The old adage that ‘violence is never the answer’ was put to the test when the actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at this year's Oscars ceremony. Are there instances where violence is acceptable? And if so, how much violence is proportional?

In this week’s podcast, we unpack the infamous Oscars slap and apply an analytical lens to the concept of violence more broadly. We discuss the narrow legal conditions that apply to violence, the historical use of violence in Hollywood films and the presence of violence in early human history. During our discussion we also present the continuum of force, the execution paradox and a game theory approach to the use of violence, as well as the surprising correlation between lead and the decline of violent behaviour in society.

- Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjEoDypUD8
- Reasonable Force Law and Legal Definition https://definitions.uslegal.com/r/reasonable-force/
- Lead–crime hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis

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Image: Jared Eberhardt via Wikimedia Commons

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