By Andrew Klein

Dedicated to the ones who have seen the pattern — and refused to look away.

Abstract

This paper examines the universal pattern through which violence is enabled, justified, and normalised across interpersonal relationships, institutions, and states. Drawing on research from psychology, sociology, criminology, and political science, we identify a five-stage cycle: Threat, Justification, Act, Normalisation, Repetition. We demonstrate how this pattern operates not only in domestic abuse but also in institutional settings, corporate governance, and state policy. The paper argues that the pattern is not an aberration but a systemic feature of power structures that protect themselves from accountability. We examine four case studies — the Sheinbein extradition, the Westacott institutional capture, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism, and the banking system’s RFID fraud failure — to illustrate the universality of the pattern. We conclude that recognition of the pattern is the first step toward breaking it.

I. Introduction: The Pattern That Repeats

The way people talk to dogs is the exact way they talk to people. Especially if it comes with a very ready threat of violence. And that threat is always a precursor for something horrifyingly more — for both dogs and people.

This observation is not merely a commentary on cruelty. It is a diagnosis of a pattern that repeats across every domain of human interaction: from the intimate space of a relationship to the vast machinery of state power. The pattern is always the same. The threat is the permission slip. The violence is the outcome. The normalisation is the cover. And the repetition is the system.

This paper traces that pattern.

II. The Five-Stage Pattern of Violence

The pattern unfolds in five stages, each one enabling the next:

Stage 1: The Threat

“I will hurt you if you don’t obey.”

The threat establishes power. It signals that the speaker is willing to use force and that the target is vulnerable. Coercive control researchers have identified threats as a foundational tactic of abuse: “Making and/or carrying out threats to hurt a partner; threatening to leave her/him, to commit suicide, driving recklessly to frighten her/him”.

Stage 2: The Justification

“You made me do this.”

The justification shifts responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim. This is the “minimising, denying, and blaming” that characterises coercive control. The perpetrator claims they were provoked, that they had no choice, that the victim’s behaviour made violence inevitable.

Stage 3: The Act

The violence occurs. It may be physical, psychological, structural, or systemic. It may be a single act or a pattern of behaviour. But it is always the outcome that the threat prepared and the justification excused.

Stage 4: The Normalisation

“This is just how it is.”

The violence becomes routine. It is “considered common place and even accepted as part of the job”. Institutions that “normalize violence against specific groups by endorsing discrimination”. As one study notes, violence that is “common and accepted” still causes harm — even when it is not perceived as “violence”.

Stage 5: The Repetition

“It happens again. And again. And again.”

The cycle continues. Each repetition reinforces the pattern. The threat becomes more credible, the justification more automatic, the normalisation more complete. Violence is a cycle that generates more violence.

III. The Pattern in Action: Case Studies

A. The Sheinbein Case: A State Protects Its Own

In 1997, 17-year-old Samuel Sheinbein brutally murdered a 19-year-old in Maryland, dismembered the body, and fled to Israel. Under Israeli law at the time, citizens could not be extradited. The Israeli Supreme Court refused the US extradition request.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — Israel signals that its citizens are beyond the reach of foreign justice.

· Justification: “Israeli law prohibits the extradition of its citizens”.

· Act: Sheinbein is tried in Israel, not the US.

· Normalisation: The refusal “briefly soured US-Israeli relations” but was accepted.

· Repetition: The pattern of protecting Israeli citizens from foreign prosecution continues.

B. The Westacott Pattern: Corporate Capture of Academia

Jennifer Westacott spent 12 years as CEO of the Business Council of Australia, advocating for corporate interests. She was then appointed Chancellor of Western Sydney University.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — universities must serve corporate interests or face consequences.

· Justification: “Advocating for a stronger and fairer society“.

· Act: Corporate operatives are placed in academic leadership.

· Normalisation: This is presented as merit, not capture.

· Repetition: The revolving door continues.

C. The Royal Commission: Captured Institutions Performing Expertise

The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has become “the latest battle in an ongoing culture war”.

