Structural violence outweighs – life shortening and clouded by ‘normality’

[Raymond J., “Addressing structural violence: Reforming our perspectives,” International Academy of Practical Theology, 2019, https://iapt-cs.org/ojs/index.php/iaptcs/article/view/53/52, accessed July 1, 2023, GDS-LL]

Structural violence, a most serious type of social injustice, is a condition in which groups of persons and even nations are harmed by ongoing general sit- uations not of their own choosing, from which most have no real way of escaping. It is like having one’s foot stuck in a tar pit; one can be fed but one cannot escape. People are simply trapped in the shadowy life-shortening convergences of negativity, living fewer years, with worse health, and not achieving reasonable fulfillment of their human potential. Most simply put, structural violence is 1) harmful, often lethal, 2) not immediately obvious, 3) involun- tary, 4) generally unavoidable in its effects, 5) severe- ly diminishing of the potential of certain groups of persons, and 6) often longstanding (cf. Ho 2007).

I argue here for a reform in the way we view many dire human situations. Structural violence must be recognized as causal in certain of them. Ex- acerbating certain serious situations are the interac- tion and intersection of factors such as historical conditions (e. g. colonialism, slavery, rich-poor di- chotomy), biological situations (e. g. endemic malar-ia, drug resistant tuberculosis, un-remediated toxic conditions, lack of clean water, malnutrition), and discriminatory attitudes (e. g. racism, sexism, the rich-poor dichotomy). These can exist hidden from view because they are either unrecognized or pre- sumed to be “normal.” Examples of the presump- tion of “normality” include: “There will always be poor people,” “The woman’s work is in the home,” and the popular association of certain ethnic groups with gangs, crime, and drugs. Some examples of sit- uations of structural violence are the general situa- tion in the country of El Salvador (discussed below), Haiti, many iterations of the social situation of women, the Russian penal situation, many other pe- nal systems, the crime ridden poorly resourced Chi- cago neighborhood of Englewood, the isolated liv- ing situations of certain groups of indigenous peoples, and even homes for dependent children in which order and “having a good attitude” are the dominant principles rather than the complete hu- man development of each resident child.