note that it was until the last decade that the international community started to define systematically and, at the same time, began to draw the public’s attention to this act and its dangers. In this, the international communities designate violence against women as a gender-based violence, as well as an abuse to human rights.

This further helps the international community to demarcate acts that are vile and, therefore, can be used in creation of public awareness. This could be achieved by exposing incidences or individual perpetrators of violation of women’s rights to public shame. Alternatively, in creating awareness, the international communities use instances of negative effects of violence on women’s rights to sway the public to shun violation against women (Fedorova & Wolf, 2005).

In addition, in an effort to expose violence against women globally, some women movement groups have created websites that collect, store, and share information about violence against women. The women movements have received support from international organizations that fight for the rights of women in the society.

This information can help the supposed victims acquire abundant knowledge on avoiding situations or dealing with situations that violate their rights (Fedorova & Wolf, 2005). Consequently, this step of conception of awareness has resulted in creation of several women movements that support gender equality in order to address violations against women.

Legal and policy creations

Until recently, several acts of violence against women were not regarded as crime, especially the acts that were committed within families or close relationship settings. Newman and White (2006) affirm that in most of the states, once a woman had accepted to get married to a man, the husband had the responsibility to modify her behaviors by whichever means available. This was not limited to battering in order to restrain the wife from mischievous behaviors.

Because the husbands had the authority over their families, the law thought it was reasonable for men to give their wives any kind of punishment that would restrain them from impish behaviors. In this dimension, the police and other government law enforcing agencies, including the courts were unwilling to punish such acts ( Violence against women , 2014). However, with the initiation and development of international legal frameworks that handle crimes against women, the situation has drastically changed.

Rao (2000) points out that since the 1993 UN declaration on elimination of violence against women and the subsequent international agreements, such as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), violence against women has reduced tremendously, except that it has not been eradicated fully.

Additionally, in the fight against global violation of women, the international policymakers have integrated numerous policies with international legislations that tackle this vice. As a result, there are international legal resolutions as well as instruments that handle violation of rights of women at the global level.

Whereas it is obvious that the issue of violence against women is an international threat and should involve international communities to be resolved, the differences in forms, causes, as well as the environments that this menace prevail differ, thus commanding distinct challenges in their resolutions. Some of the unique situations that hinder international resolution of violence against women are discussed bellow.

Long-held assumptions

One of the greatest obstacles in addressing violence against women is long-held cultural assumptions. For instance, in some communities men are naturally respected, and are viewed as the dominant ones in the society. Undoubtedly, men in this situation are at the top of the social ladder while women are at the bottom, hence are seen as properties.

Under this circumstance, such women are not in a position to recognize the actions that are internationally considered violations as crimes, but rather as normal day-to-day practices (Dua & Robertson, 1999).

Alternatively, the women may lack the forums to express their disappointments. Nevertheless, international campaigns and awareness might create realization of such vise, which may eventually help the individuals at risk of violations to recognize their rights. On the other hand, the global legislations and laws that prohibit women violation might not be effective, as the women might not report such cases for fear of the consequences.

Differences in perceptions, culture and beliefs regarding gender equality

This situation is also witnessed in the feminism debate about combating family violence. Newman and White (2006) note that in the past decades, policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and the society viewed homes as sacred. As a result, whatever was done behind closed doors internally was not the business of the outside world. Even though this perception is losing ground, feminism scholars and experts alike admit that it is present to date in some communities.

Therefore, addressing such a community on the issue of violence against women at the international level is likely to bear no fruit. Instead, to eradicate women violations efficiently in this circumstance, there should be local laws and groups that address the specific beliefs and taboos that violate the women’s rights. At the same time, the groups should educate both women and men on the benefits of abandoning such beliefs.

Race is another outstanding obstacle in addressing violence against. Dua and Robertson (1999) note that the situation for non-white immigrants in the white dominated countries is totally different to those who speak the native language. Racism and related intolerances do not affect all members of victim groups with the same intensity or in the same way. Even in racism aspects, women are amongst the vulnerable group in this scenario, thus suffering intersection of discrimination based on both gender and race.

