Violence also tends to overwhelm honest efforts to address the core substantive issues, and it destroys the ability of the parties to engage in mutually beneficial collaborative efforts. Also disturbing is the fact that violent winners are determined by physical power and their willingness to use it ruthlessly, not by the moral legitimacy of their goals. In other words, violent power is commonly used to perpetuate injustice and subjugate less powerful groups. When parties develop the ability to completely overwhelm their opponents, then the result can be tyranny. Nevertheless, when the power balance is firmly in favor of one side, that side is often tempted to use violence, or at least the threat of violence to accomplish its goals.
Violence also is the most common response when people are victims of violence from the other side.
It takes enormous courage and training to learn how to effectively counter violence with nonviolent action. Although this approach can be much more effective than violence, it is not a route most commonly chosen. This standoff between an extremist group and police ended violently as neither side was willing to negotiate. This article discusses the nature and causes of global, regional, and communal conflicts and evaluates various approaches to violence prevention. This article on nonviolent action points out that when nonviolent actors resort to violence, they lose credibility and hence effectiveness.