INTRODUCTION

Violence and its impact on society is a major concern worldwide. A World Health Organization (WHO) working group in 1996 defined violence as: “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation” (1). It cannot be denied that violent acts have always been a feature of human existence but it has been suggested that we do not have to accept violence as an inevitable part of the human condition and that there have always been remediation attempts made, through religious, philosophical, legal and communal means, to prevent or limit the impact of violence on our societies (2).