Besides, racism presents a situation of double standards that merge communalization from high-level management and the infringed individuals. This double standard in treatment of individuals in relation to skin color creates a situation of informal apartheid. In essence, the double standards in treatment of individuals based on the color of their skin propel the cultural identities that already exist (Evans & Wekerle, 1997).

At the same time, the culture of apartheid flourishes, rendering greater risks to the endangered community. These complexities of the societal structure offer the problematic nature of dealing with unique situations of violence against women. Subsequently, this group demands a unique solution to violence against women as opposed to the global laws and policies that tend to eliminate the vice.

Social Class

In discussing the issue of violence against women, the social class is an issue that should be given a discrete consideration other than the general address at the global level. Primarily, Rao (2000) asserts that literacy level, exposure, and awareness are issues of concern in addressing violence against women. In relation to the social class, the privileged community has access to revenue; therefore, they are well-informed on all aspects including their rights.

On the other hand, the low class individuals are deprived of the basic amenities including education and access to justice. Therefore, this group is vulnerable to exploitation both with and without intent. In addition, the social class demarcates the boundaries within which the poor and the rich interact. Therefore, the higher social class is characterized by abundant wealth, as opposed to the lower social class that flounders in poverty.

According to Class notes (2014), in cases of violence against women, the lower class exposes women to vulnerable situations. For instance, women seeking for employment may be victims of violence such as trafficking as well as rape. The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons of 2009 noted that women are the highly affected in human trafficking globally; they represent close to 70% of the trafficked population.

Handling state involved perpetrations

A vast literature that analyze violence against individuals by the states indicate that dealing with violation of women rights that involve state agencies is an obstacle in eliminating violence against women. The case of violation against women by government agencies is mostly reported in warring regions where the soldiers perceived liable to protect the vulnerable citizens in turn violate them, and, eventually, go scot-free. In rare situations, the governments are reluctant in addressing issues that violate women’s rights.

Such is witnessed in nations like Canada where the federal government is reluctant in tackling the issue of killings of the aboriginals ( Class notes , 2014). Likewise, in most states the governments are reported to reluctantly address issues of devaluation of women. Subsequently, the prevailing violence against women in such regions is reluctantly resolved. In sum, these situations highlight the need to address the violation against women at the local level other than at the global level.

Clearly, progress has undeniably been made in the global based fight against violation of women’s rights; this may be evident in terms of improving public awareness, as well as giving women who suffer from violence supplementary places for rehabilitation. This is not an exclusive solution to women’s problems across the globe as many women continue to suffer violence at the hands of abusive partners in silence or fear of the consequence.

Probably to address the issue effectively, the international organization should involve the public in challenging the traditional attitudes toward gender perceptions. In order to address this, the campaigns against this vice should possibly be devolved into the grass-root level. Recently, several cases that would have gone undisclosed have been reported and handled legally, thereby reducing the instances of such violations.

However, feminism scholars ascertain that most of the cases that go unreported to date occur when perpetrators of violence use the state and its agents to intimidate the offended. However, there are unique cases in specific regions that require special attention to eradicate violence. This is witnessed in the reluctance by the law enforcing agencies to take firm actions against the perpetrators. Notably, addressing such situations on a global level could possibly bear no fruit.

Therefore, there is a need to initiate local-based actions that are specific and tailored to every unique situation in order to get rid of this menace. Arguably, the introduction of legislation at different levels within regions and states is a clear indication that the issue of violation against women cannot be handled at global level alone, but must rather be supplemented by the local legal frameworks.

Class notes (2014).

Dua, E., & Robertson, A. (1999). Scratching the surface: Canadian, anti-racist, feminist thought . Toronto: Women’s Press.

Evans, P. M., & Wekerle, G. R. (1997). Women and the Canadian welfare state: Challenges and change . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Fedorova, M., & Wolf, W. J. (2005). The United Nations and the protection of the rights of women . Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers.

Newman, J. A., & White, L. A. (2006). Women, politics, and public policy: The political struggles of Canadian women . Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Rao, D. (2000). Status and Advancement of Women. New Delhi: APH Publishing.

Violence against women . (2014). Web.

