Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces.

Globally, violence takes the lives of more than 1.5 million people annually: just over 50% due to suicide, some 35% due to homicide, and just over 12% as a direct result of war or some other form of conflict. For each single death due to violence, there are dozens of hospitalizations, hundreds of emergency department visits, and thousands of doctors' appointments. Furthermore, violence often has life-long consequences for victims' physical and mental health and social functioning and can slow economic and social development.

Violence, however, is preventable. Evidence shows strong relationships between levels of violence and potentially modifiable factors such as concentrated poverty, income and gender inequality, the harmful use of alcohol, and the absence of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and parents. Scientific research shows that strategies addressing the underlying causes of violence can be effective in preventing violence. Examples of scientifically credible strategies to prevent violence include nurse home-visiting and parenting education to prevent child maltreatment; life skills training for children ages 6–18 years; school-based programmes to address gender norms and attitudes; reducing alcohol availability and misuse through enactment and enforcement of liquor licensing laws, taxation and pricing; reducing access to guns and knives; and promoting gender equality by, for instance, supporting the economic empowerment of women.

The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.

Charles Bronson (November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003), born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, of Polish and Lithuanian background, best known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series. He was often cast in the role of a police officer or gunfighter, often in revenge-oriented plot lines. During his career, Bronson had a long-term partnership with directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson.

Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky (or Buchinskas) in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny Mountain Coal region north of Johnstown. During the McCarthy hearings, he changed his last name to Bronson, fearing that Buchinsky sounded "too Russian".

He was one of 15 children born to a Lithuanian immigrant father of Lipka Tatar ancestry, and a Lithuanian-American mother. His father hailed from the town of Druskininkai (or Druskienniki). His mother, Mary Valinsky, whose parents were from the Lithuania was born in the anthracite coal mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.

Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009. The band performed as a trio, including: singer, guitarist and songwriter Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and two drummers, Victor DeLorenzo (1980–1993 and 2002–2009) and Guy Hoffman (1993–2002).

The Violent Femmes released eight studio albums and fifteen singles during the course of their career. The band found immediate success with the release of their self-titled debut album in early 1983. Featuring many of their well-known songs, including "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", "Add It Up" and "Gone Daddy Gone", Violent Femmes became the band's biggest-selling album and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA. Violent Femmes went on to become one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s, selling over 9 million albums by 2005. After the release of their third album The Blind Leading the Naked (1986), the band's future was uncertain and they split up in 1987, when Gano and Ritchie went solo. However, they regrouped a year later, releasing the album 3 (1989). Since then, Violent Femmes' popularity continued to grow, especially in the United States where the songs "Nightmares" and "American Music" cracked the top five on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Oscar Isaac (born Oscar Isaac Hernández; January 5, 1980) is an American actor and singer.

Isaac was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, Maria, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernández. He was raised in Miami, Florida. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for his band "The Blinking Underdogs". He has described his evangelical upbringing as "very Christian".

Isaac graduated from the Juilliard School in 2005. His first major film role was as Joseph opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes in the film The Nativity Story. He also had a small role in All About the Benjamins and the Che Guevara biopic Guerrilla.

Isaac was awarded the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor of 2009, for his role as José Ramos-Horta in Balibo (2009).

Isaac also played Prince John in the 2010 film Robin Hood. Later that year, he portrayed a security guard in the film W.E., which was directed by Madonna and released in September 2011. In the same month, Isaac starred in the crime drama Drive.