According to sociology, violence is voluntary and aggressive behavior against others intended to kill, injure, subjugate, or cause any type of harm. Unfortunately, violence has always been present in all societies and throughout history. Here, we will focus on both the forms violence has taken in various historical eras and social systems, and the forms it has taken in contemporary society. Violence in past historical eras is the subject of study in social history, while sociologists study the forms it takes in contemporary society. There are various ways and forms of classifying types of violence . We cannot describe and analyze here all the forms violence has taken and takes in the present, so we will limit ourselves to describing the main forms of violence according to the most common classifications. There is direct violence, which is exercised against a person or social group, and structural violence, which affects individuals indirectly for the purpose of exerting psychological pressure, for economic gain, or to eliminate political opponents considered dangerous.
Then there is cultural violence, which takes symbolic forms that exalt and promote violence, elevating it to an internalized social value. Finally, political violence occurs when one social class or people enslaves another. Another classification distinguishes between physical violence and psychological violence. In the former, a voluntary act is committed through the abuse of force to cause harm to others, even to the point of murder. In the latter, physical harm is not inflicted, but an attempt is made to force a person to adopt certain behaviors through various forms of psychological conditioning. Psychological violence can exist in all life situations and social environments and can reach the extreme of oppression through forms of coercion that can be applied subtly or overtly, even over a long period of time.
Violence and human nature
According to sociobiology, in the animal world, killings of members of different species are part of the law of survival, while killings within the same species are rare. Humans possess an innate aggressiveness inherited from the animal world, defined by specialists as competitive tension that has driven humans since the beginning to procure food, preserve their territory, and so on. In the earliest forms of society, violence was quite widespread and practiced by Homo sapiens, who began producing tools for domestic life, hunting, and tribal conflicts. With the emergence of Homo sapiens, a culture began to develop, leading to the emergence of forms of thought and communication that led to the prohibition of violence within the group. With the discovery of agriculture, tribal societies demarcated the boundaries of their territories and recognized the authority of a leader who dictated the first social norms that sought to mitigate violence. However, the practice of revenge and the application of the law of retaliation (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth) survived. Only with the entry into history did social life become regulated by the first written laws, such as the Code of Hammurabi and the books of the Old Testament. In ancient Greece, violence was sublimated through mythology and epic poetry, while in tragic theater, certain fundamental taboos were identified that prohibited particularly reprehensible actions such as infanticide, matricide, and parricide. Humans thus began to develop a cultural process that made them superior to all other animals.
Violence in contemporary society
In the modern age, the state emerged, founded on the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. The state is recognized as having a monopoly on force, which allows for the legitimate use of violence in forms and situations established by law to ensure the rationalization of instincts and the control of violence itself within society. All societies have moral norms, legal laws, and other rules that limit the absolute autonomy of citizens. Since the twentieth century, a positive phenomenon has been observed: an overall decrease in individual acts of violence, especially homicides. However, various forms of aggression continue to emerge in contemporary society, finding enormous resonance in the mass media . Sometimes, these forms of violence are exploited politically by appealing to voters' emotions. In the social and political life of contemporary society, we witness forms of competition that foster psychological and even physical aggression, producing negative repercussions within the family institution and in socialization processes, hindering the free formation of personality. The pursuit of success and individual affirmation, even at the cost of harming others, ends up causing a series of frustrations that, in turn, lead to aggressive, retaliatory behavior. Sometimes, politicians exploit fear of aggressive behavior for propaganda purposes , using feelings of danger and disgust to shape the masses' perception of reality.
How to deal with violence
To address violence, it is essential to rediscover a moral law capable of reminding humanity that violence is an option but not an obligation, that every violent behavior is not evidence of a biological right to aggression. Through learning processes and the tools provided by various cultural institutions, it is necessary to perceive violence in all its negativity. The first institution requiring intervention is the family, where forms of physical and psychological violence persist, affecting children and spouses, often masked by invisible violence that remains hidden due to fear and blackmail. In particular, all forms of violence against minors and women occurring within the family and other social institutions must be repressed. School remains the most widespread public institution in the country where effective anti-violence education can be provided, capable of acting as a counter to external societal pressures. Schools are capable of addressing, with appropriate interventions, the worrying phenomena of juvenile delinquency and bullying perpetrated against students and teachers.
It is essential to address peer groups, which play a crucial role in shaping young people's personalities, as they spend much of their free time within them. Often, unacceptable forms of violence arise within peer groups and must be combated at all costs. Society as a whole must reject violence, from its mildest to its most serious forms, without falling into the trap of viewing violent acts as a necessary and therefore unavoidable evil. Furthermore, we must ensure that trust in institutions, as the only bulwark against violent behavior, increases. The challenge of eliminating violence is complicated by two characteristics present in contemporary society: the drive to seek what one lacks, in the illusion that it holds the secret to happiness, and the pursuit of success at all costs. Indeed, many people, in order to avoid failure, do not hesitate to resort to violence to achieve their goals.
Prof. Mariangela Mangieri, Prof. Giovanni Pellegrino
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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