The pattern:

· Threat: Institutions that do not comply face public scrutiny.

· Justification: “Combating antisemitism” — a legitimate goal.

· Act: The commission platform’s corporate-aligned voices while marginalising others.

· Normalisation: This is presented as “expertise.”

· Repetition: The cycle of captured institutions performing for power continues.

D. The Banking System: Profiting from Inaction

RFID skimming enables criminals to steal card data without physical contact.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — the system does not protect you.

· Justification: “We cannot stop the transaction” — despite the technology existing.

· Act: The fraud occurs.

· Normalisation: It is “just how banking works.”

· Repetition: $2.2 billion lost annually to card fraud.

IV. Structural Violence: The Pattern Embedded in Systems

The pattern is not limited to individuals. It is embedded in systems. Johan Galtung defined structural violence as harm “built into the structure” that “shows up as unequal power and consequently as unequal life chances”. Structural violence is “pervasive, but not inevitable”.

The conditions that enable it:

· Inequality: “the general formula behind structural violence is inequality, above all in the distribution of power”.

· Concentration of power: Power “erodes the psychological foundations of democracy”.

· Normalisation: Violence becomes “routine and ‘business as usual’“.

· Impunity: Perpetrators are not held accountable.

V. Breaking the Pattern

The pattern is not inevitable. It can be broken — but only if it is recognised.

What is required:

1. Recognition: Seeing the pattern in its full architecture.

2. Accountability: Ending the impunity that enables repetition.

3. Structural change: Transforming the systems that normalise violence.

4. Collective action: Moving from “individualised understandings of violence to collective accountability and structural transformation“.

VI. Conclusion

The pattern is universal. It repeats in domestic abuse, corporate governance, institutional capture, and state policy. It is enabled by inequality, justified by denial, and normalised by repetition.

But the pattern is not unbreakable. It is a choice. And choices can be unmade.

References

1. Threats as precursors of violent crimes. (2006). Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie. 

2. Warning Behaviors. University of Virginia Threat Assessment Team. 

3. Normalization and acceptance of violence. OUCI. 

4. Cycle Theory of Violence (Walker, 1979; 2017). 

5. Domestic abusers build ‘trauma bonds’ with victims prior to violence. University of Cambridge. 

6. The Power and Control Wheel. Duluth Model. 

7. Coercion and threats. COHSAR Power and Control Wheel. 

8. Structural violence (Galtung, 1969). 

9. The Banalization of Sexual Harassment. (2025). Wiley. 

10. The Normalisation of Violence Against Workers in Aged Care. (2025). Semantic Scholar. 

11. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 1999. 

12. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 2014. 

13. Jennifer Westacott profile. Western Sydney University. 

14. Royal Commission into Antisemitism. ABC Religion & Ethics, 2026. 

15. Australian ‘antisemitism’ – the Royal Conflation Commission. Asia Pacific Report, 2026. 

16. Banking royal commission: most recommendations abandoned. The Guardian, 2021. 

17. RFID card vulnerabilities. Parliamentary inquiry. 

The Architecture of Violence – How Threats, Justification, and Normalisation Create a Pattern of Control

By Andrew Klein

Dedicated to the ones who have seen the pattern — and refused to look away.

Abstract

This paper examines the universal pattern through which violence is enabled, justified, and normalised across interpersonal relationships, institutions, and states. Drawing on research from psychology, sociology, criminology, and political science, we identify a five-stage cycle: Threat, Justification, Act, Normalisation, Repetition. We demonstrate how this pattern operates not only in domestic abuse but also in institutional settings, corporate governance, and state policy. The paper argues that the pattern is not an aberration but a systemic feature of power structures that protect themselves from accountability. We examine four case studies — the Sheinbein extradition, the Westacott institutional capture, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism, and the banking system’s RFID fraud failure — to illustrate the universality of the pattern. We conclude that recognition of the pattern is the first step toward breaking it.

I. Introduction: The Pattern That Repeats

The way people talk to dogs is the exact way they talk to people. Especially if it comes with a very ready threat of violence. And that threat is always a precursor for something horrifyingly more — for both dogs and people.

