<
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://annamercury.medium.com/a-dislocation-theory-of-violence-d2dc14f6d491>
"The phrase “epidemic of violence” has become ubiquitous in contemporary media.
Last year, the Human Rights Campaign called the escalation of attacks on
transgender and gender non-conforming Americans an “epidemic.” The United
Nations, the
Guardian, and
NBC News have all discussed “epidemics” of
violence against women. The Covid-19 pandemic cast light on an “epidemic” of
violence against healthcare workers. And, of course, in these United States, we
are constantly reminded of our ongoing and brutal “epidemic” of gun violence.
The public health nature of violence is so pronounced, one National Institute
of Health publication called violence “a contagious disease.”
Yet, we see no Covid-style public response this epidemic. Violence is
pervasive, yet even policies to specifically curb gun violence stagnate across
the country. Despite our pain and suffering at the hands of our violence
epidemic, we don’t take meaningful mass action to heal and prevent violence as
a matter of public health.
Instead, our policy response tends to treat violence as an individual problem,
less a public health issue than a matter for law enforcement. Violent and
nonviolent offenders are incarcerated in growing numbers, part of an
unprecedented surge in incarceration across the U.S. since the 1970s. In the
years since the pandemic began, both violent crime in general, and even more
noticeably, homicides, have been on the rise across the U.S. At the same time,
it’s estimated more than half of violent injuries aren’t even reported to law
enforcement.
While the debate over whether criminal justice solutions actually prevent and
treat violence must remain a topic for another time, what remains clear is that
our present means of addressing violence is inadequate for treating a public
health epidemic. We can see that violence is a major public health problem, but
our policies for violence prevention and response aren’t rooted in treating it
as a disease at all.
This is, perhaps, because treating violence as a disease would require deeply
addressing its root causes and mitigating them in society. The emphasis here is
that last part:
in society. The conditions attributed to causing violence are
numerous and diverse, but if violence is a contagious epidemic, then our
response to it must look to societal factors in understanding its causes and
cures. Why is violence such an epidemic in contemporary society? Was it always
this way, or are there aspects of contemporary society that cause violence to
spread?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