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It is time for action to end violence against women: a speech by Lakshmi Puri at the ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly

Date: Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Speech by Acting Head of UN Women Lakshmi Puri on Ending Violence against Women and Children at the ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly on 18 June 2013, in Brussels

Good morning.

Honourable Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly Ms. Joyce Laboso (congratulations on this new important role) and Mr. Louis Michel, Honourable Members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for inviting me to address you at this ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly on a matter that concerns all of us, all 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations and 27 European Union Member States represented in this forum, and ALL nations of the world.

It is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights in the world, one of the least prosecuted crimes, and one of the greatest threats to lasting peace and development.

I am talking about violence against women and children. I am honoured to be here, at your request, to address this urgent matter as you join together to advance human rights, democracy and the common values of humanity.

We all know that we have to do much more to respond to the cries for justice of women and children who have suffered violence. We have to do much more to end these horrible abuses and the impunity that allows these human rights violations to continue.

When we started UN Women two-and-a-half years ago, we made ending violence against women and girls one of our top priorities.

I think we can all agree that the time for complacency is long gone, has passed and belongs to another era. The silence on violence against women and children has been broken and now. Now is the time for stronger action.

It is time for action when up to 70 per cent of women in some countries face physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

When one in three girls in developing countries is likely to be married as a child bride; when some 140 million girls and women have suffered female genital mutilation; when millions of women and girls are trafficked in modern-day slavery; and when women’s bodies are a battleground and rape is used as a tactic of war – it is time for action.

This violence against women and children has tremendous costs to communities, nations and societies—for public well-being, health and safety, and for school achievement, productivity, law enforcement, and public programmes and budgets.

If left unaddressed, these human rights violations pose serious consequences for current and future generations and for efforts to ensure peace and security, to reduce poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the next generation of development goals we are discussing .

The effects of violence can remain with women and children for a lifetime, and can pass from one generation to another. Studies show that children who have witnessed, or been subjected to, violence are more likely to become victims or abusers themselves.

Violence against women and girls is an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and systemic gender-based discrimination. The right of women and children to live free of violence depends on the protection of their human rights and a strong chain of justice.

Countries that enact and enforce laws on violence against women have less gender-based violence. Today 160 countries have laws to address violence against women. However, in too many cases enforcement is lacking.

For an effective response to this violence, different sectors in society must work together.

A rape survivor must have rapid access to a health clinic that can administer emergency medical care, including treatment to prevent HIV and unintended pregnancies and counseling.

A woman who is beaten by her husband must have someplace to go with her children to enjoy safety, sanity and shelter.

A victim of violence must have confidence that when she files a police report, she will receive justice and the perpetrator will be punished.

And an adolescent boy in school who learns about health and sexuality must be taught that coercion, violence and discrimination against girls are unacceptable.

As the Acting Head of UN Women, I have the opportunity to meet with representatives from around the world, with government officials, civil society groups and members of the business community.

I can tell you that momentum is gathering, awareness is rising and I truly believe that long-standing indifference to violence against women and children is declining.

A recent study published in the American Sociological Review finds that transformation in attitudes are happening around the world.

The study looked at women’s attitudes about intimate partner violence in 26 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It found that during the first decade of the 2000s, in almost every one of these countries, women became more likely to reject intimate partner violence.

The surveys found growing female rejection of domestic violence in 23 of the 26 countries. It found that “women with greater access to global cultural scripts through urban living, education, or access to media were more likely to reject intimate partner violence.”

The study’s author concludes that domestic violence is increasingly viewed as unacceptable due to changes in global attitudes. Yet even with this rising rejection, in nearly half of the countries, 12 of the 26 – more than half of women surveyed – still believe that domestic violence is justified. So even though attitudes are changing, we still have a long way to go to achieve the changes in attitudes that are necessary to end violence against women and children.

I witnessed this myself at the 57th Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in New York this past March. The agreement reached at the Commission on preventing and ending violence against women and girls was hard-won and tensions ran high throughout the final week of the session.

There were many times when it was unclear whether the Commission would end in deadlock, as it did 10 years before on the same theme, or if Member States were going to decide on a groundbreaking agreement.

