Social Environment and Violence
The social environment is the relationships a person has with other individuals, the community, and the larger society. Societal factors influence community factors, which influence interpersonal factors. These influences can go in the other direction as well. This happens especially during times of activism or changing demographics. For example, the anti-war, Black civil rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s led to changes at all levels of the social environment. A person’s experience is shaped by aspects of their identity, such as race, gender, age, and economic status. The United States has a history of bias and discrimination that still affects the social environment today. In general, privileged individuals build institutions. They often use the institutions to uphold their power, knowingly or not. All these social elements can affect a person’s risk of violence.
