Violence in the Community: Understanding, Action, and Empowerment

This essay presents a student's understanding of violence, drawing from experiences at a community refugee clinic. It defines violence as the use of physical force intended to cause harm, encompassing physical, emotional, and psychological dimensions. The essay discusses various types of violence, including workplace and domestic violence, and highlights risk factors and preventative measures. The author reflects on a case of domestic violence involving a young refugee and outlines strategies for promoting peace and empowering colleagues to reduce violence, such as education, research, and community workshops. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing underlying social and economic factors to effectively combat violence, referencing WHO strategies and the need for cultural competence in multicultural societies. Desklib provides students access to similar essays and study resources.

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VIOLENCE
By students name
The name of the class (course)
Professor (Tutor)
The name of the school (University)
The city located
The date

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Violence
According to my understanding, violence refers to the use of physical force with the
intention of causing harm. The damage caused by violence may be psychological, physical or
both. Violence is a common among human beings since human beings struggle among each
other to maximize their ends. The subject whose violence is directed to may be a person, oneself
or a group of people. There are several consequences of violence which includes death, sickness
or psychological harm (Toch, 2017). When the harm is directed to an individual, it may lead to
suicide or assault to other people. There are various types of violence as discussed in this paper.
According to the WHO, the main types of violence in relation to health include child
mistreatment, youth violence, intimate partner and sexual violence, elder abuse, violence against
children, or health workers, gender-based violence, domestic violence collective violence and
self-directed violence (Ellsberg, Jansen, Heise, Watts& Garcia-Moreno 2008, 1170). Through
my experience at a community refugee clinic, I have witnessed various forms of violence. The
refugees are usually inclined to violence. Thus, in this paper, I’m going to explain my personal
understanding of violence, how I consider myself as an agent of change in relation to violence
and how I would empower fellow colleagues with the knowledge I have on violence.
The types of violence may be classified into two broad categories depending on whether
they are physical, emotional or psychological (Grych & Swan, 2012, 105). Physical violence
involves the actual use of force such as aggravated assault. In this case, the subject is tortured or
coerced by the perpetrator to achieve a certain motive. In the emotional type, the perpetrator may
threaten to use force against the subject. In addition, the threat may not bring direct bodily harm
to the subject. A good example is kidnapping a child which causes emotional torture to the
parent. Lastly, psychological violence includes the imagined violence or violence as a

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consequence of binary opposition between one's beliefs or morals and their desires when they
come into conflict. In most cases, therefore, psychological violence mainly leads to self-directed
crimes such as suicide (Straus, 2017).
Workplace violence refers to any act of threat, intimidation, forceful abuse or violation
of an individual's rights at the workplace. Incidents of workplace violence range from verbal
insults, blackmail, sexual harassment, neglect or even physical assault. There are some factors
that may increase the likelihood of violence in the workplace. These are termed as risk factors of
workplace violence. To begin with, the risk of violence is generally greater for people who work
at night than those who work during the day. In addition, some of the other factors that may
increase workplace-related violence include working alone as compared to working in groups,
service delivery to the public, handling supervisory duties, service delivery to emotionally
unstable people, presence of alcohol and drugs at the workplace and working during certain
periods that are characterised with change such as political transitions or revolution (Witt, Van
Dorn & Fazel, 2013, 55942).
There are various measures that organizations can assume to reduce workplace related
violence. These include the formulation of policies and laws that limit the risks of violence or
harassment. Atreya, Nepal, and Kanchan, 2016 argues that organizations also need to educate
workers on their rights and general self-awareness including what they can do and so to prevent
violence or to report cases of violence. In addition, organizations should develop communication
to prevent cases of violence as well as forming a strict code of conduct that does not tolerate
violence. Lastly, cultural awareness is necessary among workers which include a general
understanding of the need to appreciate personal differences. Some of the factors that may limit
the effectiveness of these measures include a lack of compliance to norms, rules, and code of