In the end, thanks to the tireless work of civil society advocates and negotiations into the wee hours of Government delegates and UN Women colleagues, agreement was reached on a historic document that embraces the call of women around the world to break the cycle of violence and to protect the rights of women and girls.

The landmark agreement provides an action plan for Governments. It breaks this down into the four P’s: Protection of human rights, Prosecution of offenders, Prevention of violence, and Provision of Services to survivors.

Protecting human rights

When it comes to protecting rights, Governments are called on to review national legislation, practices and customs and abolish those that discriminate against women. Laws, policies and programmes that explicitly prohibit and punish violence must be put into place, in line with international agreements, and you as Members of Parliament can play a key role.

Based on findings from UN Women’s 2011-2012 Progress of the World’s Women report «In Pursuit of Justice », out of all the ACP countries, 37 have legislation against domestic violence, 34 have legislation against sexual harassment, and just nine have legislation against marital rape.

Providing services When it comes to providing services, the agreement calls for strong action to improve the quality and accessibility of services so that women have prompt access to services regardless of their location, race, age or income.

These include: health-care services including post-rape care, emergency contraception and abortion where legal; immediate and effective police responses, psychological support and counselling; legal advice and protection orders; shelter, telephone hotlines, and social assistance.

Responses must be timely and efficient to end a culture of hopelessness and impunity and foster a culture of justice and support. In almost all of the ACP countries comprehensive multisectoral services need to be put in place and made accessible to all.

Prosecuting offenders

When it comes to the prosecution of offenders, we know that ending impunity means that laws must be enforced.

Women must have access to the police to file a criminal report and receive legal advice and protection orders. The response to violence must be immediate, coordinated and effective so that crimes are punished and justice is secured. This is true for times of peace and conflict. There can be no lasting peace when women suffer sexual violence.

Courts and the justice system must be accessible and responsive to criminal and civil matters relating to violence against women. Women must be informed of their legal rights and supported to navigate the legal system.

And for this, we need more women police officers, prosecutors and judges, because we know that women serving on the frontlines of justice strengthen justice for women and children.

Preventing violence against women

When it comes to preventing violence, we must address the root causes of gender inequality and discrimination.

Evidence shows that where the “gender gap” is greater—in the status of women’s health, participation in the economy, education levels, and representation in politics— women are more likely to be subjected to violence. Especially important is economic empowerment as a prevention strategy

This means that we need to take a long-term, systemic and comprehensive approach that recognizes and protects women’s and children’s full and equal human rights.

We must promote a culture of equality between men and women through institutional and legal reform, education, awareness-raising and the full engagement of men and boys.

Honourable MPs,

Ending violence against women is one of UN Women’s key priorities and a critical part of UN Women’s mission to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Having said that, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about UN Women’s role in ending violence against women and some of our achievements.

A top priority right now is working with countries to implement the recent agreement from the Commission on the Status of Women.

I am very pleased that UN Women and the EU have agreed to work on this together. We hope, with your support, to collaborate with more regional and cross-regional bodies and groupings such as the African Union, the Latin American and Caribbean States and the Pacific Forum to follow up on the agreement from the Commission on the Status of Women to end violence against women and girls.

Today UN Women is working in 85 countries, including in many ACP countries, to prevent violence in the first place, to end impunity for these crimes, to increase access to justice and to expand essential services to survivors.

Through our global, regional and national programmes, we support the development of laws, national action plans and policies, and training programmes. We provide funding to NGOs and civil society, contribute to advocacy and awareness-raising efforts, and support local initiatives.

We work together with UNICEF and UN Habitat on the Safe Cities programme to promote the safety of women and girls in public spaces. We now work in over 20 cities around the world, and this number continues to rise. Let me share with you a few exciting examples.

In Kigali, Rwanda, a Safe City Campaign was launched by the mayor’s office and other partners. The city is advocating for reforms to an existing law on gender-based violence to include measures on sexual harassment and violence in public spaces.

In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, bylaws on local markets now include articles which address women’s safety. Women vendors are returning to the markets following the first phase of physical and social infrastructure improvements, and a focused awareness campaign is underway on sexual harassment and sexual violence.

