[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# A Systems-Based Analysis of Human Violence

## Details

**Authors** MacGill V

**Year** 2024

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 4(1):1-28

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Psychology

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.2025-0064VM) 
10.54120/jost.2025-0064VM

## In authors' words

### Abstract

As much as we try to live without violence, it remains embedded in our lives. Every day on the television, we see the destruction caused by our violence. Explanations of the causes of violence have typically been biological, psychological, or social, each revealing part of the story. This paper uses the author’s Dynamics of Life model to demonstrate underlying dynamical tensions that enable life processes that manifest in different ways at each of the three levels. The levels then interact with each other. We analyse the tensions to reveal how abuse and violence arise in human behaviour. The biological level is based around the body and how it is used to change situations. The psychological is about learning to regulate emotion and improve thinking patterns. The first part of the social level looks at two-people dynamics before exploring societal patterns and how structural violence arises. A list of strategies to help reduce levels of abuse and violence follows, and the paper ends with a summary and conclusion.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A paper applying the author's Dynamics of Life model to violence at three interacting levels — biological, psychological, and social.

### What they found (results)

Dynamical tensions at each level, and between levels, explain how abuse and violence arise — from two-person dynamics to structural violence — and yield strategies for reducing both.

## Commentary

### In short

Uses the author's Dynamics of Life model to analyze how violence arises at the biological, psychological and social levels.

### Response

Applies MacGill's Dynamics of Life model to violence across biological, psychological and social levels, and to the tensions between them. MacGill has also used DSRP directly to define violence in structural terms, so the two records are the same author working the same problem through different frames.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

## Refers to

- [Developing an Understanding of Violence using the DSRP Theory as a Framework](https://dsrpevidence.org/element/200)

**How to cite this** MacGill V (2024). A Systems-Based Analysis of Human Violence. Journal of Systems Thinking 4(1):1-28.