Editing Violence (section)

== Prevention ==

Violence in many forms can be preventable. There is a strong relationship between levels of violence and modifiable factors in a country such as [[concentrated poverty|concentrated (regional) poverty]], income and [[gender inequality]], the harmful use of alcohol, the consumption of violence-based foods (meat, fish, eggs), and the absence of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and parents. Strategies addressing the underlying causes of violence can be relatively effective in preventing violence, although mental and physical health and individual responses, personalities, etc. have always been decisive factors in the formation of these behaviors.<ref>WHO / Liverpool JMU Centre for Public Health, [https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/4th_milestones_meeting/publications/en/ "Violence Prevention: The evidence"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830082343/http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/4th_milestones_meeting/publications/en/ |date=2012-08-30 }}, 2010.</ref>

The threat and enforcement of physical punishment has been a tried and tested method of preventing some violence since civilisation began.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Code-of-Hammurabi|title=Code of Hammurabi {{!}} Summary & History|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2017-04-30|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313150613/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Code-of-Hammurabi|archive-date=2017-03-13}}</ref> It is used in various degrees in most countries.

===Public awareness campaigns===
Cities and counties throughout the United States organize "Violence Prevention Months" where the mayor, by proclamation, or the county, by a resolution, encourage the private, community and public sectors to engage in activities that raise awareness that violence is not acceptable through art, music, lectures and events. For example, Violence Prevention Month coordinator, Karen Earle Lile in Contra Costa County, [[California]] created a Wall of Life, where children drew pictures that were put up in the walls of banks and public spaces, displaying a child's view of violence they had witnessed and how it affected them, in an effort to draw attention to how violence affects the community, not just the people involved.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Melvin |first1=Gayle Vassar |title=Kids Help Draw Line on Hitting: Beyond the primary colors and the stick figures, there's a harrowing message: Some children are growing up on a diet of violence. |url=https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ez.ccclib.org/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&t=pubname%3ACCYB%21Contra%2BCosta%2BTimes%2B%2528Walnut%2BCreek%252C%2BCA%2529&sort=YMD_date%3AD&page=1&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-0=karen%20lile&docref=news/1063FAA67255CD64 |access-date=16 Jan 2021 |work=Newspaper |agency=Contra Costa Times |publisher=Contra Costa Newspapers |date=3 April 1996 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

=== Interpersonal violence ===
A review of scientific literature by the [[World Health Organization]] on the effectiveness of strategies to prevent interpersonal violence identified the seven strategies below as being supported by either strong or emerging evidence for effectiveness.<ref>[https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/4th_milestones_meeting/publications/en/ "Violence Prevention: the evidence"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830082343/http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/4th_milestones_meeting/publications/en/ |date=2012-08-30 }}, World Health Organization/Liverpool John Moores University, 2009.</ref> These strategies target risk factors at all four levels of the ecological model.

==== Child–caregiver relationships ====
Among the most effective such programmes to prevent child maltreatment and reduce childhood aggression are the Nurse Family Partnership home-visiting programme<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Olds DL, Sadler L, Kitzman H | year = 2007| title = Programs for parents of infants and toddlers: recent evidence from randomized trials | journal = Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry | volume = 48| issue = 3–4| pages = 355–91 | doi=10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01702.x | pmid=17355402| s2cid = 1083174}}</ref> and the [[Triple P (Parenting Program)]].<ref>{{cite journal | author = Prinz | year = 2009 | title = Population-based prevention of child maltreatment: the US Triple P system population trial | journal = Prevention Science | volume = 10| issue = 1| pages = 1–12| doi = 10.1007/s11121-009-0123-3 | pmid = 19160053 |display-authors=etal| pmc =4258219}}</ref> There is also emerging evidence that these programmes reduce convictions and violent acts in adolescence and early adulthood, and probably help decrease intimate partner violence and self-directed violence in later life.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Caldera D, etal | year = 2007 | title = Impact of a statewide home visiting program on parenting and on child health and development | journal = Child Abuse and Neglect | volume = 31 | issue = 8| pages = 829–52 | doi=10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.02.008| pmid = 17822765 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Caldera | year = 1997 | title = Long-term effects of home visitation on maternal life course and child abuse and neglect: 15 year follow-up of a randomized trial | doi = 10.1001/jama.1997.03550080047038 | journal = Journal of the American Medical Association | volume = 278 | issue = 8| pages = 637–43 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

==== Life skills in youth ====
Evidence shows that the [[life skills]] acquired in social development programmes can reduce involvement in violence, improve social skills, boost educational achievement and improve job prospects. Life skills refer to social, emotional, and behavioural competencies which help children and adolescents effectively deal with the challenges of everyday life.

