ABSTRACT
Conditions which affect the legitimacy of violent behavior, different types of involvement in violent behavior, and the ways in which violence is commonly justified are examined. In everyday language, "violence" typically refers to illegitimate or undesirable forms of activity. Gang fights, for example, are called acts of violence, while the behavior of soldiers killing one another on a battlefield is likely to be referred to in terms of heroism, courage, or patriotism. The social force of labelling actions as "violent" or "nonviolent" goes deep into the structure of our society. In the political realm, coercive power in the form of legitimated violence rests largely with representatives of political institutions. Legitimacy is defined as a collective judgment that attributes the qualities of "goodness" or "morality" or "righteousness" to behavior. Violence in war, in campus demonstrations, etc" of children are all acts of violence about which there is disagreement or low consensus with respect to their legitimacy.
