Structural violence outweighs all other violence.

Structural violence refers to a form of violence wherein social structures or social institutions harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Although less visible, it is by far the most lethal form of violence, through causing excess deaths—deaths that would not occur in more equal societies. Not only is it the deadliest violence, greater in scope and in implication than any other type of violence, it grows exponentially as unequal power differentials are used to create more unequal structures. Yet, because these limitations are embedded within social structures, people tend to overlook them as nothing more than the ordinary difficulties of life. Examples of structural violence include health, economic, gender, and racial disparities. Derivative forms include cultural, political, symbolic, and everyday violence. Structural violence is also the most potent stimulant of behavioral violence in the form of homicides, suicides, mass murders, and war. It is therefore one of the most critical areas of violence studies to examine in our time. Conceptualizing structural violence can help guide peace research through the consideration of conditions that might add positively to peace, rather than merely aid the cause of peace in the negative way of reducing violence and war.