american heritage dictionary physical force exerted for the purpose of violating damaging or abusing crimes of violence online etymology dictionary c physical force used to inflict injury or damage from anglo fr and o fr violence from l violentia vehemence impetuosity from violentus vehement forcible probably related to violare see violate wordnet taban act of aggression as one against a person who resists he may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one carol moore user carolmooredc user talk carolmooredc real restructuring of article to explicate povs re reading the article itself looking through pages of search results on violence s comments on perceptions and looking at how the terrorism article dealt with similar pov problems i realize the whole article needs restructuring per the below and will do so in next few days after comments honest dealing with povs is all i am interested in will proceed during weekend outline ''violence is the exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse the word is used broadly and may describe the destructive action of natural phenomena like storms and landslides damaging physical things accidental or intentional human destruction of property or injury to persons or intentional psychological harm to those living under constant threat of physical abuse and or verbal and emotional abuse ref merriam webster and american heritage dictionary