Political violence

Political violence is a broad term used to describe violence perpetrated by either persons or governments to achieve political goals. Many groups and individuals believe that their political systems will never respond to their demands. As a result, they believe that violence is not only justified but also necessary in order to achieve their political objectives. Similarly, many governments around the world believe they need to use violence in order to intimidate their populace into acquiescence. At other times, governments use force in order to defend their country from outside invasion or other threats of force and to coerce other governments or conquer territory. Political violence can take a number of forms including but not limited to those listed below. Non-action on the part of the government can also be characterized as a form of political violence.

Types

Genocide

Main article: Genocide

One form of political violence is genocide. Genocide is commonly defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", although what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. Genocide is typically carried out with either the overt or covert support of the governments of those countries where genocidal activities take place. The Holocaust is the most cited historical example of genocide

Rioting

Main article: Riot

A Riot can be described as a violent disturbance by a group of individuals formed to protest perceived wrongs and/or injustice. These can range from poverty and inequality to unemployment and government oppression. They can manifest themselves in a number of ways but most commonly in the form of property damage. riot are characterized by their lack of predictability and the anonymity of their participants. Both make it difficult for authorities to identify those participating.

Riots have been analyzed in a number of ways but most recently in the context of the frustration-aggression model theory, expressing that the aggression seen in most riots is a direct result of a groups frustration with a particular aspect of their lives.Widespread and prolonged rioting can lead to and/or produce rebellion or revolution. There are also a number of different types of riots including but not limited to police riots, race riot, prison riots, and sport riot.

War

Main article: War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century: the death toll of World War II, estimated at more than 60 million, surpasses all other war death tolls by a factor of two. It is estimated that 378,000 people died due to war each year between 1985 and 1994.

Revolution

Main article: Revolution

Civil War

Main article: Civil war

Terrorism

Main article: Terrorism

Terrorism as a form of political violence is usually perpetrated by the weaker side of a conflict. While there lacks a concrete definition of terrorism, the United States Department of Defense however defines terrorism as, " the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." What is and is not considered terrorism is hot topic for debate however the symbolism of terrorism creates a climate of fear.

Counter-insurgency

Main article: Counter-insurgency

Counter-insurgency, another form of political violence, describes a spectrum of actions taken by the recognized government of a state to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. There are a many different doctrines, theories, and tactics espoused regarding counter-insurgency that aim to protect the authority of the government and to reduce or eliminate the supplanting authority of the insurgents. Because it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish between an insurgent, a supporter of an insurgency who is a non-combatant, and entirely uninvolved members of the population, counter-insurgency operations have often rested on a confused, relativistic, or otherwise situational distinction between insurgents and non-combatants. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions.

Torture

Main article: Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain (whether physical or psychological) as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Torture is prohibited under international law and the domestic laws of most countries in the 21st century. It is considered a human rights violation and is declared unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention have officially agreed not to torture prisoners in armed conflicts. National and international legal prohibitions on torture derive from a consensus that torture and similar ill-treatment are immoral, as well as impractical. Despite international conventions, torture cases continue to arise such as the 2004 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal committed by military police personnel of the United States Army. Organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims monitor abuses of human rights and reports widespread violations of human torture in by states in many regions of the world. Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, some of them openly.

Capital punishment

Main article: Capital punishment

Capital punishment is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offense. This does not include extrajudicial killing, which is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. The use of capital punishment by country varies, but according to Amnesty International 58 countries still actively use the death penalty, and in 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. In 2007 the United Nations General Assembly passed the UN moratorium on the death penalty which called for worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

Police brutality

Main article: Police brutality

Police brutality is another form of political violence. It is most commonly described in juxtaposition with the term excessive force. Police brutality can be defined as "a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary." Police brutality and the use of excessive force are present throughout the world and in the United States alone, 4,861 incidences of police misconduct were reported during 2010 (see also Police brutality (United States)). Of these, there were 6,826 victims involved and 247 fatalities.

Famine

Main article: Famine

Famine can be initiated or prolonged in order to deny resources, compel obedience, or to depopulate a region with a recalcitrant or untrusted populace.

Gender-based Violence

Main article: Violence against women

Gender-based violence is often used interchangeably with Violence against Women. Although classified as a human right violation it can be viewed not only as a consequence of political violence but as a form of it as well.

