What makes people violent?

Question

Aside from chemical imbalances in the brain or disease, what makes a perfectly healthy person commit a violent and aggressive act toward an individual(s)?
And how can we prevent them from becoming violent?

Answer 1

Violence has as many causes as happyness. Violence is an end result not an actual condition. People are not violent per se. They might have violent natures, they might be conditioned toward violence but they are not inheriently violent.

I will disagree that video games have anything to do with it. Society is actually far less violent today than it was 20 years ago, 40 years ago. The violence is even really the same kinds of violence over the same things. Todays gangs use automatic weapons and have no clue how to shoot them. So the body count is a bit higher. Mostly innocent bystanders. The old gangs used pistols and shotguns away from the public. Innocents were rare. That is why Capone was a Mob exile. He did his violence in public. If a public hit happened it was face to face not a drive by or it was a sniper from a roof top. The lack of firearms skills, choice of weapons and the culture built on Raps inherient lack of respect for anything has led to record violence in that culture. All of the safeguards were removed. In the old days it was strictly forbidden to kill an innocent. When somebody was hit it was somebody in the game and playing by those rules. Today people are shot by gangs just to shoot them. It might be race it might be how they part thier teeth in the morning. Might be no reason at all. "The road to perdition" Is a pretty good movie about how the old Irish gangs operated back in the day. The Mafia was a bit more violent than the Irish, Jewish and Dutch gangs that preceeded it, however again with the Mafia the codes were preserved. Violence minimized and kept almost exclusively to players in the game.

The "war on drugs" has put more money in gang hands just as banning booze did during prohibition. Which also introduced an esculation in violence. Police actions themselves have killed thousands. The pressure on the drug trade and busts made against stable gangs opened up funding and incentive for violent less mature gangs or started wars for control over the newly vacated turf. Corruption, mistakes, rivalries, all esculated the body count.

Some of the biggest causes though are first and formose the lack of empathy for other people. It is easy to be violent against somebody you consider sub-human. Whether this be class struggle, racism, people who crossed tangible barriers such as a rat in the criminal world, a betrayal by a spouse or close loved one, whatever the reason that person became less than human in the violent person's eyes.

Esculating anger is another major cause. In the past two men got mad they got in a fist fight and things were generally settled that way. Today getting in a fist fight, shoot out same difference. Many resort to weapons imediately today.

Lack of respect and courtesey. The reason there IS respect and courtesey is a method of preventing violence. It is a means for multiple people to share a resource such as a highway, occupy the same building and not be thrust into conflict. A culture that lacks such safeguards is a culture that promotes violence.

Some violence is not just necessary but good. An example is a guy stealing an elderly woman's social security check. Somebody who has greatly wronged a loved one or spouse, capturing or elimanating a serial rapest are just one of many examples. War is sometimes necessary. War is a violent act. No matter how much we sanitize it the end result is still to kill people and destroy enemy property. You cannot war on drugs without using violence. You cannot war against poverty without violence. You can improve peoples lives without warring against something. In the case of poverty that I think is a better application, in the case of war on drugs they went to war against segments of the US population and more people died from that every year than the entire Iraqi war has cost us. The war on drugs that is, not drug use.

Injustice is a frequent cause of violence. Whether it be the landlord enforcing an unfair rule, the Gov, courts, police, any kind of authority which through the application of it's authority failed either literally or in the applicants mind.

Compitition can spur violence. Sports by thier basic nature are a safe means of warfare. They are literally war substitutes. That is why fans get so riled up about sporting events. They are virtual partipents in a a virtual war. Sometimes virtual is not enough when the tension rises high enough and fans do stupid things.

Stress and tension are often causes of violence.

Sheer survival. A desperate person will quickly resort to violence to obtain necessary survival goods.

Greed is another very common cause of violence. Whether it be direct application such as a ripp off at a drug deal, bank robbery or similer direct application of violence to obtain goods or services or a virtual application such as slum lord tactics which leave the application of violence to cival officials such as police officers.

Most often you will find a combination of factors. Sometimes no one factor is enough but when combined they lead to irrational violence. Especially a stressed person in a stressfull situation. The hint of violence toward that person might be enough to create an overreaction. A long wait for somebody already on the edge.