==== Gender equality ====
Evaluation studies are beginning to support community interventions that aim to prevent [[violence against women]] by promoting [[gender equality]]. For instance, evidence suggests that programmes that combine microfinance with gender equity training can reduce intimate partner violence.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Pronyk PM, etal | year = 2006| title = Effect of a structural intervention for the prevention of intimate-partner violence and HIV in rural South Africa: a cluster randomised trial | journal = Lancet | volume = 368| issue = 9551| pages = 1973–83 | doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(06)69744-4 | pmid=17141704| s2cid = 14146492}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Kim JC, Watts CH, Hargreaves JR, etal | year = 2007| title = Understanding the impact of a microfinance-based intervention on women's empowerment and the reduction of intimate partner violence in South Africa | journal = American Journal of Public Health | volume = 97| issue = 10| pages = 1794–1802 | doi=10.2105/ajph.2006.095521 | pmid=17761566 | pmc=1994170}}</ref> School-based programmes such as Safe Dates programme in the United States of America<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Foshee VA, etal | year = 1998| title = An evaluation of safe dates an adolescent dating violence prevention programme | journal = American Journal of Public Health | volume = 1998 | issue = 88| pages = 45–50 | doi=10.2105/ajph.88.1.45| pmc = 1508378 | pmid=9584032}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Foshee| year = 2005 | title = Safe Dates" using random coefficient regression modelling | journal = Prevention Science | volume = 6 | issue = 3| pages = 245–57 |display-authors=etal| doi = 10.1007/s11121-005-0007-0 | pmid = 16047088 | s2cid = 21288936 }}</ref> and the Youth Relationship Project in Canada<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Wolfe D, etal | year = 2009 | title = Dating violence prevention with at risk youth: a controlled outcome evaluation | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology | volume = 71 | issue = 2| pages = 279–91 | doi=10.1037/0022-006x.71.2.279| pmid = 12699022 | s2cid = 11004108 }}</ref> have been found to be effective for reducing dating violence.

==== Cultural norms ====
Rules or expectations of behaviour – norms – within a cultural or social group can encourage violence. Interventions that challenge cultural and [[social norms]] supportive of violence can prevent acts of violence and have been widely used, but the evidence base for their effectiveness is currently weak. The effectiveness of interventions addressing [[dating violence]] and [[sexual abuse]] among teenagers and young adults by challenging social and cultural norms related to gender is supported by some evidence.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Fabiano P | year = 2003 | title = Engaging men as social justice allies in ending violence against women: evidence for a social norms approach | journal = Journal of American College Health | volume = 52 | issue = 3| pages = 105–12 | doi=10.1080/07448480309595732| pmid = 14992295 | s2cid = 28099487 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>Bruce S. The "A Man" campaign: marketing social norms to men to prevent sexual assault. The report on social norms. Working paper number 5. July 2002. Little Falls, NJ, PaperClip Communications, 2002.</ref>

