Structural Violence

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Structural violence is the way in which a social structure will harm people by not providing, by limiting or by barring people from receiving basic needs. Structural violence impacts people on the bottom rung of society. People who live in poverty or are not considered being of a high social standing. This could be because of a person’s age, sex, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, or any other aspect that makes them different from the majority of the population or different from what people consider to be the norm. However, structural violence does not necessarily need the majority of the population to define it, it can manifest by a few people in the country or out making decisions for the populace.

Structural violence differs from direct violence. Direct violence is brutal and flashy and gets a reaction from people who find out about what has happened. Structural violence is almost invisible, it is almost always seen as the way things have always been done or considered not as bad as it could be. Structural violence does not need to be bloody and brutal like direct violence; it can be as ordinary as inadequate schools in inner cities operating in rundown buildings with rooms over packed with students. Structural violence, however, is often times causes more suffering and pain than direct violence will and is harder to stop.

Who are the victims of structural violence? Often these victims are considered to be members of a low economic class. This does not necessarily mean they live in poverty. It is a miscomprehension that only people in third world countries or that the developing world is the only place we find structural violence. This violence happens in almost every country, the only reason we do not see it is (a) tha...

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...be a better place without these things. However the world also needs these things to survive. The way to counter structural violence is to be aware and to regulate working conditions, government policies, and the basic needs people receive and to treat people decently. I’m still not a hundred percent sure on how people will do this.

Works Cited

Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti Walt Disney and the science of exploitation (1996). [Motion Picture].

DuNann Winter, D., & Leighton, D. C. (2001 ). Structural Violence . Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st. New York : Prentice-Hall.

Einarsdottir, J. (2004). Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau. Madison: The University of Wissconsion Press.

Fort, M. M., & Oscar, G. (2004). Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health. Cambridge: South End Press.

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