Theories

One way to organize theories of political violence is by their level of analysis: macro or micro. Macro theories explain why political violence occurs at the regional, state, national, international, and societal levels, while micro theories examine political violence at the individual and group levels.

List of theories that explain why violence occurs:

• Colonial Legacies
• Relative deprivation
• Mass society
• Contingency - Inherency Dichotomy
• Social constructionism
• Functionalism
• Political opportunity
• Collective action theory
• Resource mobilization

Macro

Functionalism

• Structural functionalism

Micro

Rational choice theory

• Greed versus grievance, grievance connected to Relative deprivation

Consequences of Political Violence

Micro

There is a growing body of literature that examines how political violence affects individuals and households.

Political

There are empirical studies that link violence with increases in political participation. One study examines the effect of being abducted by Joseph Kony's LRA on political participation. An abducted male Ugandan youth, or in other words a former child soldier, had a greater probability of voting for Uganda's 2005 referendum and being a community mobilizer/leader than a male Ugandan youth who wasn't abducted. However, this effect is not just contained to Uganda. A study on the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war found that victimized households, household whose members were killed, injured, maimed, captured, or made refugees, are more likely to register to vote, attend community meetings, and participative in local political and community groups than households that did not experience violence.

Socio-Economic Impacts

A study on the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war found that victimized households, household whose members were killed, injured, maimed, captured, or displaced, did not have long-term impacts on owning assets (stove, radio, and tin roof), child nutrition, consumption expenditures and earnings.

Physical Capital

Human Capital

Human rights violations

See also: Human rights Violations

Human rights violations occur when basic human rights (including civil, political, cultural, social, and economic rights) are abused, ignored or denied. Furthermore, violations of human rights can occur when any state or non-state actor breaches any part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights treaty or other international human rights or humanitarian law. In regard to human rights violations of United Nations laws, Article 39 of the United Nations Charter designates the UN Security Council (or an appointed authority) as the only tribunal that may determine UN human rights violations.

Human rights abuses are monitored by United Nations committees, national institutions and governments and by many independent non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International. These organizations collect evidence and documentation of alleged human rights abuses and apply pressure to enforce human rights laws.

Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are breaches of International humanitarian law and represent the most serious of human rights violations. In efforts to eliminate violations of human rights, building awareness and protesting inhumane treatment has often led to calls for action and sometimes improved conditions. The UN Security Council has interceded with peacekeeping forces and other states have intervened in situations ostensibly to protect human rights.

Bibliography

• Paul Hollander, Political Violence: Belief, Behavior, and Legitimation, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
• Philip Herbst, Talking terrorism: a dictionary of the loaded language of political violence, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003.

Further reading

• James Mensch, Political Violence, http://www.academia.edu/309338/Political_Violence
• Political Terror Scale
• CIRI Human Rights Data Project
• http://www.copblock.org/2841/police-brutality-statistics/
• http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/
• http://usa.marsh.com/Portals/9/Documents/Political_Risk_Map_MARSH_MAPLECROFT_2014.pdf
• Rummel, Rudolph J. Death by Government. New Brunswick [u.a.: Transaction Publ., 2002. Print.
• Mitchell, Neil J. Agents of Atrocity: Leaders, Followers and the Violation of Human Rights in Civil War. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

Genocide

• The Genocide in Darfur is Not What It Seems Christian Science Monitor
• (in Spanish) Aizenstatd, Najman Alexander. "Origen y Evolución del Concepto de Genocidio". Vol. 25 Revista de Derecho de la Universidad Francisco Marroquín 11 (2007). ISSN 1562-2576 [2]
• No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955 American Political Science Review. Vol. 97, No. 1. February 2003.
• Harff, B. and T. R. Gurr (1988). "Toward Empirical Theory of Genocides and Politicides: Identification and Measurement of Cases since 1945." International Studies Quarterly 32: 359-371.
• What Really Happened in Rwanda? Christian Davenport and Allan C. Stam.
• Reyntjens, F. (2004). "Rwanda, Ten Years On: From Genocide to Dictatorship." African Affairs 103(411): 177-210.
• Brysk, Alison. 1994. “The Politics of Measurement: The Contested Count of the Disappeared in Argentina.” Human Rights Quarterly 16: 676-92.
• Davenport, C. and P. Ball (2002). "Views to a Kill: Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977-1996." Journal of Conflict Resolution 46(3): 427-450.
• Krain, M. (1997). "State-Sponsored Mass Murder: A Study of the Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides." Journal of Conflict Resolution 41(3): 331-360.

