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An Online Resource Library on Gender-Based Violence.

Addressing the Root Causes of Violence

First, let’s talk about violence. What is violence and how is it used? In doing this work, we have come to understand sexism and its intersections with racism, classism, and other forms of oppression to be at the root of sustaining and perpetuating violence against women. This section explores the social construction of violence in our society. We will define violence and understand its root causes. In order to prevent gender-based violence, we must address racism and other systems of oppression. There is no survivor justice without racial justice!

As you journey through this section, think about how this definition of violence aligns with your previous and current perception of violence.

Defining Violence
In The New Playbook: Standing Strong to Promote Non-violence by the Ohio Men’s Action Network, violence is defined as: Any action, inaction, or structural arrangement (Including Power and Control) that results in physical, psychological, and social harm to one or more persons.

The New Playbook: Standing Strong to Promote Non-violence

Facilitated by the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, "The New Playbook: Standing Strong to Promote Non-Violence" is a 2-day skill-building workshop that will strengthen participants’ knowledge and skills to effectively challenge attitudes and behaviors that support multiple forms of violence including gender-based violence. 

Violence Prevention at CDC

Violence is a serious problem in the United States. It affects people in all stages of life—from infants to the elderly—and has profound impact on lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being. This webpage from the CDC defines violence as a public health issue and offers resources for primary prevention using a public health framework.

What Is Violence?

In this video, Mike Rugnetta, host of the PBS Idea Channel, describes violence as being about the removal of choice rather than just physical violence. The video also explains that violence can be passive, and that there is an important ethical dimension to thinking of violence as more than “physical violence,” which is just one of many different kinds of violence.
Connecting the Dots: Risk & Protective Factors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication, Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Linkages Among Multiple Forms of Violence (July 2014) helps us understand how multiple forms of violence are connected through shared risk and protective factors. It also helps us understand the need for collaborating at the community level. Violence cannot be prevented by a single person, agency, organization, or group. It takes community collaboration and working together to prevent violence and promote social justice.

Watch Moving Forward to learn more about how increasing what protects people from violence and reducing what puts people at risk benefits everyone. 

Risk & Protective Factors for Youth

As youth grow and reach their developmental competencies, there are variables that promote or hinder the process (often referred to as protective and risk factors). This webpage from youth.gov outlines risk and protective factors for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in adolescence.

Risk and Protective Factors for Perpetration

Risk factors are linked to a greater likelihood of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. They are contributing factors, but might not be direct causes. Not everyone who is identified as “at risk” becomes involved in violence. This webpage from the CDC outlines key risk and protective factors.

VetoViolence

Veto Violence exists to empower communities to implement evidence-based strategies to prevent violence. Tools, trainings, and resources are designed to help reduce risks for violence and to increase the factors that protect people and communities.

Moving Forward

People with risk factors may be more likely to experience violence. Meanwhile, protective factors can help buffer people from violence. This video humanizes both types of factors by using actors on a stage to show how people can move up or get held back in life, depending on positive or negative impacts.
Addressing Systematic Oppression Including Race & Privilege
“Privilege does not mean you’re rich, a bad person, had everything handed to you or have never had challenges or struggles. Privilege just means there are some challenges and struggles you won’t experience because of who you are.” – Franchesca Ramsey

We know systems of oppression and violence are inextricably linked. Therefore, we must address racism, transphobia, homophobia, economic injustice, and connecting systems of oppression in order to end gender-based violence.

The New Jim Crow

Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America

So You Want to Talk About Race

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

White Fragility

Robin Diangelo’s book, White Fragility, explores why it is so hard for white people to talk about racism.

MTV's Decoded

MTV’s Decoded with Franchesca Ramsey offers an excellent introduction to all of the "-isms," including, racism, sexism, classism, and more.

13TH

Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, this film offers an examination of the U.S. prison system, looking at how the country’s history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in the United States. 

Privilege Exercise

This activity was designed to provide college students with an opportunity to understand the intricacies of privilege and to explore the ways that we enjoy privileges based on being members of social identity groups in the United States.

Pyramid of Discrimination and Violence

Often, people assume that sexual violence and harassment are a fact of life. However, much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can evolve. This pyramid represents a continuum of abuse, highlighting the ways in which common attitudes and beliefs uphold and form the basis for more extreme acts of violence.

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture

This page, an excerpt from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, lists characteristic of white supremacy culture that show up in our organizations, including perfectionism, sense of urgency, defensiveness, quantity over quality, and more. The page explains why these characteristics are harmful and offers antidotes to help dismantle white supremacy culture.