UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE
PARTIES TO VIOLENCE
• Victim: a person harmed, injured, or killed as a
result of violence, crime, accident, or other event or
action
• Survivor: a person who withstands, remains
standing especially a person remaining after an
occurrence and/ or omission of an event in which
others have not.
• A perpetrator: is a person, group, or institution
that inflicts, supports, or condones violence or
other abuse against a person or group of persons
CATEGORIES OF VIOLENCE
• Sexual violence: occurs when a person is
forced to unwillingly take part in sexual
activity and entails non-consensual sexual act
or behaviour. It includes rape, marital rape,
gang rape, attempted rape, and defilement
Physical violence: occurs when
someone uses a part of their body
or an object to control a person’s
actions and causes harm. It
includes plucking out hair, biting,
choking, kicking, slapping, burning
and shoving.
CATEGORIES OF VIOLENCE
• Economic violence: occurs when someone
controls a person’s financial resources without the
person’s consent. Examples include limiting a
person’s access to money, not allowing a woman to
work, unequal wages, and a woman’s salary being
held by her husband.
• Psychological/emotional violence: any
threat to do bodily harm to a partner, a
child, a family member, friends, or oneself.
It involves not only injury and anger but
also fear and degradation.
TYPES OF VIOLENCE
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Physical Violence: occurs when someone uses a part of their body or an object to control a person’s
actions.
Sexual Violence: occurs when a person is forced to unwillingly take part in sexual activity.
Emotional Violence: occurs when someone says or does something to make a person feel stupid or
worthless
Psychological Violence: occurs when someone uses threats and causes fear in an individual to gain
control.
Spiritual/ Religious Violence: occurs when someone uses an individual’s spiritual beliefs to
manipulate, dominate or control that person.
Cultural Violence: occurs when an individual is harmed as a result of practices that are part of her or
his culture, religion or tradition.
Verbal Abuse: occurs when someone uses language, whether spoken or written, to cause harm to an
individual.
Financial Abuse: occurs when someone controls an individual’s financial resources without the
person’s consent or misuses those resources.
Neglect: occurs when someone has the responsibility to provide care or assistance for an individual but
does not.
PERPETRATORS OF VIOLENCE
CAUSES OF VIOLENCE
CAUSES OF VIOLENCE
• violence is an outcome of society’s attitudes towards and practices
of gender discrimination, which place one in a subordinate position
to the other
• In general, the overriding causes are
• gender inequity (unfairness)
• abuse of power
• lack of respect for human rights
• cultural/social norms
CAUSES OF VIOLENCE- CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
• Contributing factors perpetuate violence or increase risk of
violence, and influence the type and extent of violence in any
setting:
• poverty
• Punitive and unsupportive laws and policies
• alcohol/drug abuse
• collapse of traditional society and family supports
• religious, cultural, and/or family beliefs and practices
• geographical location/environment (high-crime area)
• lack of knowledge about human rights and women rights
Attitudes toward Gender-Based Violence
• Notion that men have the right to control wives’ behavior
and to ‘discipline’ them:
“If it is a great mistake, then the husband is justified in beating his wife.
Why not? A cow will not be obedient without beatings.” (husband in India)
• Notion that there are ‘just’ causes for violence
“If I have done something wrong…, nobody should defend me. But if I
haven’t done something wrong, I have a right to be defended.” (woman in
Mexico)
• Blaming the victim for the violence received
Saying that girls and women who are raped “asked for it” because of they
way they were dressed.
Violence Cycle
Myths and Realities about Violence
MYTHS
REALITIES
Violence happens only to the
poor and marginalized.
Violence happens among people of all
socioeconomic, educational and racial
profiles.
Violence is not common in
industrialized countries.
Even in developed countries, such as the
US, 1 in 3 women report being physically
sexually abused by their partner.
Perpetrators cannot control
themselves. Violence is simply a
part of their nature.
Violence is not genetically-based; it is
perpetuated by a model of masculinity
that permits and even encourages men
to be aggressive.
Myths and Realities about Violence
MYTHS
REALITIES
Victims of violence provoke the
abuse through their
inappropriate behavior.
Blaming the victim is precisely the kind
of attitude that has the potential to cause
harm to a survivor of violence.
Most victims are abused by
strangers. They are safe when
they are home.
Studies consistently show that most
victims are abused by people they know;
often the perpetrators are those they trust
and love.
CONSEQUENCE OF VIOLENCE
Source: learning brief; international women day 2012
• Violence has negative
psychological and physical health
implications.
• Among the many consequences:
• increased percentage of
suicide attempts.
• Unintended pregnancy
doubles.
• Abortion has a 3-fold increase,
• Increase in risk of stillbirth or
miscarriage
• Increase in pregnancy loss
HEALTH CONSEQUENCE OF VIOLENCE
Inter-Generational & Socio-Economic Violence
consequences of Violence
RESPONDING TO VIOLENCE
• Successful interventions to address violence against key populations
include:
• Violence response mechanism: (Team, platform and
Communication system)
• education on rights,
• community mobilization to respond to violence and discrimination,
• practical warning systems,
• sensitization workshops with stakeholders law enforcement
authorities, and community- and policy-level
• advocacy to promote human rights
RESPONDING TO VIOLENCE
Assessment
Establish
VPR System
Responding
to Violence
Establish
Advocacy
Forums
Map
Stakeholders
Educate
on
Human
Rights
RESPONDING TO VIOLENCE
SECURITY TIPS
• Always carry your identification card.
• Carry emergency phone numbers.
• Be familiar with your environment. Be aware. Walk tall, act confident and be
assertive.
• Avoid walking and idling in unsafe environments and in areas with no easy
escape routes .
• Do not always give your personal unnecessary information to unknown and
untrusted persons including peers since this is what most blackmail
perpetrators use against you. Information like your residential place.
• When dealing with any law enforcement agent, be humble, try to get his/her
name , badge number, type and or colour of uniform and any other unique
identifier.
SECURITY TIPS
1. Avoid idling in groups and around places where you can raise suspicion
from the general public.
2. Take care and look out for each other, treat each other equally, socialise
with each other so as to prevent groupings which graduate to curtails.
3. Always trust your instinct/gut feelings. If you feel uncertain about
someone, then there is a good reason for it. It’s not worth ignoring your
instinct and later wishing you hadn’t.
4. Keep at least one arm free, and always be ready, mentally and physically, to
protect yourself.
5. Always accept unopened drinks and/ or well pre-packed foods ( or the
one you have seen being prepared) from clients.
6. Agree a signal to give each other in case you sense any danger or you are
in one.
Asante