==== Support programmes ====
Interventions to identify victims of interpersonal violence and provide effective care and support are critical for protecting health and breaking cycles of violence from one generation to the next. Examples for which evidence of effectiveness is emerging includes: screening tools to identify victims of intimate partner violence and refer them to appropriate services;<ref>{{cite journal | author = Olive P | year = 2007 | title = Care for emergency department patients who have experienced domestic violence: a review of the evidence base | journal = Journal of Clinical Nursing | volume = 16 | issue = 9| pages = 1736–48 | doi=10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.01746.x| pmid = 17727592 | s2cid = 37110679 }}</ref> psychosocial interventions—such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy—to reduce [[Violence and mental illness|mental health problems associated with violence]], including post-traumatic stress disorder;<ref>{{cite journal | author = Roberts GL | year = 1997 | title = Impact of an education program about domestic violence on nurses and doctors in an Australian emergency department | journal = Journal of Emergency Nursing | volume = 23 | issue = 3| pages = 220–26 | doi=10.1016/s0099-1767(97)90011-8| pmid = 9283357 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> and protection orders, which prohibit a perpetrator from contacting the victim,<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Holt VL, etal | year = 2003| title = Do protection orders affect the likelihood of future partner violence and injury? | journal = American Journal of Preventive Medicine | volume = 2003 | issue = 24| pages = 16–21 | doi=10.1016/s0749-3797(02)00576-7| pmid = 12554019| doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=McFarlane J, etal | year = 2004| title = Protection orders and intimate partner violence: an 18-month study of 150 Black, Hispanic, and White women | journal = American Journal of Public Health | volume = 2004 | issue = 94| pages = 613–18 | doi=10.2105/ajph.94.4.613| pmc = 1448307 | pmid=15054014}}</ref> to reduce repeat victimization among victims of intimate partner violence.

=== Collective violence ===
Not surprisingly, scientific evidence about the effectiveness of interventions to prevent collective violence is lacking.<ref>Zwi, Garfield, & Loretti (2002) Collective violence, In Krug et al. (Eds) World report on violence and health, WHO</ref> However, policies that facilitate [[poverty reduction|reductions in poverty]], that make [[decision-making]] more accountable, that reduce inequalities between groups, as well as policies that reduce access to biological, chemical, nuclear and other weapons have been recommended. When planning responses to violent conflicts, recommended approaches include assessing at an early stage who is most vulnerable and what their needs are, co-ordination of activities between various players and working towards global, national and local capabilities so as to deliver effective health services during the various stages of an emergency.<ref>Zwi, Garfield, & Loretti (2002) "Collective violence", In Krug et al. (Eds) ''World report on violence and health''</ref>

=== Criminal justice ===
[[File:No Violence Sign.jpg|thumb|A sign that calls to stop violence]]
One of the main functions of [[law]] is to regulate violence.<ref>{{cite journal | author = David Joseph E | year = 2006 | title = The One who is More Violent Prevails – Law and Violence from a Talmudic Legal Perspective | journal = Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence | volume = 19 | issue = 2| pages = 385–406 | doi = 10.1017/S0841820900004161 | s2cid = 231891531 }}</ref> Sociologist [[Max Weber]] stated that the state claims the [[Monopoly on violence|monopoly of the legitimate use of force to cause harm]] practised within the confines of a specific territory. [[Law enforcement]] is the main means of regulating nonmilitary violence in society. Governments regulate the use of violence through [[legal system]]s governing individuals and political authorities, including the [[police]] and [[military]]. Civil societies authorize some amount of violence, exercised through the [[Law enforcement agency powers|police power]], to maintain the status quo and enforce laws.

However, German political theorist [[Hannah Arendt]] noted: "Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate ... Its justification loses in plausibility the farther its intended end recedes into the future. No one questions the use of violence in self-defence, because the danger is not only clear but also present, and the end justifying the means is immediate".<ref>{{cite book | last = Arendt | first = Hannah | title = On Violence | publisher = Harvest Book | page = 52 }}.</ref> Arendt made a clear distinction between violence and power. Most political theorists regarded violence as an extreme manifestation of power whereas Arendt regarded the two concepts as opposites.<ref>Arendt, H. (1972) On Violence in Crises in the Republic, Florida, Harcourt, Brace and Company, pp. 134–55.</ref>
In the 20th century in acts of [[democide]] governments may have killed more than 260 million of their own people through [[police brutality]], [[execution]], [[massacre]], slave [[labour camps]], and sometimes through intentional [[List of famines#20th century|famine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM|title=20th Century Democide|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060301064559/http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM|archive-date=2006-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/war-1900.htm|title=Atlas – Wars and Democide of the Twentieth Century|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110130810/http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/war-1900.htm|archive-date=2007-11-10}}</ref>