War

• Grossman, Lt. Col. Dave. "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society." 2009. New York: Back Bay Books.
• Gabriel, R.A. "No More Heroes: Madness and Psychiatry in War." 1987. New York: Hill and Wang.
• Ardant du Picq, C. "Battle Studies." 1946. Harrisburg, PA: Telegraph Press.
• Clausewitz, C.M. von. "On War." 1976. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Holmes, R. "Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle." 1985. New York: Free Press.
• Lorenz, K. "On Aggression." 1963. New York: Bantam Books.
• Shalit, B. "The Psychology of Conflict and Combat." 1988. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Police brutality

• della Porta, D., A. Peterson and H. Reiter, eds. (2006). The Policing of Transnational Protest. Aldershot, Ashgate.
• della Porta, D. and H. Reiter (1998). Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
• Donner, F. J. 1990. Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley, University of California Press.
• Earl, Jennifer S. and Sarah A. Soule. 2006. “Seeing Blue: A Police-Centered Explanation of Protest Policing.” Mobilization 11(2): 145-164.
• Earl, J. (2003). "Tanks, Tear Gas and Taxes: Toward a Theory of Movement Repression." Sociological Theory 21(1): 44-68.
• Franks, C. E. S., Ed. (1989). Dissent and the State. Toronto, Oxford University Press.
• Grossman, Dave. (1996). On Killing – The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War & Society. Little, Brown & Co.,.
• HOLMES, M. D. (2000), MINORITY THREAT AND POLICE BRUTALITY: DETERMINANTS OF CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS IN U.S. MUNICIPALITIES. Criminology, 38: 343–368.
• McPhail, Clark, David Schweingruber, and John D. McCarthy (1998). “Protest Policing in the United States, 1960-1995.” pp. 49–69 in Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, edited by D. della Porta and H. Reiter. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Oliver, P. (2008). “Repression and Crime Control: Why Social Movements Scholars Should Pay Attention to Mass Incarceration Rates as a Form of Repression” Mobilization 13(1): 1-24.
• Zwerman G, Steinhoff P. (2005). When activists ask for trouble: state-dissident interactions and the new left cycle of resistance in the United States and Japan. In Repression and Mobilization, ed. C. Davenport, H. Johnston, C. Mueller, pp. 85–107. Minneapolis: Univ. Minn. Press

Torture

• Conroy, John (2001). Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23039-6.
• Hilde, T. C. (2008). On torture Baltimore, MD : Johns Hopkins University.
• Nowak, M., McArthur, E., & Buchinger, K. (2008). The united nations convention against torture : A commentary Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press.
• Parry, J. T. (2010). Understanding torture : Law, violence, and political identity Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press.
• Peters, E. (1996). Torture Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Rejali, D. M. (1994). Torture & Modernity: Self, Society, and State in Modern Iran. Boulder: Westview Press.
• Sklar, M. H. (1998). Torture in the United States : The status of compliance by the U.S. government with the international convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Washington : World Organization Against Torture USA.
• Torture in the eighties : An amnesty international report(1984). London, U.K. : Amnesty International Publications.
• Vreeland, James Raymond (2008). Political Institutions and Human Rights: Why Dictatorships enter into the United Nations Convention Against Torture. International Organization. pp. 62(1):65–101.
• Wantchekon, L. and A. Healy (1999). The "Game" of Torture. Journal of Conflict Resolution. pp. 43(5): 596–609.
• Wendland, L. (2002). A handbook on state obligations under the UN convention against torture Geneva : Association for the Prevention of Torture.

Capital punishment

• Looking Deathworthy:Perceived stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing Psychological Science
• Sarat, Austin. The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
• Bowers, William J., Glenn L. Pierce, John F. McDevitt, and William J. Bowers. Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1864-1982. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1984. Print.
• Death Penalty Facts 2011 Amnesty International
• Sarat, Austin, and Jurgen Martschukat. Is the Death Penalty Dying?: European and American Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
• Hammel, Andrew. Ending the Death Penalty: the European Experience in Global Perspective. Basingstoke [u.a.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.