Violence as a Means of Everyday Survival

• Date: 01 May 2022
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Durrell Malik Washington
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096729

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096729

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(2) 204 –206

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096729

journals.sagepub.com/home/ccj

Essay

Violence as a Means of

Everyday Survival

Durrell Malik Washington Sr.

University of Chicago

This piece is not in any way, shape, or form written to romanticize acts of violence. It

is also not meant to take away from those who have been victimized by violence. It is,

however, to offer a different perspective. It is to push the conversation and ask those

who engage with it to reflect on how violence has shown up in our lives and consider

causes of violence we may not often think about. Violence in and of itself is a whole

ecological system that directly and indirectly shows up in all of our lives. If you really

think about it, violence is as normal as most of our daily norms and routines, especially

for those who live in the United States. That’s not to say that violence does not show

up in other countries the way it does here. However, the views that I share are strictly

from my encounters with violence as an actor, victim, and today as a researcher and

Ph.D. student who studies how violence can be mitigated and how leaning on incar-

ceration as a response to violence can be reduced. Violence is not just interpersonal. It

is political, economic, social, and as I will argue throughout this paper for many, it is

also a Means of Everyday Survival.

Acceptable Acts of Violence

Acts of violence in the name of war by many are deemed as a justifiable means. Our

United States military personnel are trained to commit acts of aggression and carry

them out at the drop of a dime. All in the name of protecting our freedoms. We have

fought wars in this country over natural resources, which then turn into economic gain

and over the right to occupy territories in the name of allyship, contributing to our

global and political power. We also have militarized police forces who are trained to

be just as violent if need be. These people who are sworn to serve and protect us, if at

any time choose to go rouge and unjustly murder a black man for the entire world to

see, rarely if at all do they have to worry about consequences. Though police are

trained to follow the law, many of these laws are broad. This leaves the interpretation

of these laws at times to their discretion.

In 2009 I was a sophomore football player at Hudson Valley Community College in

Troy, NY. One day in practice, I twisted my knee up pretty bad and had to have season

ending surgery. On a visit back home, I remember walking to the store about a month

1096729CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221096729Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeMalik Washington Sr.

research-article2022