Why do people resort to violence

What possible purpose could they serve? Fundamentally, why do people hurt and kill one another? It sounds like an unanswerable question.

Yet there is an answer. It is simple, powerful and very disturbing. We fail to recognise it almost everywhere it matters. But if we really want to solve the problem of violence, there is nothing for it. We have to risk a kind of understanding that threatens our own values, our own way of life. We have to gaze into an abyss. A t present, there are two dominant approaches to understanding violence. Both fall short.

Maybe, the story goes, even ordinary people have violent impulses that are usually held in check. When their moral sense breaks down or is somehow blocked, they give in to their dark side. Picture the man who knows that beating his wife is wrong but who, after a long day at work, loses his temper and takes it out on her.

Is he our typical culprit? In , the psychologist C Nathan DeWall at the University of Kentucky and colleagues published the results of an ingenious experiment to test this idea. First, they drained their test subjects of self-control.

They wore down college students by making them resist a tempting dessert or avert their eyes from part of a computer screen. The students became more aggressive in their subsequent judgments and behaviours. For example, they were more likely to deliberately blast loud noise into the earphones of another person.

So far, so promising for the disinhibition theory. Yet the experiments detected a pattern in these aggressive tendencies: they arose only in response to a previous provocation. In the sound-blasting experiment, the aggression was directed towards a person whom the participant believed had given them an unfair review on a previous task.

When no provocation was present, there was no statistical difference in conduct between participants who had been depleted and those who had not. On the contrary, it looked like the test subjects were trying to get even.

Now, such experiments might well indicate that some violence is enabled by loss of self-control. But the disinhibition theory sidesteps the question of why we are motivated to be violent in the first place. The impulse has to come from somewhere, and the theory is silent about where that might be. It might be worth pausing to ask ourselves what kind of answer we expect to find here.

Does our propensity for aggression simply come down to a mishmash of various provocations and triggers? Or is there some universal, underlying pattern, a single key that captures the majority of violence in every culture throughout history?

The latter option sounds like an ambitious goal for a sociological theory. O n this view, violence is just a way to achieve instrumental goals.

For example, killing rival heirs is sometimes a good idea if you want to be king. The theory can boast some empirical successes. Richard Felson, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Pennsylvania State University, found that the likelihood of fighting among siblings goes up when parents are present, because younger siblings are more likely to fight when they know their parents might intervene, thus reducing the potential costs to themselves.

At the level of states, Vincenzo Bove, Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick in the UK, and colleagues recently found that foreign nations are much more likely to intervene in a civil war when the country at war with itself also has valuable oil reserves. But once again, we find ourselves with a puzzle.

People frequently resort to violence when, by any measure of practical utility, non-violent means would be more effective. During these interviews, the researchers presented their participants with a series of hypothetical peace deals; some deals included material incentives for giving up disputed land.

A peculiar inconsistency emerged. A subset of the respondents saw the disputed land as just another resource: they were therefore willing to trade it for financial compensation and sign the peace deal, just as the rational model predicted. Other participants, however, saw the land as sacred, tied to their communal identity. For these participants, adding financial compensation reduced support for the deal.

They showed elevated levels of anger and disgust, as well as increased enthusiasm for violence. The rational model cannot handle this kind of data. Adding material incentives should never make the deal worse, unless the relevant utilities that people care about are non-material in nature. I t looks like both leading theories of violence fail, for one reason or another. Neither the disinhibition theory nor the rational theory provides a complete picture for why people hurt one another.

How can you manage your own anger without becoming violent? Talk to someone. Find a trusted friend or adult to help you one-on-one if you're afraid to talk or if you can't find the right words to describe what you're going through. Be calm. Try to express criticism, disappointment, anger, or displeasure without losing your temper or fighting.

Ask yourself whether your response is safe and reasonable. Try to listen and respond without getting upset when someone tells you something you may not want to hear. Don't overreact; try to see the other person's point of view.

Seek solutions. Work out your problems with someone else by looking at different solutions and compromises. How can parents help teens?

Parents can help protect teens from violent situations in the following ways: Be involved in your teen's life. Know what your teen enjoys and how he or she spends free time. Know who your teen spends his or her time with. Explore ways your teen can avoid unsafe situations and can avoid hanging out with troubled teens.

Talk to your teen about the effect a group can have on his or her life. Peers have a strong impact on a teen's behavior. Protect your teen from violent media as much as possible. Youths who watch a lot of this violence may come to believe that such behavior is okay. This can make them more likely to act violently themselves. It can also lead to nightmares, aggression, or fears of being harmed. Discourage physical violence. Help your teen find ways to resolve conflict without resorting to violence.

Role-play conflict. Let your teen determine which style fits him or her best. Role-play ways to help your teen walk away from fights. Be a positive role model. Use nonviolent ways to resolve conflict in your home. Think about how you and your fellow parent each address conflict with your teen. If you have been abused or assaulted, contact your doctor as soon as possible. If you have questions about how soon you should be seen, you can check your symptoms. Many things can affect how your body responds to a symptom and what kind of care you may need.

These include:. You have answered all the questions. Based on your answers, you may be able to take care of this problem at home. Sometimes people don't want to call They may think that their symptoms aren't serious or that they can just get someone else to drive them.

Or they might be concerned about the cost. But based on your answers, the safest and quickest way for you to get the care you need is to call for medical transport to the hospital. Based on your answers, you may need care right away. The problem is likely to get worse without medical care. Based on your answers, you may need care soon.

The problem probably will not get better without medical care. If you are angry, hostile, or violent, it is important to find help.

There are some things you can do to try to control any feelings of anger or hostility and avoid violence. Call your doctor to evaluate your feelings if your anger, hostility, or violent behavior becomes more frequent or severe. You can help your doctor diagnose and treat your condition by being prepared to answer the following questions:.

Blahd Jr. Author: Healthwise Staff. Medical Review: William H. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information.

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Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. Updated visitor guidelines. Anger, Hostility, and Violent Behavior. Topic Overview Anger signals your body to prepare for a fight. Check Your Symptoms Are you concerned about anger, hostility, or violent behavior in yourself or someone else?

How old are you? Less than 12 years. Are you male or female? Why do we ask this question? The medical assessment of symptoms is based on the body parts you have. If you are transgender or nonbinary, choose the sex that matches the body parts such as ovaries, testes, prostate, breasts, penis, or vagina you now have in the area where you are having symptoms. If you have some organs of both sexes, you may need to go through this triage tool twice once as "male" and once as "female".

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