Pathways to Violence: Focus on the African American Male

Abstract

Throughout the ages, interpersonal violence has been a characteristic of human beings. Trying to understand the causes and prevention of this behavior remains problematic because violence is a very complex social phenomenon. One definition of is the National Commission of the Causes and Prevention of Violence: "The overtly threatened or application of force which results in injury or destruction" (Violence in America, 1983). Another defines violence as an intense, turbulent or furious action, force of feeling or expression, often destructive. These definitions show the broad nature of this behavior. In order to discuss causes or prevention, it is necessary to narrow the scope since violence varies in degrees, and in forms from one group to another.