Violence is not always easy to identify , since we have it very standardized and, under certain forms of expression, it can go unnoticed or be taken as something “that is to be expected”.

In this article r we will go through the different types of violence and analyse the keys to identify them wherever they occur. The aim is to make it easier to recognise patterns of behaviour that are different forms of violence, which helps us to act accordingly.

What is violence?

In short, violence is the use of physical force or power against oneself or others , so that this act causes physical damage, psychological damage or deprivation. This means that violence is the use of physical aggression to harm someone, but also the use of power, something more abstract, to cause damage or significantly limit the options available to a person.

The key elements are the existence of a strategy and a series of actions that result in someone being harmed, and that one of the main intentions behind this behaviour is to cause harm or attempt to harm someone’s physical or psychological integrity. That is to say, that the intentions to harm someone are an essential factor for the possibility of talking about types of violence.

From the above, we can see that the concept of violence is really something very open . That is why we can talk, too, about the types of violence and how to identify them.

The different types of violence

There is not one single criterion for classifying types of violence, but several. The most common ones are usually based on two factors: the way in which the violence is exercised and the subject or subjects that exercise it. These two factors structure the classification of types of violence.

Classes of violence according to type of agent

Next we will see the types of violence according to who inflicts the aggression , independently of everything else.

1. Self-inflicted violence

This is one of the most stigmatized types of violence that exist, since in them it is the person himself who hurts himself , something that is very difficult to understand from the point of view of the rest of the people. In self-inflicted violence, the person may cut their arms or legs, humiliate themselves publicly, hit their head against hard surfaces repeatedly, etc.

It is common for people who carry out this type of violence to be in highly stressful situations, to have a personality disorder (often called Borderline Personality Disorder) or both. It is also possible that the self-inflicted violence ends up leading to suicide or, rather, that it is one of the symptoms of a behavioural, cognitive and emotional dynamic that leads to suicide. Injuries that someone has inflicted on themselves before are not in themselves the cause of their decision to take their own life.

The eternal debate is that there are many questionable things about the concept of self-inflicted violence, since putting all the emphasis of violence on the individual may not be the right thing to do if his or her behavior is the consequence of the violence that others exert against him or her. That is why, when we talk about self-inflicted violence, d e should take into account that behind it there may be other agents that we do not know about and that are the cause of this type of violence.

2. Interpersonal violence

This is the type of violence in which one individual assaults another . In this category we can find domestic violence, bullying, specific cases of violent robbery, etc.

Although interpersonal violence is caused by an individual (or a small group of individuals), it is possible that this type of aggression can be partly explained by social phenomena. For example, drug use or poverty are factors closely linked to conflict.

3. Collective violence

Unlike what happens in the types of violence we have seen, in this case the aggression is of a collective nature, of a group or community against another collective . The motivations for collective violence are usually political, economic or ideological-religious.

This is one of the most damaging types of violence, because its negative effects can be felt in many facets of life and, as it involves many people, it can easily degenerate into injuries and sometimes death. For example, the same violence that causes some minorities to be viewed with contempt by large parts of the population often contributes to the emergence of physical assaults and even murder.

The situations that favour the emergence of collective violence are political, legal and social phenomena, such as the presence of religious fundamentalism, systematic discrimination against minorities, democratic deficits on the part of a state, the monopoly of certain valuable resources by a relatively small group of people, or major social and economic inequalities.

Types of violence according to the nature of the act

One can also distinguish between types of violence by looking at the way in which they are intended to harm or damage, i.e. by looking at the nature and content of the aggression. Within this category, there are the following types:

4. Physical violence

This is perhaps the most typical and easiest type of violence to imagine, as it is very visual and easy to identify. In it, someone does something to damage another person’s body , producing the pain and suffering of someone. Sometimes it can lead to death.

Physical violence also tends to leave marks that qualified medical personnel can identify: scratches, wounds, bruises, etc.

5. Verbal violence

Verbal violence is that in which the intention to harm the other person is a message or a speech . It may (or may not) contain insults or taboo words, as it is not essential to use that kind of resource to produce psychological distress.

In addition to producing anxiety, this type of violence can damage people’s self-esteem and public image.

6. Sexual violence

In sexual violence there are behaviors and types of physical contact that denigrate someone through the appeal of its sexual dimension . When it is manifested through rape, it is accompanied by physical violence, although it should be noted that in these cases the sexual component is not a simple complement, but rather it adopts a form of violence that consists of trying to psychologically harm the other person.

7. Economic violence

This is a type of violence in which the ability of one or more people to use the money they earn is damaged . Theft and misuse of bank accounts fall into this category, as well as trickery to make investments that turn out to be a scam.

8. Negligence

Negligence is a type of violence that occurs by omission , since in it the aggression consists of not carrying out actions that one is obliged to do in order to guarantee the minimum well-being of the rest. For example, a doctor who refuses to treat someone injured by a personal confrontation with him or her is committing negligence.

9. Religious violence

In this category falls the use of power to harm people by manipulating them with a set of beliefs and promises about a spiritual plane. It is very common to see how sects use this type of aggression to keep under control those people who put money, time and effort into maintaining the institution.

10. Cultural violence

In this type of violence, the aggressions are part of the reference framework of a culture and are related to the signs of cultural identity of a specific culture. For example, the normalization of rape in armed conflicts or the ablation of female genitals are examples of cultural violence.

11. Cyberbullying

In cyberbullying it is common for the Internet and social networks to be used to publish information about a person or group of people with a desire to ridicule or humiliate. It is one of the types of violence whose scope is difficult to specify, because the number of people potentially capable of seeing this type of stigmatizing content is very high.

  • To know more about this kind of violence you can read: “Cyberbullying: analyzing the characteristics of virtual bullying”

A Final Reflection

Violence, in one form or another, has been part of our lives. Even thousands of years ago, before civilizations and writing existed, there were events of great violence between our ancestors that have left an archaeological record of aggression. Today, the volume of violence that shakes our planet is still overwhelming and, to a greater or lesser extent, even creeping into the lives of those more privileged people with more resources to live away from poverty and marginality.

Precisely because the different types of violence have been manifested in one way or another according to the historical moment and place, each culture has used a way to interpret and react to it . Knowing how to recognize the different types of violence is one of the keys to fighting this phenomenon.

Bibliographic references:

  • Alcalde Sánchez, M. (2000). El delito de malos tratos físicos y psiquicos en el ámbito familiar. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia.
  • Bernárdez, A. ed. Gender violence and society: a question of power . Compilation of papers from the Summer University of El Escorial.
  • Burnley, J. (1993). Conflict. Ed. Morata, Madrid.