Reducing direct and structural violence: The human needs theory.

Human needs theory offers insights into a range of peacebuilding processes that are involved in the reduction of both direct and structural violence. Human needs theory helps explain why needs for security and identity are often prepotent in interstate wars and in destructive identity conflicts. Because these needs are built into the organism, 1 challenge for peace psychologists is to invent peaceful means for people to satisfy their security and identity needs. In contrast to direct violence, structural violence occurs when economic and political structures systematically deprive need satisfaction for certain segments of society. When economic deprivation occurs, the need for well-being is not satisfied, resulting in deficits in human growth and development. Politically, structural violence engenders the systematic deprivation of the need for self-determination. Six propositions on direct and structural violence are advanced, including the proposition that a just and sustainable peace will require, at a ...