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Relational and Structural Violence

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Abstract

If we define violence as deliberately causing harm to another person, we must also include attempts to harm someone’s self-appreciation, relationships with other people, or social standing. Such forms of relational violence are often based on prejudice and downright hatred of people classified on the basis of class, ethnicity, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. These attitudes might be crystallized in social or communal structures within which these classifications are used to position, manipulate, and exploit people within an institutionalized hierarchy to the point that this kind of violence becomes a structural feature of the society or the community. Both relational and structural violence connect closely with at least the threat and all too often also with the practice of physical violence.

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Notes

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© 2015 Henry Bacon

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Bacon, H. (2015). Relational and Structural Violence. In: The Fascination of Film Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476449_6

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