UN Women also administers the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. This is a leading global fund exclusively dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. To date, the UN Trust Fund has delivered more than USD 86 million to 351 initiatives in 128 countries and territories, often directly to women’s organizations. The results have demonstrated many good practices that can, and should be, expanded.

Another global programme administered by UN Women is the Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign to End Violence against Women. Through strong advocacy, the campaign is mobilizing communities across the globe.

In Africa, the UNiTE Campaign organized the Kilimanjaro Climb hosted by Tanzania under the auspices of the President. This raised awareness of violence against women to the highest levels resulting in strengthened national commitments throughout Africa.

In the Pacific Region, the campaign succeeded in securing the “Pacific Members of Parliament UNiTE statement” – the first of its kind in the region, tabled at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in the Cook Islands.

In the Caribbean, 15 high-profile local artists produced a series of creative materials as part of the “Caribbean Artists, united to end violence against women” initiative, developed in the framework of the UNiTE Campaign. These materials were officially presented by the Secretary-General of CARICOM, Irwin LaRocque, last year during the gathering of CARICOM Heads of Government. This has contributed to give high visibility and strategically position the issue of violence against women in the region.

And UN Women’s COMMIT initiative has garnered new commitments by 58 Governments to prevent and end violence against women and girls. I applaud the ACP and EU member countries, and the European Union itself, for making commitments and encourage other countries to join them.

We must work together to seize the moment and move quickly so that the momentum is not lost. UN Women stands ready to assist Member States with other UN partners. We have already identified the key priorities and strategies we will be focusing:

First, Getting the Evidence: Data on Violence against Women Despite some progress in this area, there is still an urgent need to strengthen the evidence base as many countries still lack reliable and meaningful data. Actually, earlier this morning the European Women’s Lobby Centre on Violence against Women presented the findings from the 2013 Barometer focusing on rape in the EU.

In cooperation with our UN partners, we plan to build capacity in regions and countries to increase skills in data collection, analysis, dissemination and use, using the UN Statistical Commission Guidelines for obtaining data for the nine core indicators for violence against women.

Second, Strengthening Multi-sectoral Services for Survivors To this end, UN Women is working to devise globally agreed standards and guidelines on the essential services and responses that are required to meet the immediate and mid-term safety, health, and other needs of women and girls subjected to violence. I am very pleased that we are now working in partnership with UNFPA and other UN agencies to deliver this initiative.

Third, Preventing Violence against Women and Girls To this end, we will advocate for and work towards a shared understanding at the global level about what works, and provide guidance to States and other stakeholders on how to develop an holistic framework to prevent violence against women and girls; including by working systematically and consistently with male leaders and men and boys at all levels and by further strengthening women’s economic and political participation.

Fourth, Strengthening Partnerships We will continue to engage civil society and the private sector in ending violence against women and girls, working with survivors to empower them, making sure their experiences are taken into consideration in the development of responses; and working with those women and girls who suffer multiple and intersecting forms of violence who are particularly vulnerable.

Fifth and finally, we will continue to improve the knowledge base for ending violence against women by developing additional modules and updating our virtual knowledge centre.

Honourable Members of Parliament,

I would now like to take a brief moment to discuss the post-2015 development agenda, especially its role in addressing the issue of violence against women. I also had the occasion to deliver a video statement on this in your Women’s Forum which took place past Saturday and which concentrated on the post-2015 framework. I applaud the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly for regularly organizing such a Women’s Forum and strengthening this network.

UN Women is calling for a stand-alone goal on gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment and separately and concurrently gender equality mainstreamed across all goals. This is needed to address the structural foundations of gender-based inequality. To this effect, we are calling for the new framework to tackle three core areas: safety, access and voice, so women can live free of violence, enjoy equal access of opportunities and resources; and exercise their voice in leadership and participation.

In developing the post-2015 agenda and the 11th European Development Fund, we seek your support to ensure a strong focus on gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment and ending violence.

I thank you. All of us at UN Women look forward to strengthened collaboration with you and your countries through this forum to end violence against women and children.

