Violence Against Women and Girls as a Systemic Global Problem

Abstract

Human violence is as old as mankind. Since the beginning of civilization, human beings have perpetrated various acts of violence toward each other, ranging from small scale acts such as assaulting an individual or harassing someone to full blown acts of terrorism and combat that involve large numbers of people attacking and going to war against other groups of people. In every culture and society, past and present, as children or adults, we are urged to take caution to protect ourselves from becoming a victim of any one of a number of forms of violence. While universally laws exist to bring justice to those who are victimized and violated, not all laws adequately sanction perpetrators for what they have done and, in some instances, certain groups of individuals are viewed as deserving of what occurs to them at the hands of others. Such is the case worldwide for women and girls, who, as this chapter demonstrates, are overwhelmingly victims of gender-based violence. An overview of how common violence toward women and girls is provided below, followed by examples of the types of violence they experience. The chapter ends with information about a few polices initiated to protect women and girls from violence.