Lack of sleep is a major cause of violence. Whether it be chronically sleep deprived people or drug induced psychosis the result can sometimes be the same. Stress a person suffering from severe sleep deprivation and they often respond violently.

Some people hard liquer is the tap to release pent up violence. Tequilla and Whysky seeming to be the two most common to produce such reactions but far from the only ones. Some alcholics are chronically violent when drinking but the nicest people you ever meet when sober.

Hormones, especially young bucks out to impress a lady for example.

Manipulitive women cause a great deal of violence. They latch on to a bad boy and harp on and on about how this guy did this or that to them knowing the eventual result will be for the boyfriend to act upon the girlfriends honor. False accusations of rape are a common trigger for this. I've seen great evil done by men believing a woman who claimed another man raped them. Then came to found out he owed her money or something stupid like that.

I can name off hundreds of other reasons. Sometimes sheer bad luck pits two individuals against each other. Whatever the causes there are only a few that can be reduced. For example let kids fight with fists before it esculates into weapons usage. Give the young bucks a positive outlet for those agressions. Manipulation should be considered down along child pornography for an individual trait instead of glorified as it is in modern society. Manipulation is one of the biggest causes of violence. Whether it be the sugar daddy who thinks his spouse is in love with him then walks in on her doing another guy, intentional manipulation toward violence , rivals who pit enemies against each other or economic manipulation. The effect is the same. It causes conflict which enevitably leads to violence.

Striving for fairness is another excellent way to prevent violence.

Creating a society with respect and courtesy. I know it sounds goodie two shoes but it's not. These are codes developed by the most violent in our history to allow them to function as a group. When applied to the average person it will make them very unlikely to be involved in a violent situation after thier youth.

Legalize drugs like pot and shrooms. Take the money and incentive out of those trades. This will go a long way to reducing violence in many areas.

One big way is to quit trying to wimpify boys. The pressure on them to be "nice" can in itself lead to a very big swing the other way. Let boys be boys. Let them get in a fist fight, let them show off a bit. If you allow them to be themselves it elimanates a great deal of repression. The same kind of repression which often leads ot violence. An example is the bully who knows that nobody will fight them not because of physical size but because it'll get them in trouble. Grade after grade bullies like that can create very intense anger in a young boy. Without the ability to blacken that bullies eye they are building rage that one day has to be let out. Why not let them deck the bully. Send them to the office to cool down and be done with it?

Anyway those are some ideas.

Answer 2

I saw some pitcures on the internet today that were the most horrific and terrible things I have ever seen in my life.

It seems as though some Indonesian soldiers, who are Muslim by the way, attacked an ethnic Chinese neighborhood located inside of Indonesia. This took place in 1998.

The soldiers brutalized several Chinese girls in ways unimaginable to me before I saw the pitcures. They actually took pitcures of what they did.

These were obviously very real photos of totally inhuman behavior. These girls were tortured and gang-raped and brutally killed. I will not mention how the girls were finally killed, it's just too revolting.

How humans could do this, I just don't know.

By the way, I live in Thailand. To an extent I can varify the claim that came with the photos. They were obviously Chinese living in Indonesia.

I'm not going to list the website on this forum because the pics were so disturbing. If you want to see them contact me and I will respond via private e-mail.

Answer 3

There are several reasons that makes a healthy person violent. A few of them are: 1. Intolerance 2. Money 3.Greedyness 4.Effect of seeing violent movies & serials 5.Lack of self confidience 6. Lack of patience 7.Prejudice and lack of open mindness

Answer 4

To release that rage is liberating. As psychotic as it sounds it's true. All it takes is the right situation but the wrong person and next thing you know they are the target of your rage. There is no cure. It's natural human behavior to be violent as it is to be nice.

Answer 5

Instinct, all humans are animals, that cannot be denied, nor altered, and depending on the situation, such as a man or woman witnesses a subhuman attack their kid, the natural human instinct to protect their kid surfaces immediately, thus defense is the key, people need to learn to defend themselves.

Answer 6

Social inequity

Answer 7

stupid people that use no common sense in their every day actions and not care about the after math

Answer 8

self preservation at its deepest level where the ego takes over. (violence in and of itsself is not wrong,, how and where it is shown can be the problem. )

Answer 9

Fear makes people violent.therapy is the best cure...or a cage.

Answer 10

justice, eye for an eye.

Answer 11

Are those really ur legs?