Violence is a leading worldwide public health problem.  More than 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence each year (WHO).  The World Health Organization defines violence as: The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.

Violent behavior is a product of the interaction between biological, psychological and social forces and processes.  The main social and economic causes of violence are those that divide the population into the superior and the inferior, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor.  The more highly unequal a society is, the higher its rates of violence.  A greater level of equality is essential in order to curb both interpersonal violence and collective political violence.

What happens in a child's early life that leads to a person being violent?

Research has shown that the people who have committed the most serious acts of violence have usually experienced abuse or neglect, often at the hands of their own parents.  Often they have experienced overwhelming levels of shame and humiliation, in addition to abuse.  Shame is the ultimate withdrawal of love.  Pride is self love; shame is the lack of self love.  There are only two possible sources of love for the self, from one's own self or from other people.  Violent individuals typically have grown up in families and environments where they didn't get love from anybody else and consequently were not able to develop the capacity for self love because they feel they are not worthy.  Neglect may be the most damaging form of child abuse and the most extreme form of shaming. 

The overwhelming stress of maltreatment experiences in childhood is associated with adverse brain development and with alterations of biological stress systems-- consistent with those found in violent individuals. If a child lacks a stable emotional attachment with, and touch from, a primary caregiver and/or lacks spontaneous interaction with peers, brain development for both caring behavior and cognitive capabilities is damaged in a lasting fashion.

 What triggers someone to act violently?

Often individuals will report being provoked to violence by a feeling of being disrespected.  In committing an act of violence, the individual often feels they are reclaiming respect, which is usually how they perceive their victim's fear.  When most people think about self-preservation, we talk bout physical survival.  But the most violent individuals experience a split between the mind and the body; if they feel they are in danger of being overwhelmingly humiliated or having their identity destroyed by psychological means, they would much rather sacrifice their body if they feel that is the only means by which they can rescue or resurrect their mental self.

These thought processes are referred to by Drs. Lisa and Robert Firestone as the "voice" because they occur within the individual's mind as though another person were imparting information to the individual about himself or herself as well as about other people.  The type of thoughts an individual experiences often stem from his or her early life experience in interaction with his or her genetic predisposition.

A. Beck and Pretzer (2005) state it this way:

Our seminal insight was the observation that the content of individuals' thoughts influences their emotional and behavioral response... Thoughts of being wronged or mistreated produce anger and an impulse to retaliate. (p.68)... When the adversary is demonized (viewed as different, alien, subhuman, and evil), this intensifies the sense that violence is justified and reduces inhibitions about violnce and killing (p. 72)... The greater the extent to which additional cognitions legitimize a violent response, the greater the likelihood of violence (p. 71)

The five types of thoughts found in research to predispose violent behavior are: paranoid/suspicious (e.g. they are out to get you), persecuted misfit (e.g. they are going to make a fool of you), self-depreciating/ pseudo-independent (e.g. you have to take care of yourself because no one else will), overtly agressive (e.g. violence is the ticket), and self-aggrandizing (e.g. you are number one).

adapted from Dr. Lisa Firestone's 8/15/08 interview with violence expert James Gilligan, M.D.

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