Researchers in such fields as sociology and criminology
tend to prefer definitions that narrowly define violence, definitions
that can be operationalized. For example, Gelles and
Straus I1979) defined violence as "any act carried out with the
intention of, or perceived intention of, causing physical pain
or injury to another person." Similarly, the National Research
Council (NRC)report Understanding and Preventing
Violence (Reiss and Roth, 1993) limited its definition to "behavior
by persons against persons that intentionally threatens,
attempts, or actually inflicts physical harm." The 1993
NRC study deliberately excluded behavior that inflicts harm
unintentionally, while the Gelles and Straus definition includes
behaviors that may be unintentional but are perceived
by the victim to be intentional. The 1993 NRC study also
specifically excluded from its definition of violence such
events as verbal abuse, harassment, or humiliation, in which