One of the most common ways to define violence is to consider only criminal forms of violence and to argue that violence is the use of force that has been prohibited by law (Riedel & Welsh, 2002, p.3). The Oxford dictionary, when it takes on a legal dimension, defines violence as “the unlawful exercise of physical force”. This definition suggests that violence is harm that causes physical pain. It can be criticized for not taking into account the emotional and psychological pain often associated with interpersonal violence. Interpersonal violence is considered to include domestic violence, family violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child abuse, or elder abuse. Other forms of violence that occur within schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and other organizations may also be considered interpersonal. These forms of violence can be economic, emotional, sexual or physical. Interpersonal violence includes acts that can be considered violent or harmful. This essay will examine the different forms of interpersonal violence and whether or not they use physical force to harm victims. It will also compare other definitions of violence to the statement above to determine how it defines interpersonal violence. It will consider whether "violence" is always illegal as suggested, or whether it can be justified in certain circumstances. The above statement from the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that there is a strong relationship between violence and acts of physical force. While some acts of interpersonal violence involve physical force, there are many acts that also involve economic, emotional, and psychological harm. This statement is therefore too narrow a description to define interpersonal violence, which is rarely addressed......Sociological Research Online, Volume 11, Issue 2,Violence as an Essentially Contested ConceptWillem de HaanRobson , S. (2013). Women's awareness of what constitutes domestic violence is 'shockingly low', campaigners say http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2288699/Womens-awareness-constitutes-domestic-violence-shockingly-low -say-campaigners. htmlGarver, N. (1977). What is violence? In TA Mappes and JS Zembaty (eds.), Social ethics, morality and social policy. New York: McGraw-Hill. World Health Organization. (2002). World Report on Violence and Health: Summary http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/summary_en.pdfGuttmann.A. (2012) Violence and sport. Violence on the field. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/561041/sports/253580/Commercialization-of-sports