Violence, Second-Order Effects

Violent actions conducted during wartime or in the course of a conflict often have immediate, visible, and deliberate impacts. Once achieved, these impacts and their violent underpinnings may continue and spread, creating a range of social, [Page 1803]economic, structural, and other consequences. These are second-order effects of violence, which are best understood as the radiation of outcomes and impacts beyond the primary and intended targets of the violence. The scope of second-order effects is extremely large and may affect aspects of a community or country that seem unrelated to the sources of conflict or targets of violence. Examples range from geographic impacts to agricultural production, land ownership, or water sources to social impacts on gender roles and responsibilities, community hierarchy, or school attendance and education. ...