Violent acts that are not carried out by the military or police and that are not in [[self-defense]] are usually classified as [[crimes]], although not all crimes are [[violent crime]]s. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) classifies violence resulting in [[homicide]] into [[murder|criminal homicide]] and [[justifiable homicide]] (e.g. self-defense).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ucrhandbook04.pdf|title=Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook|year=2004|publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503055659/https://www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ucrhandbook04.pdf|archive-date=2015-05-03}}.</ref>

The criminal justice approach sees its main task as enforcing laws that proscribe violence and ensuring that "justice is done". The notions of individual blame, responsibility, guilt, and culpability are central to criminal justice's approach to violence and one of the criminal justice system's main tasks is to "do justice", i.e. to ensure that offenders are properly identified, that the degree of their guilt is as accurately ascertained as possible, and that they are punished appropriately. To prevent and respond to violence, the criminal justice approach relies primarily on deterrence, incarceration and the punishment and rehabilitation of perpetrators.<ref>M. Moore "Public Health and Criminal Justice Approaches to Prevention."1992. In Vol. 16 of Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, edited by M. Tonry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press</ref>

The criminal justice approach, beyond justice and punishment, has traditionally emphasized indicated interventions, aimed at those who have already been involved in violence, either as victims or as perpetrators. One of the main reasons offenders are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted is to prevent further crimes—through deterrence (threatening potential offenders with criminal sanctions if they commit crimes), incapacitation (physically preventing offenders from committing further crimes by locking them up) and through rehabilitation (using time spent under state supervision to develop skills or change one's psychological make-up to reduce the likelihood of future offences).<ref>{{cite journal | author = Prothrow-Stith D | year = 2004 | title = Strengthening the collaboration between public health and criminal justice to prevent violence | journal = Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics | volume = 32 | issue = 1| pages = 82–94 | doi=10.1111/j.1748-720x.2004.tb00451.x| pmid = 15152429 | s2cid = 11995691 }}</ref>

In recent decades in many countries in the world, the criminal justice system has taken an increasing interest in preventing violence before it occurs. For instance, much of community and [[problem-oriented policing]] aims to reduce crime and violence by altering the conditions that foster it—and not to increase the number of arrests. Indeed, some police leaders have gone so far as to say the police should primarily be a crime prevention agency.<ref>Bratton W (with Knobler P). Turnaround: how America's top cop reversed the crime epidemic. New York: Random House, 1998</ref> Juvenile justice systems—an important component of criminal justice systems—are largely based on the belief in rehabilitation and prevention. In the US, the criminal justice system has, for instance, funded school- and community-based initiatives to reduce children's access to guns and teach [[conflict resolution]]. Despite this, [[use of force|force is used]] routinely against juveniles by police.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Morrow | first1 = Weston J. | last2 = Nuño | first2 = Lidia E. | last3 = Mulvey | first3 = Philip | year = 2018 | title = Examining the Situational- and Suspect-Level Predictors of Police Use of Force Among a Juvenile Arrestee Population | url = http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/examining_the_situational_and_suspect_level_predictors_of_police_use_of_force_among_a_juvenile_arrestee_population.pdf| journal = Justice Policy Journal | volume = 15 | issue = 1}}</ref> In 1974, the US Department of Justice assumed primary responsibility for delinquency prevention programmes and created the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which has supported the "Blueprints for violence prevention" programme at the [[University of Colorado Boulder]].<ref>Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence [http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints "Blueprints for violence prevention/] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103080341/http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/ |date=2012-01-03 }}</ref>

=== Public health ===
The public health approach is a science-driven, population-based, interdisciplinary, intersectoral approach based on the ecological model which emphasizes primary prevention.<ref name=WHO2002/> Rather than focusing on individuals, the public health approach aims to provide the maximum benefit for the largest number of people, and to extend better care and safety to entire populations. The public health approach is interdisciplinary, drawing upon knowledge from many disciplines including medicine, epidemiology, sociology, psychology, criminology, education and economics. Because all forms of violence are multi-faceted problems, the public health approach emphasizes a multi-sectoral response. It has been proved time and again that cooperative efforts from such diverse sectors as health, education, social welfare, and criminal justice are often necessary to solve what are usually assumed to be purely "criminal" or "medical" problems. The public health approach considers that violence, rather than being the result of any single factor, is the outcome of multiple risk factors and causes, interacting at four levels of a nested hierarchy (individual, close relationship/family, community and wider society) of the [[Social ecological model]].