‘One Woman’ – The UN Women song
UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous
Kirsi Madi, Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Programme Results
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Roger Corman: a career in pictures

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Best known for his low-budget Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, Corman also produced over 400 films and helped kickstart the careers of Jack Nicholson, Nicholas Roeg, Peter Fonda, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese

News: Corman dies aged 98
Peter Bradshaw’s appreciation
Roger Corman obituary

Greg Whitmore

Sun 12 May 2024 08.59 BST Last modified on Sun 12 May 2024 22.07 BST

Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Day The World Ended, 1955

Photograph: Alamy

Roger Corman's 1955 movie The Day the World Ended

The Undead, 1957

Photograph: The Kobal Collection

A poster for Roger Corman's 1957 film The Undead

Not Of This Earth and Attack Of The Crab Monsters, both 1957

Composite: Movie Poster Image Art/ Getty Images

Details from posters for the 1957 Roger Corman movies Not Of This Earth and Attack Of The Crab Monsters

Attack of the Crab Monsters, 1957

A still from Roger Corman's 1957 movie Attack of the Crab Monsters

Teenage Doll, 1957

Photograph: Everett/REX Shutterstock

A poster for Roger Corman's 1957 film Teenage Doll

The Wasp Woman, 1959

Photograph: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock

A poster for Roger Corman's 1959 movie The Wasp Woman

The Fall of the House of Usher, 1960

The Little Shop of Horrors, 1960

A poster for Roger Corman's 1960 movie The Little Shop of Horrors

The Pit and the Pendulum, 1961

Roger Corman and Vincent Price on the set of The Pit and the Pendulum in 1961

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, 1963

Photograph: Public Domain

Tomb of Ligeia, 1964

A poster for Roger Corman's 1964 movie Tomb of Ligeia

The Masque of the Red Death, 1964

Composite: BFI

Roger Corman's 1964 movie The Masque of the Red Death

The Wild Angels, 1966

Roger Corman and Peter Bogdanovich directing Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels in 1966

Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Roger Corman chats with Nancy Sinatra on set of The Wild Angels in 1966

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1967

Composite: REX Shutterstock/Alamy

Roger Corman's 1967 movie St Valentine's Day Massacre

The Trip, 1967

Photograph: Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images

A poster for Roger Corman’s 1967 movie The Trip

Bloody Mama, 1970

Composite: REX/Ronald Grant Archive

Shelley Winters in Roger Corman’s 1970 movie Blood Mama

Photograph: Getty Images

Roger Corman and Family at Little Shop of Horrors in 1982

Frankenstein Unbound, 1990

Composite: REX Shutterstock

Roger Corman filming Frankenstein Unbound in 1990

Photograph: Michael Yada/Getty Images

Roger Corman accepts an honorary Oscar in 2009.

Photograph: Victoria Will/Invision/AP

Roger Corman at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival

Roger Corman
Horror films
Science fiction and fantasy films
Edgar Allan Poe

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One of the budget papers will be all about women. Here's what you need to know

Katy Gallagher, sitting with Jim Chalmers, holds the women's economic budget statement

For the fourth consecutive year, the pile of budget papers deposited on the desks of journalists this afternoon will contain a booklet dedicated exclusively to women.

Inflation is making everything more expensive, including essentials women can't avoid buying.

On top of that, on average women are earning less than a man in the same sector and doing more of the work that they don't get paid for at home too.

And that's before you get to facing an increased risk of violence and chronic shortages of essential products women need.

For women of colour, those with disabilities or from low-income backgrounds, these problems are even greater.

The booklet will detail how the government plans to improve their lives and how particular measures will help 51 per cent of the country's population.

But how much of a difference will that actually make to most women? And what do we know about what's already inside?

Shout-out to the ladies

The Women's Budget Statement, first introduced in the 1980s by the Hawke government, was a longtime fixture of budget day. It was then stopped by the Abbott government, resumed in the last years of the Morrison government, and has been a consistent feature under the Albanese government.

Most budget measures are not specific to women, so the women's budget statement is often used as a place for the government to spruik the ones that stand out as benefiting them, or to reframe general policies in terms of their benefit to women.

For example, the first item mentioned by Treasurer Jim Chalmers in a Mother's Day message about the women's statement was "a bigger tax cut for more than 90 per cent of women", a cut which also applies to men.

