• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: An Empirical Table of Structural Violence
  • Contributor: Köhler, Gernot; Alcock, Norman
  • imprint: Universitetsforlaget, 1976
  • Published in: Journal of Peace Research
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 0022-3433
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <p> The centerpiece of the article is a table which presents estimates of the magnitudes of structural violence for the world's countries in 1965. The fatalities due to structural violence are compared with fatalities resulting from civil and international conflicts. A second table provides further comparisons between magnitudes of international, civil, and structural violence, including nuclear war, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Revolution, and others. The method of calculation of structural violence is modeled after earlier suggestions by Galtung and Høivik. An 'economic law of life' is reported which states the empirical relationship between life expectancy and poverty/wealth. The world totals of the three kinds of violence are broken down by 'rich North' and 'poor South' showing that, in 1965, the countries of the world's South (who comprise 69% of world population) suffered 96% (or more) of the world's structural violence, 99.9% of the world's civil violence, and about 90% of the world's international violence (in terms of deaths). </p>