From a public health perspective, prevention strategies can be classified into three types:
* Primary prevention – approaches that aim to prevent violence before it occurs.
* Secondary prevention – approaches that focus on the more immediate responses to violence, such as pre-hospital care, emergency services or treatment for sexually transmitted infections following a rape.
* Tertiary prevention – approaches that focus on long-term care in the wake of violence, such as rehabilitation and reintegration, and attempt to lessen trauma or reduce long-term disability associated with violence.

A public health approach emphasizes the primary prevention of violence, i.e. stopping them from occurring in the first place. Until recently, this approach has been relatively neglected in the field, with the majority of resources directed towards secondary or tertiary prevention. Perhaps the most critical element of a public health approach to prevention is the ability to identify underlying causes rather than focusing upon more visible "symptoms". This allows for the development and testing of effective approaches to address the underlying causes and so improve health.

The public health approach is an evidence-based and systematic process involving the following four steps:
# Defining the problem conceptually and numerically, using statistics that accurately describe the nature and scale of violence, the characteristics of those most affected, the geographical distribution of incidents, and the consequences of exposure to such violence.
# Investigating why the problem occurs by determining its causes and correlates, the factors that increase or decrease the risk of its occurrence (risk and protective factors) and the factors that might be modifiable through intervention.
# Exploring ways to prevent the problem by using the above information and designing, monitoring and rigorously assessing the effectiveness of programmes through outcome evaluations.
# Disseminating information on the effectiveness of programmes and increasing the scale of proven effective programmes. Approaches to prevent violence, whether targeted at individuals or entire communities, must be properly evaluated for their effectiveness and the results shared. This step also includes adapting programmes to local contexts and subjecting them to rigorous re-evaluation to ensure their effectiveness in the new setting.

In many countries, violence prevention is still a new or emerging field in public health. The public health community has started only recently to realize the contributions it can make to reducing violence and mitigating its consequences. In 1949, Gordon called for injury prevention efforts to be based on the understanding of causes, in a similar way to prevention efforts for communicable and other diseases.<ref>Gordon JE, "The epidemiology of accidents," ''American Journal of Public Health'', 1949; 504–15.</ref> In 1962, Gomez, referring to the WHO definition of health, stated that it is obvious that violence does not contribute to "extending life" or to a "complete state of well-being". He defined violence as an issue that public health experts needed to address and stated that it should not be the primary domain of lawyers, military personnel, or politicians.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Abad Gomez H | year = 1962 | title = Violence requires epidemiological studies | journal = Tribuna Medica | volume = 2 | pages = 1–12 }}</ref>

However, it is only in the last 30 years that public health has begun to address violence, and only in the last fifteen has it done so at the global level.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Dahlberg L. |author2=Mercy J. | year = 2009 | title = History of violence as a public health issue | journal = Virtual Mentor | volume = 11 | issue = 2| pages = 167–72 | doi=10.1001/virtualmentor.2009.11.2.mhst1-0902|pmid=23190546 | doi-access = free }}</ref> This is a much shorter period of time than public health has been tackling other health problems of comparable magnitude and with similarly severe lifelong consequences.