But the Albanese government has also used the statements to highlight targeted changes to address economic gender equality.

Katy Gallagher and Jim Chalmers walk on the grass on top of Parliament House

Super on paid parental leave

As first announced on International Women's Day, the government will pay superannuation on the publicly funded Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme starting in the 2025-26 financial year.

That's a proposal the government says will help close the gender gap in retirement incomes, since the vast majority of the 180,000 who receive the payment every year are women.

Labor first promised the move at the 2019 election, then ditched it at the 2022 election owing to its cost. Previous modelling suggested it would cost about $200 million a year, but the government confirmed on Sunday it would cost $623.1 million a year.

That's in part because the government is in the process of increasing the number of weeks that can be accessed under the scheme, up to 26 by 2026. There will also be incentives for parents to share more leave.

Higher wages in aged care and child care

The budget will also provision a "multi-billion-dollar" amount for higher wages in two female-dominated workforces, aged care and child care.

In both cases, its hand has been forced by the Fair Work Commission (FWC), which approved a pay rise for aged care workers in 2023 and is expected to do the same for childcare workers in June. The government supported both cases before the FWC.

Other female-dominated workforces will get support targeted at the trainee level through the introduction of paid placements in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses, each to the value of $319.50 a week and benefiting an estimated 73,000 students.

But Students Against Placement Poverty has criticised the measure as insufficient, saying the commitment amounts to about $8 an hour for a full work week, and many students will miss out because it's means-tested.

Beyond that, the government has pointed to a range of general measures which will disproportionately benefit women, such as the decision to reduce indexation of HELP debts and other student loans, since 58.5 per cent of outstanding debt is held by women.

Endometriosis funding

The government has already announced that longer specialist consultations for women with endometriosis and other complex gynaecological conditions such as chronic pelvic pain and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) will now be covered under Medicare from July next year.

Two new rebates will be added to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, enabling extended consultation times and increased rebates for specialist care.

The $49.1 million investment is expected to provide about 430,000 more services to women across the country.

Including this new funding, the federal government has committed a total of $107 million in endometriosis support for women since coming to government, including by establishing endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across the country and providing funding for research and awareness.

They've also flagged a scholarship fund to encourage nurses and midwives to get a higher qualification so they have the power to prescribe, order pathology and give their patients referrals.

The Primary Care Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship Program will run for four years, costing the government $50 million.

In May 2023, a Senate inquiry found women around Australia were facing major challenges to accessing abortion, contraception, pregnancy and birth care.

Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney said a recent Senate inquiry into access to reproductive and sexual healthcare would help inform how those commitments would be reached.

The government's response to the report's recommendations is now nearly a year overdue.

Woman curling up on bed while clutching her stomach

Violence against women and their children

The government has promised additional measures to support women's safety, building on the already-announced $915 million over five years to make permanent a trial program which has seen women fleeing violence paid up to $5,000 in financial support.

But this has been heavily criticised as not going far enough to protect some of those most vulnerable to violence because it only covers violence by an intimate partner — not a carer or family member.

Women with disabilities say they're being left behind , while the federal government says they should approach Centrelink or the NDIS if they're being abused by a carer.

And Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has said the government has no plans to expand that eligibility.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has also said there will be "additional steps" on welfare payments, the level of which is often identified as a barrier to women seeking to leave violent relationships.

But it's not clear whether this will include an increase to the JobSeeker unemployment benefit or the Single Parenting Payment.

Instead, the government has hinted it is likely to increase the more narrowly available Commonwealth Rent Assistance payment.