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conduct. Poor enforcement of these rules, poor communication, and ineffective leadership and
management are some of the factors that may limit the effectiveness of these measures.
As a worker at a community refugee clinic in Victoria, I experienced a case of a young
boy whose name was John. John was 14 years old and had suffered domestic violence from his
real father. His father was an alcoholic and abused other drugs due to depression as a result of a
divorce by his wife. John suffered from physical and emotional violence. His father used to beat
him and had neglected his responsibilities on him. John lived with fear and anxiety due to this
condition. His father had threatened to kill him.
Using some of the insights and experiences from John and related cases, I have learnt
several ways in which I can promote peace. With knowledge of violence and its causes, there are
measures taken to reduce violence. Understanding the risk factors of violence has enabled me to
promote peace and understanding. From the Johns situation, it is vital to be able to counter these
challenges through effective solutions, and thus help his father reform from addiction. Pursuing
justice and liberty is also a significant way of reducing violence. In relation to John’s incident it
is crucial to ensure John finds justice through the legal system. Moreover, it is essential to
establish a long-term program such as awareness of the abuse so the relevant agencies can
promptly act to prevent the violence.
There are also various ways in which I have learned how I can empower my colleagues to
reduce violence in the workplace. One of the most relevant ways is educating them on what I
have already learned about the topic. Apart from educating my fellow workers, I would also
encourage them to look for innovative solutions to curb violence by conducting research,
benchmarking from other organizations and reading secondary materials such as books and
magazines that contain insight on how to curb work-related violence.

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As part of empowerment, I would also mobilize colleagues to support workshops and
seminars that target the members of the public to educate them on topics related to violence. This
will give them insight on the various types of violence in the Australian community and what the
people can do when confronted with certain instances that disrupt peace. The understanding of
peace should also be made definite to all people. The society also needs to be educated in the
ethical issues regarding violence. Thus, equipping them with knowledge that will enable them
prevent the spread of violence. In order to get empowered, workers also need to be educated on
how to work in a multicultural society so as to increase cultural competence in the workplace.
According to Morken, Johansen, and Alsaker, 2015 cultural competence allows workers to
appreciate diverse cultures and be able to appreciate cultural differences among themselves.
Cultural competence also increases the level of tolerance among workers which also makes them
have better skills to prevent violence.
It is of much significance to empower workers. There some ways that the empowerment
can help them to minimize violence. Some of these include reducing risks associated with
handling work property or other assets that may cause conflict. They may also focus on changing
organizational power structures and models of care in order to adopt those that allow some level
of flexibility at the workplace. For instance, a decentralized power structure would be better in
minimizing violence as it encourages interpersonal communication. In addition, it helps workers
to balance and check each other's performance which prevents some workers from becoming too
powerful that may make them be beyond reproach (Harris & Morrison, 2005, 208)
In conclusion, the World Health Organisation identified key strategies of addressing the
underlying factors for violence. The determinants of violence include underlying social,
structural and economic factors such as weak criminal justice systems, poverty, lack of jobs and

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inequality. Thus, it is essential for the concerned institutions to make attempts to understand the
factors associated with violence which will help them to ensure better programmes of addressing
violence are developed.

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References
Atreya, A., Nepal, S. and Kanchan, T., 2016. Intentional burns–A form of gender-based violence
in Nepal. Burns, 42(3), pp.712.
Bender, A.K. and Chalise, N., 2018. Differentiating perceptions of intimate partner violence in
Nepal. International social work, 61(1), pp.79-92.
Boyle, M.J. and Wallis, J., 2016. Working towards a definition of workplace violence actions in
the health sector. Safety in health, 2(1), pp.4.
Ellsberg, M., Jansen, H.A., Heise, L., Watts, C.H. and Garcia-Moreno, C., 2008. Intimate partner
violence and women's physical and mental health in the WHO multi-country study on women's
health and domestic violence: an observational study. The Lancet, 371(9619), pp.1165-1172.
Grych, J. and Swan, S., 2012. Toward a more comprehensive understanding of interpersonal
violence: Introduction to the special issue on interconnections among different types of
violence. Psychology of Violence, 2(2), pp.105.
Morken, T., Johansen, I.H. and Alsaker, K., 2015. Dealing with workplace violence in
emergency primary health care: a focus group study. BMC family practice, 16(1), p.51.
Straus, M.A., 2017. Measuring intrafamily conflict and violence: The conflict tactics (CT) scales.
In Physical violence in American families (pp. 29-48). Routledge.
Toch, H., 2017. Violent men: An inquiry into the psychology of violence. American
Psychological Association.

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Witt, K., Van Dorn, R. and Fazel, S., 2013. Risk factors for violence in psychosis: a systematic
review and meta-regression analysis of 110 studies. PloS one, 8(2), p.e55942.
Harris, D. and Morrison, E.F., 2005. Managing violence without coercion. Archives of
Psychiatric Nursing, 9(4), pp.203-210.