The History of Structural Violence

History reveals many episodes of violence in Taiwan where external forces caused widespread structural violence resulting in the deaths of thousands of people. Gilli­gan (1996) defines structural violence as

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Likewise, Gilligan defines behavioral violence as “non-natural deaths and injuries that are caused by specific behavioral actions of individuals against individuals.” Table 1 (Chafee et al. 1969) lists fifteen major episodes of structural violence that occurred when one class fought another over the wealth of Taiwan. Either one class of Chinese has fought another, or Europeans have fought Chinese, or Japanese have fought Chinese, or settlers have fought aborigines. However, most structural vio­lence has resulted from classes of Chinese fighting Chinese (seven events) instead of Europeans fighting Chinese (four events), Europeans fighting Europeans (one event) or Japanese fighting Chinese (three events).

Structural violence remains the largest threat to Taiwan's peace and democratic development. There is significant potential for invasion by mainland China if Tai­wan declares independence or if the citizens of Taiwan vote for independence through referendum. Longenecker and Yu (1994) point out that Beijing's “refusal to forswear the use of military force as a means of resolving the Taiwan issue is predi­cated upon the legitimate right of a sovereign nation to protect the integrity of its ter­ritorial boundaries.” A future outbreak of structural violence between Taiwan and China can easily surpass all of the structural violence of the past. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are armed with advanced technology aircraft, naval warships, and mis­siles. Even nuclear and biological warfare have not been dismissed as a means to “resolve the issue.”

The thirteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries had incidents of structural violence leading to greater lawlessness and overall increases in behavioral violence. However, the existing threat of structural violence has little impact on per­son-to-person violence. Consumerism, changes in family structure, and the emer­gence of gangs and other sub-cultures appear to have the strongest links to behav­ioral violence.