The global public health response to interpersonal violence began in earnest in the mid-1990s. In 1996, the World Health Assembly adopted Resolution WHA49.25<ref>[https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/resources/publications/en/WHA4925_eng.pdf "WHA49.25 Prevention of violence: a public health priority"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122193242/http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/resources/publications/en/WHA4925_eng.pdf |date=2013-01-22 }}</ref> which declared violence "a leading worldwide public health problem" and requested that the World Health Organization (WHO) initiate public health activities to (1) document and characterize the burden of violence, (2) assess the effectiveness of programmes, with particular attention to women and children and community-based initiatives, and (3) promote activities to tackle the problem at the international and national levels. The World Health Organization's initial response to this resolution was to create the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability and to publish the World report on violence and health (2002).<ref name=WHO2002/>

The case for the public health sector addressing interpersonal violence rests on four main arguments.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Prothrow-Stith D | year = 2004 | title = Strengthening the collaboration between public health and criminal justice to prevent violence | journal = Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics | volume = 32 | issue = 1 | pages = 82–88 | doi=10.1111/j.1748-720x.2004.tb00451.x| pmid = 15152429 | s2cid = 11995691 }}</ref> First, the significant amount of time health care professionals dedicate to caring for victims and perpetrators of violence has made them familiar with the problem and has led many, particularly in emergency departments, to mobilize to address it. The information, resources, and infrastructures the health care sector has at its disposal are an important asset for research and prevention work. Second, the magnitude of the problem and its potentially severe lifelong consequences and high costs to individuals and wider society call for population-level interventions typical of the public health approach. Third, the criminal justice approach, the other main approach to addressing violence (link to entry above), has traditionally been more geared towards violence that occurs between male youths and adults in the street and other public places—which makes up the bulk of homicides in most countries—than towards violence occurring in private settings such as child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and elder abuse—which makes up the largest share of non-fatal violence. Fourth, evidence is beginning to accumulate that a science-based public health approach is effective at preventing interpersonal violence.

=== Human rights ===
[[File:Abdulredha Buhmaid on floor.jpeg|thumb|[[Bahrain]]'s [[2011 Bahraini uprising|pro-democracy protesters]] killed by military, February 2011]]
The [[human rights]] approach is based on the obligations of states to respect, protect and fulfill human rights and therefore to prevent, eradicate and punish violence. It recognizes violence as a violation of many human rights: the rights to life, liberty, [[autonomy]] and security of the person; the rights to equality and non-discrimination; the rights to be free from torture and cruel, [[inhuman or degrading treatment|inhuman and degrading treatment]] or punishment; the right to [[privacy]]; and the [[right to health|right to the highest attainable standard of health]]. These human rights are enshrined in [[international human rights law|international and regional treaties]] and national constitutions and laws, which stipulate the obligations of states, and include mechanisms to hold states accountable. The [[Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women]], for example, requires that countries party to the Convention take all appropriate steps to end violence against women. The [[Convention on the Rights of the Child]] in its Article 19 states that States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including [[child sexual abuse|sexual abuse]], while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

=== Geographical context ===
{{Essay-like|date=December 2023|section}}
Violence, as defined in the [[dictionary of human geography]], "appears whenever power is in jeopardy" and "in and of itself stands emptied of strength and purpose: it is part of a larger matrix of socio-political power struggles".<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009">Hyndman, J. (2009) Violence in Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. eds. ''Dictionary of Human Geography'', Wiley-Blackwell, NJ: 798–99.</ref> Violence can be broadly divided into three broad categories—[[direct violence]], [[structural violence]] and [[cultural violence]].<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009" /> Thus defined and delineated, it is of note, as Hyndman says, that "[[Human geography|geography]] came late to theorizing violence"<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009" /> in comparison to other social sciences. Social and human geography, rooted in the [[Humanism|humanist]], [[Marxist]], and [[Feminist theory|feminist]] subfields that emerged following the early positivist approaches and subsequent behavioral turn, have long been concerned with social and [[spatial justice]].<ref>Bowlby, S. (2001) "Social Geography", in Smelser, N. and Baltes, P. eds. ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences'', Oxford, Elsevier, 14293–99.</ref> Along with critical geographers and political geographers, it is these groupings of geographers that most often interact with violence. Keeping this idea of social/spatial justice via geography in mind, it is worthwhile to look at geographical approaches to violence in the context of politics.

