The concept of violence

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give a conceptual analysis of the word violence and to explore some problems related to the normative use of the term. Violence is defined as extreme force wilfully carried against X, which is said to violate X because it does not show respect for the value of X. Examples are given of metaphorical uses of the term violence in psychological and political contexts. The term structural violence is taken as the crucial example and this raises the problem of the justification of violence. In the search for an answer to violence the focus mainly is on the countering of violence in ways that are themselves non‐violent.