Research with Boys and Young Men: Critical Reflections on the Theme of Violence

Abstract

Definitions of violence can be vague and ambiguous, tending to revolve around the specific types of problem behaviour with which a particular organisation or project is concerned. The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2014) defines violence as ‘the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation’. The first World Report on Violence and Health (WHO, 2002:4) divided violence into three broad categories according to who commits the violent act:

• self-directed violence, in particular self-harm and suicide;

• interpersonal violence which involves family/partner;

• collective violence, a categorisation that differentiates between violence a person inflicts upon himself or herself, violence inflicted by another individual or by a small group of individuals, and violence inflicted by larger groups such as states, organised political groups, militia groups and terrorist organisations.