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Decent Essays. 733 Words. 3 Pages. Open Document. Violence is one of the most problematic issues society faces today, and it has been increasing day after day, in the streets of our cities. The most common description of what violence really is can be given as negativity towards something or someone either through physical or verbal actions ...
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School violence can take many forms. These are some of the types of school violence: Physical violence, which includes any kind of physical aggression, the use of weapons, as well as criminal acts like theft or arson. Psychological violence, which includes emotional and verbal abuse. This may involve insulting, threatening, ignoring, isolating ...
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500 Words Essay on Violence The Concept of Violence. Violence, a pervasive element in society, is a complex, multifaceted issue that demands careful examination. It is characterized by behaviors involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Violence has been a part of human history since time immemorial, with ...
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Domestic violence is a significant problem and one of the acute topics of today's society. It affects people of all genders and sexualities. Domestic violence involves many types of abuse, including sexual and emotional one. Essays on domestic violence can enhance students' awareness of the issue and its causes.
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This essay delves into the multifaceted spectacle of violence, examining its various forms, underlying causes, far-reaching consequences, and potential avenues for prevention and intervention. By exploring the intricate interplay of social, psychological , and environmental factors, we aim to elucidate the complexities of violence and propose ...
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July 28, 1967 12:00 AM GMT-4. M an and society are born out of both: violence and gentle cooperation.". That is how Psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim defines a paradoxical but inescapable fact ...
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The analysis of violence is an important part of sociology. While it has sometimes been pushed to the margins of sociology, nevertheless, violence emerges repeatedly in the analysis of both everyday life and momentous social change; interpersonal relations and crime; governance and resistance; relations between states, north and south; and multiple varieties of modernity.
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The essays by Eric Brandom and Rose Owen form a suggestive pair, because they analyze the work of violence amid such opacity. Brandom's essay, "Violence and Resistance to the State: Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence," revisits Sorel's infamous writings on violence and the "general strike." Owen's essay, "A World Without ...
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Violence : Violence And Violence. 1. The internet says that violence means the behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Violence is more than that. To me violence means to bring harm or exert negativity to someone whether it's verbally, physically, emotionally, sexually, psychologically ...
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Young people who commit acts of violence are strongly influenced by their background, personal traits, access to guns, and the coverage of abuse in the media. At the same time, these reasons also apply to the youth who experienced violence. The two main effects of youth violence are the dissemination of abuse across social and health problems ...
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Now that we are well-informed on the topic let us explore the structure of essays on violence. Outline of an Essay on Violence. The sensitivity of such a paper requires maximum precision on the part of the student. The diction, format, style, and general outline will play a vital role in the delivery of your essay. Let's brush through the ...
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500 Words Essay On Domestic Violence. Domestic violence refers to the violence and abuse which happens in a domestic setting like cohabitation or marriage. It is important to remember that domestic violence is not just physical but any kind of behaviour that tries to gain power and control over the victim.
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Abstract. In this essay, I illustrate how discussions of the effects of violence on communities are enhanced by the use of a critical framework that links various microvariables with macro-institutional processes. Drawing upon my work on the issue of violent victimization toward African American women and how conventional justice policies have failed to bring effective remedy in situations of ...
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Among a pile of budget papers deposited on the desks of journalists will be a booklet outlining how the government's financial plans will help Australian women. Here's what you need to know.
Respond to a workplace violence restraining order
Fill out the Response form (WV-120) Fill out the form, called the Response to Petition for Workplace Violence Restraining Orders ( form WV-120) Attach a copy of any evidence you have (pictures, text messages). If you need more time to put together evidence, you can let the judge know at your hearing (court date).
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1. Videogames, Violence, and Vulgarity by Jared Lovins

How to Identify and Prevent School Violence

Recognizing the Signs of School Violence

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Causes of School Violence

Impact of School Violence

Impact on Children Committing Violence

Impact on Children Victimized by School Violence

Impact on Children Who Witness School Violence

Impact on Parents

Preventing School Violence

A Word From Verywell

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100 Words Essay on Violence

Types of Violence

Effects of Violence

Preventing Violence

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Forms of Violence

The Roots of Violence

Impact of Violence

Addressing Violence

500 Words Essay on Violence

The Manifestations of Violence

The Psychological Underpinnings of Violence

The Impact of Violence

Concluding Thoughts

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Essay: VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

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Macbeth and Violence — Example A Grade Essay

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THE QUESTION

PLAN — 6–8 mins

Point 1 : Macbeth has an enjoyment of violence

Point 2 : Macbeth is a violent character from the offset, but this violence is acceptable at first

Point 3: The witches and Lady Macbeth manipulate that violent power

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