 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Structural abuse is the process by which an individual or group is dealt with unfairly by asocial orcultural system or authority. This unfairness manifests itself asabuse in apsychological,financial,physical orspiritual form, and victims often are unable to protect themselves from harm. An individual's inability to protect themselves may lead to their entrapment in the system, preventing them from seekingjustice or recompense forcrimes endured anddamages incurred, creating a feeling ofisolation or helplessness. Systems containing abusive structures are primarily designed to control individuals or manipulate them for material gain. Most social systems contain at least one structure that induces structural abuse. These structures, when allowed to exist, create acycle of abuse, wherein the abuse is repetitive or contagious in nature, and may become acceptable in other parts of the system.
Structural abuse differs tostructural violence in terms of scale – structural violence is a process occurring within an entire society, such asracism orclassism, while structural abuse refers to a specific element of society, or a specific system within society. Abuse occurring on this smaller scale is not necessarily endorsed by wider society, such asmodern witch hunts, which have been condemned in South Africa, regardless of deaths that still occur in areas retaining anti-Pagan social structures.[1]
