The 11 types of violence (and the kinds of aggression)

Violence is not always easy to identify, since we have it very normalized and, under certain forms of expression, it can go unnoticed or taken as something "to be expected".

In this article we will review the different types of violence and we will analyze the keys to know how to identify them where they occur. The goal is to make it easier to recognize patterns of behavior that are different forms of violence, which helps us act accordingly.

What is violence?

Summarizing, violence is the use of physical force or power against oneself or against others, so that this act causes physical damage, psychological damage or deprivation. This means that violence is the use of physical aggression to harm someone, but also the use of power, something more abstract, to cause harm or significantly limit the options person.

The key elements are the existence of a strategy and a series of actions that result in someone being harmed, and that one of the main intentions behind this conduct is to cause harm or threaten the physical or psychological integrity of someone. That is to say, that the intentions to harm someone are an essential factor in order to be able to speak of types of violence.

From the above it follows that the concept of violence is something really very open. That is why we can also talk about the types of violence and how to identify them.

The different types of violence

There is no single criterion to classify the types of violence, but several. The most common tend to be based on two factors: the way in which violence is exercised and the subject or subjects who exercise it. These two factors are what structure the classification of types of violence.

Classes of violence according to the type of agent

We'll see now the types of violence according to who inflicts the aggressionregardless of everything else.

1. Self-inflicted violence

This is one of the most stigmatized types of violence that exist, since in them it is the person himself who harms himself, something that is very difficult to understand from the point of view of other people. In self-inflicted violence, the person can cut their arms or legs, be publicly humiliated, hit the head against hard surfaces repeatedly, etc.

It is common for people who carry out this type of violence to be going through highly stressful situations, present a personality disorder (many times, the Borderline personality disorder) or both. It is also possible that self-inflicted violence ends up leading to a suicide or, rather, that it is one of the symptoms of a behavioral, cognitive and emotional dynamic that leads to suicide. The injuries that someone has previously inflicted are not in themselves the cause of his deciding to take his own life.

The eternal debate is that there are many questionable things about the concept of self-inflicted violence, since putting all the emphasis on Violence against the individual may not be the most appropriate if her behavior is the consequence of the violence that others exert against her. That is why, when we talk about self-inflicted violence, d **** We must bear in mind that behind it there may be other agents that we do not know and that they are the cause of this type of violence.

2. Interpersonal violence

This is the type of violence in which one individual assaults another. In this category we can find the domestic violence, the bullying, specific cases of robbery with violence, etc.

Although the cause of interpersonal violence is an individual (or a small group of them), it is possible that this type of aggression has part of its explanation in social phenomena. For example, drug use or poverty are factors closely linked to conflict.

3. Collective violence

Unlike what happens in the types of violence that we have seen, in this the aggression is of a collective nature, of a group or community against another group. The motivations for collective violence are usually political, economic, or ideological-religious.

It is one of the most damaging types of violence, because its negative effects can be felt in many facets of life and, as it involves many people, it is easy for it to degenerate until it leads to the injured and sometimes to dead. For example, the same violence that causes some minorities to be viewed with contempt by a large part of the population often contributes to the appearance of physical attacks and even murders.

The situations that favor the appearance of collective violence are political, legal and social phenomena, such as the presence religious fundamentalism, systematic discrimination of minorities, democratic deficits on the part of a state, the monopoly of certain valuable resources on the part of a relatively small group of people, or great social and economic inequalities.

Types of violence according to the nature of the act

It is also possible to distinguish between types of violence according to the way in which it is intended to harm or harm, that is, observing the nature and content of the aggression. Within this category, there are the following classes:

4. Physical violence

This is perhaps the most typical and easy-to-imagine type of violence, as it is very visual and easy to identify. In the, someone does something to harm someone else's body, producing someone's pain and suffering. Sometimes it can lead to death.

Furthermore, physical violence tends to leave marks that qualified medical personnel can identify: scratches, wounds, bruises, etc.

5. Verbal violence

Verbal violence is one in which it is intended to harm the other person is a message or a speech. It may (or may not) contain insults or taboo words, since it is not essential to use these kinds of resources to produce psychological discomfort.

In addition to producing anxiety, this type of violence can damage self-esteem of people and their public image.

6. Sexual violence

In sexual violence there are behaviors and types of physical contact that denigrate someone through the appeal of their sexual dimension. When it manifests itself through rapes, it goes hand in hand with physical violence, although it should be noted that in these the component sexual is not a simple complement, but adopts a form of violence that consists of trying to psychologically harm the other person.

7. Economic violence

It is a type of violence in which the ability of one or more people to use the money they earn is impaired. Theft and misuse of bank accounts fall into this category, as well as deception to make investments that turn out to be a scam.

8. Negligence

Negligence is a type of violence that occurs by default, since in it the aggression consists of not performing actions to which one is obliged to guarantee the minimum well-being of the rest. For example, a doctor who refuses to treat someone injured by a personal confrontation with him is committing negligence.

9. Religious violence

In this category enter the use of power to harm people by manipulating them with a series of beliefs and promises about a spiritual plane. It is very common to see how sects use this type of aggression to keep dominated those people who put money, time and effort into maintaining the institution.

10. Cultural violence

In this kind of violence, aggressions are part of a culture's frame of reference and they are related to the signs of cultural identity of a specific culture. For example, the normalization of rape in armed conflicts or the cutting of the female genitalia are examples of cultural violence.

11. Cyberbullying

In cyberbullying the internet and social media are frequently used to post information about a person or group of people with the desire to ridicule or humiliate. It is one of the types of violence whose scope is difficult to pin down, because the number of people potentially capable of viewing this type of stigmatizing content is very high.

• To know more about this kind of violence you can read: "Cyberbullying: analyzing the characteristics of virtual harassment"

A final thought

Violence, in one form or another, has been part of our lives. Even thousands of years ago, before civilizations and writing existed, there were events of great violence between our ancestors that have left an archaeological record on the aggressiveness. Today the volume of violence that shakes our planet continues to be overwhelming and, to a greater or lesser extent, even sneaks into the lives of those most privileged people with more resources to live away from poverty and marginality.

Precisely because the different kinds of violence have manifested themselves in one way or another depending on the historical moment and place, each culture has used a way of interpreting it and reacting to it. Knowing how to recognize the different types of violence is one of the keys to fighting this phenomenon.

Bibliographic references:

• Mayor Sánchez, M. (2000). The crime of physical and psychological abuse in the family environment. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia.
• Bernárdez, A. ed. (2001). Gender violence and society: a question of power. * * Compilation of papers from the El Escorial Summer University.
• Burnley, J. (1993). Conflict. Ed. Morata, Madrid.