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Violence Data – Content Warning

Content warning: This report discusses violence, including suicide, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence.

Violence exists in many forms that can harm physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It can happen at any time, and affect people throughout life. Social determinants of health can increase or decrease the risk of violence. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence as: “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.” The WHO recognizes four types of violence:

• Physical
• Sexual
• Psychological
• Deprivation

The WHO also identifies three categories of violence based on the relationship between target and harm doer:

• Self-directed: When a person harms themself through self-harm or suicide.
• Interpersonal: When one person harms another person. This includes family violence, such as child, sibling, and elder abuse; intimate partner violence; and community violence. Community violence includes violence between friends, strangers, or coworkers, and violence against property.
• Collective: When groups with power harm populations, it is collective. This includes gang violence, war, genocide, other human rights abuses, and economic harm.