Derek Gregory and Alan Pred assembled the influential edited collection ''Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror, and Political Violence'', which demonstrates how place, space, and landscape are foremost factors in the real and imagined practices of organized violence both historically and in the present.<ref>Gregory, Derek and Pred, Alan'', 2006 Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror, and Political Violence''. London: Routledge.</ref> Evidently, political violence often gives a part for the state to play. When "modern states not only claim a monopoly of the legitimate means of violence; they also routinely use the threat of violence to enforce the rule of law",<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009" /> the law not only becomes a form of violence but is violence.<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009" /> Philosopher [[Giorgio Agamben]]'s concepts of [[state of exception]] and ''[[homo sacer]]'' are useful to consider within a geography of violence. The state, in the grip of a perceived, potential crisis (whether legitimate or not) takes preventative legal measures, such as a suspension of rights (it is in this climate, as Agamben demonstrates, that the formation of the Social Democratic and Nazi government's lager or concentration camp can occur). However, when this "in limbo" reality is designed to be in place "until further notice…the state of exception thus ceases to be referred to as an external and provisional state of factual danger and comes to be confused with juridical rule itself".<ref name="Agamben, G. 1998">Agamben, G. (1998) ''Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life'', Stanford University Press, Stanford.</ref> For Agamben, the physical space of the camp "is a piece of land placed outside the normal juridical order, but it is nevertheless not simply an external space".<ref name="Agamben, G. 1998" /> At the scale of the body, in the state of exception, a person is so removed from their rights by "juridical procedures and deployments of power"<ref name="Agamben, G. 1998" /> that "no act committed against them could appear any longer as a crime";<ref name="Agamben, G. 1998" /> in other words, people become only ''homo sacer''. [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp|Guantanamo Bay]] could also be said to represent the physicality of the state of exception in space, and can just as easily draw man as homo sacer.

In the 1970s, genocides in Cambodia under the [[Khmer Rouge]] and [[Pol Pot]] resulted in the deaths of over two million Cambodians (which was 25% of the Cambodian population), forming one of the many contemporary examples of state-sponsored violence.<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002">Ringer, G. (2002) "Killing Fields", in Christensen, K. and Levinson, D. eds. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York: 368–70.</ref> About fourteen thousand of these murders occurred at [[Choeung Ek]], which is the best-known of the extermination camps referred to as the [[Killing Fields]].<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002" /> The killings were arbitrary; for example, a person could be killed for wearing glasses, since that was seen as associating them with intellectuals and therefore as making them part of the enemy. People were murdered with impunity because it was no crime; Cambodians were made ''homo sacer'' in a condition of bare life. The Killing Fields—manifestations of Agamben's concept of camps beyond the normal rule of law—featured the state of exception. As part of Pol Pot's "ideological intent…to create a purely agrarian society or cooperative",<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002" /> he "dismantled the country's existing economic infrastructure and depopulated every urban area".<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002" /> Forced movement, such as this forced movement applied by Pol Pot, is a clear display of structural violence. When "symbols of Cambodian society were equally disrupted, social institutions of every kind…were purged or torn down",<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002" /> cultural violence (defined as when "any aspect of culture such as language, religion, ideology, art, or cosmology is used to legitimize direct or structural violence"<ref name="Hyndman, J. 2009" />) is added to the structural violence of forced movement and to the direct violence, such as murder, at the Killing Fields. Vietnam eventually intervened and the genocide officially ended. However, ten million landmines left by opposing guerillas in the 1970s<ref name="Ringer, G. 2002" /> continue to create a violent landscape in Cambodia.

Human geography, though coming late to the theorizing table, has tackled violence through many lenses, including anarchist geography, feminist geography, Marxist geography, political geography, and critical geography. However, [[Adriana Cavarero]] notes that, "as violence spreads and assumes unheard-of forms, it becomes difficult to name in contemporary language".<ref name="Cavarero, A. 2009">Cavarero, A. (2009) ''Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence'', Columbia University Press, New York.</ref> Cavarero proposes that, in facing such a truth, it is prudent to reconsider violence as "horrorism"; that is, "as though ideally all the…victims, instead of their killers, ought to determine the name".<ref name="Cavarero, A. 2009" /> With geography often adding the forgotten spatial aspect to theories of social science, rather than creating them solely within the discipline, it seems that the self-reflexive contemporary geography of today may have an extremely important place in this current (re)imaging of violence, exemplified by Cavarero.{{clarify|date=November 2014}}