Violence in Captivity

Violence has been a persistent feature of human societies throughout history. Across different historical periods, no society has been entirely free from it. Some theorists [p1] view violence as an inherent dimension of political life. From this perspective, political violence is one of its most significant forms, encompassing a wide range of manifestations, including instrumental and non-instrumental violence, overt and covert violence, individual and structural violence, as well as physical and psychological violence. War, in turn, can be regarded as the most organized and institutionalized expression of political violence, with prisoners of war (POWs) constituting one of its most vulnerable victim groups. A notable example can be found in contemporary Iranian history. During Iraq's imposed war on Iran in 1980s, and even after the ceasefire, the Ba'athist regime, having failed to achieve its military objectives, subjected Iranian POWs to widespread violence and systematic mistreatment as a form of retaliation.

The Concept of Violence

Violence is a multidimensional concept that cannot readily be confined to a single definition. As Iranian anthropologist Nasser Fakouhi observes, if violence is understood solely in its physical or natural sense, it may be defined as a form of force or coercion that imposes itself upon other phenomena, whether human or non-human, and thereby determines the limits of their existence or power. Despite extensive scholarly debate, there remains no universally accepted definition of violence. Nevertheless, there is a broad consensus that violence may be described as:

Any act of physical aggression directed against a human being with the intention of causing harm, suffering, or injury.

While this definition reflects the core elements common to many understandings of violence, contemporary scholarship generally adopts a broader conception that encompasses psychological, structural, and symbolic forms alongside physical violence.

This definition, however, is not without its limitations. By confining violence to acts of physical aggression, it fails to account for verbal and psychological forms of violence. Indeed, verbal abuse may inflict harm that is more profound and enduring than physical assault. Unless the notion of physical is interpreted broadly, this definition gives rise to two conceptual difficulties. First, not all acts of violence involve physical force. Second, in cases of verbal violence, the harm arises not from the physical production of speech or its acoustic properties, but from the meaning conveyed by words, which can inflict significant emotional or psychological harm.

Violence may therefore be understood more broadly as the extreme expression of anger or hostility manifested through emotional, verbal, or physical conduct. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors, including humiliation, insults, verbal abuse, degrading treatment, vulgar language, threats, and physical assault, all of which are intended to inflict physical or psychological harm on another person. Although violence may occur at both the individual and collective levels, it is also a social phenomenon shaped by broader political, cultural, and social forces that influence patterns of human interaction.

Forms of Violence

Numerous typologies of violence have been proposed in the scholarly literature. One of the most influential is that developed by Johan Galtung, who distinguishes among instrumental and non-instrumental violence, overt and covert violence, individual and structural violence, physical and psychological violence, and victim-oriented and victimless violence.

More broadly, violence may be classified into three principal categories: Lawful and unlawful violence; Physical and non-physical violence; and Individual and social violence.

Physical and Non-Physical Violence

Physical violence consists of acts that inflict direct and observable bodily harm, including homicide, unlawful detention, assault, and battery. Non-physical violence, by contrast, encompasses conduct that does not necessarily result in visible bodily injury. It includes indifference, contemptuous treatment, discrimination, verbal abuse, humiliation, and vulgar language. In such cases, the physical act, such as speaking or gesturing, serves merely as the medium through which violence is conveyed. The scope of non-physical violence is considerably broader, extending beyond interpersonal interactions to include the deprivation of fundamental freedoms, the imposition of authoritarian control, and the creation of oppressive social conditions that restrict individual autonomy and impede human development and flourishing.

Individual and Social Violence

In individual violence, the victims are specific persons. In social violence, entire communities or societies become the targets. Social violence may arise from either domestic or external sources. Domestic forms include armed robbery, serial killings, violent street protests, the denial of civil liberties, and the deprivation of citizens' right to participate in public governance or hold political authorities accountable. External forms include colonialism, war, the imposition of single-commodity economic systems designed to advance the interests of powerful states, cultural domination through the dissemination of destructive ideologies and moral corruption (often described as cultural colonialism), insults directed against a society's religious beliefs and sacred values, and racist practices aimed at degrading entire communities.

However, it should be acknowledged that violence has accompanied human civilization throughout history. Although it has never been completely eliminated, societies have consistently sought to regulate and limit its use. Regarding its relationship with politics, scholars are divided. One school of thought argues that violence is intrinsic to political life because politics is fundamentally concerned with power, and wherever power exists, violence remains a latent or active possibility. Another school rejects this view and maintains that violence is conceptually distinct from politics.

Among Iranian scholars, Saeed Peyvandi similarly argues that power and violence are closely intertwined. Drawing upon examples from contemporary Iranian history, he identifies political authority and foreign military intervention as two of the principal sources of violence. Professor Nasser Fakouhi advances a comparable analysis.

Like violence itself, political violence has been classified in various ways. American author Ted Robert Gurr, for example, identifies riots, conspiracies, and civil wars as the principal forms of political violence, while characterizing war as its most highly organized manifestation.

War constitutes the most extreme form of political violence because of its scale, intensity, destructive capacity, and devastating human consequences. It may be defined as:

An organized armed conflict between two or more sovereign states conducted in pursuit of officially declared political objectives or in response to recognized interstate disputes.

The causes of war are complex and multifaceted, but one influential explanation attributes them to inequalities among states. These inequalities generally take two principal forms. The first is economic inequality, arising from disparities in economic development. Such disparities may stem from unequal access to natural resources, misguided economic policies, unequal integration into the global economy, or structural economic imbalances. Throughout history, these conditions have contributed to wars driven by territorial expansion, control over resources, and economic exploitation. Examples include Iraq's invasion of Iran (1980–1988) and its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The second is political inequality, which emerges when neighboring or geographically proximate states are characterized by fundamentally incompatible political systems or ideological orientations. Such political divisions often generate tensions that, under certain circumstances, escalate into armed conflict.

See Also

• Distinguishing Violence from Torture in Iraqi Prison Camps
• Punishment and Torture

References

Saeed Najjar