Violence is, at its core, a physical act intended to injure, damage,
             hurt or destroy another person. Webster's New World Dictionary also offers
             " great force or strength of feeling, conduct or expression; vehemence,
             fury" as an alternate definition. But to understand violence as a concept,
             one must consider more than it's simple definition. The motivations behind
             violence vary according to the situation, and there are different types of
             violence as well. The causes, perpetrators and victims of must be
             considered in order to fully understand violence as a concept.
             The causes of violence are intricately tied to the demographics of the
             people involved. The most common types of violence include: gangs and
             youth violence, violence among certain ethnic groups, and violence against
             women. These three categories by no means cover the gamut of violent acts,
             but many of the most common incidents of violence fit into one of these
             Gang violence depends on strength in numbers, and they typically
             appear in larger cities as grass-roots organizations among teenagers. The
             purpose and goals of gangs vary; some gangs are mainly motivated by
             economics: selling drugs, extorting from merchants and gambling. Other
             gangs are primarily protection vehicles and social organizations. Violence
             becomes a part of the gang under the following circumstances: "escalation
             of ordinary rough-and-tumble behavior, which can turn into an issue of
             status, competition with other gangs, labeling by others as being violent,
             and/or group cohesion processes which are reinforced via violent behavior"
             ("Gangs"). Also, gang homicides are typically attributed to fear and
             retaliation, and while most gang members join as teens, "the lack of
             economic opportunities for inner-city youth has led many gang members to
             continue gang membership rather than "growing out" of their gangs and
             ...