-21 or symbols used within a group to diminish others and to prepare for or justify violence, marginalization and dehumanization of ‘others’. Dehumanization is a process in which people divide human beings into good and evil, worthy or unworthy of humane treatment, and thereby come to accept violations against the human dignity and rights of the ‘unworthy’ group. Dehumanisation creates moral exclusion. Persons that are seen as the ‘others’ are devalued and targeted based on their identity (gender, ideology, group affiliation, skin color, ethnicity, religion or age) and eventually are no longer protected by the predominant moral code.18 All three forms of violence are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Direct violence manifests out of conditions created by the other two forms and cannot be prevented or eliminated without addressing them. In other words, cultural and structural violence can cause direct violence.19 Direct violence, in turn, reinforces structural and cultural violence. ‘Violence can start at any corner in the direct-structural-cultural violence triangle and is easily transmitted to the other corners. With the violent structure institutionalized and the violent culture internalized, direct violence also tends to become institutionalized, repetitive, ritualistic, like a vendetta.’20 2.2. Relevant factors for prison violence Research identified multiple factors that influence the emergence of violence,21 including: • Individuals who have a tendency to violence • Individuals who feel threatened and unsafe • Individuals who belong to a prison gang or were member of a gang before imprisonment 18. Ibid. 19. Mette Skar and others, ‘Quality of Prison Life, Violence and Mental Health in Dubrava Prison’ (2019) 15(3) International Journal of Prisoner Health (IJPH) 262-272 [hereinafter: Mette Skar and others]. The study showed that there is a high correlation between a negative aspects of prison environment and the occurrence of physical and psychological inter-prisoner violence. And that a prison environment with higher levels of respect, fairness, humanity and good relations between staff and prisoners lead to lower levels of violence. 20. Johan Galtung, ‘Cultural Violence’ (1990) 27(3) JPR, 302 <https://www.galtung-institut.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Cultural-Violence-Galtung.pdf>. 21. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), ‘Understanding Prison Violence: A Rapid Evidence Assessment’ (2018); HMPPS, ‘Guidance: Violence Reduction in Prisons’ (2019) with further references. Monitoring Prison Violence