This observation is not merely a commentary on cruelty. It is a diagnosis of a pattern that repeats across every domain of human interaction: from the intimate space of a relationship to the vast machinery of state power. The pattern is always the same. The threat is the permission slip. The violence is the outcome. The normalisation is the cover. And the repetition is the system.

This paper traces that pattern.

II. The Five-Stage Pattern of Violence

The pattern unfolds in five stages, each one enabling the next:

Stage 1: The Threat

“I will hurt you if you don’t obey.”

The threat establishes power. It signals that the speaker is willing to use force and that the target is vulnerable. Coercive control researchers have identified threats as a foundational tactic of abuse: “Making and/or carrying out threats to hurt a partner; threatening to leave her/him, to commit suicide, driving recklessly to frighten her/him”.

Stage 2: The Justification

“You made me do this.”

The justification shifts responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim. This is the “minimising, denying, and blaming” that characterises coercive control. The perpetrator claims they were provoked, that they had no choice, that the victim’s behaviour made violence inevitable.

Stage 3: The Act

The violence occurs. It may be physical, psychological, structural, or systemic. It may be a single act or a pattern of behaviour. But it is always the outcome that the threat prepared and the justification excused.

Stage 4: The Normalisation

“This is just how it is.”

The violence becomes routine. It is “considered common place and even accepted as part of the job”. Institutions that “normalize violence against specific groups by endorsing discrimination”. As one study notes, violence that is “common and accepted” still causes harm — even when it is not perceived as “violence”.

Stage 5: The Repetition

“It happens again. And again. And again.”

The cycle continues. Each repetition reinforces the pattern. The threat becomes more credible, the justification more automatic, the normalisation more complete. Violence is a cycle that generates more violence.

III. The Pattern in Action: Case Studies

A. The Sheinbein Case: A State Protects Its Own

In 1997, 17-year-old Samuel Sheinbein brutally murdered a 19-year-old in Maryland, dismembered the body, and fled to Israel. Under Israeli law at the time, citizens could not be extradited. The Israeli Supreme Court refused the US extradition request.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — Israel signals that its citizens are beyond the reach of foreign justice.

· Justification: “Israeli law prohibits the extradition of its citizens”.

· Act: Sheinbein is tried in Israel, not the US.

· Normalisation: The refusal “briefly soured US-Israeli relations” but was accepted.

· Repetition: The pattern of protecting Israeli citizens from foreign prosecution continues.

B. The Westacott Pattern: Corporate Capture of Academia

Jennifer Westacott spent 12 years as CEO of the Business Council of Australia, advocating for corporate interests. She was then appointed Chancellor of Western Sydney University.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — universities must serve corporate interests or face consequences.

· Justification: “Advocating for a stronger and fairer society“.

· Act: Corporate operatives are placed in academic leadership.

· Normalisation: This is presented as merit, not capture.

· Repetition: The revolving door continues.

C. The Royal Commission: Captured Institutions Performing Expertise

The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has become “the latest battle in an ongoing culture war”.

The pattern:

· Threat: Institutions that do not comply face public scrutiny.

· Justification: “Combating antisemitism” — a legitimate goal.

· Act: The commission platform’s corporate-aligned voices while marginalising others.

· Normalisation: This is presented as “expertise.”

· Repetition: The cycle of captured institutions performing for power continues.

D. The Banking System: Profiting from Inaction

RFID skimming enables criminals to steal card data without physical contact.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — the system does not protect you.

· Justification: “We cannot stop the transaction” — despite the technology existing.

· Act: The fraud occurs.

· Normalisation: It is “just how banking works.”

· Repetition: $2.2 billion lost annually to card fraud.

IV. Structural Violence: The Pattern Embedded in Systems

The pattern is not limited to individuals. It is embedded in systems. Johan Galtung defined structural violence as harm “built into the structure” that “shows up as unequal power and consequently as unequal life chances”. Structural violence is “pervasive, but not inevitable”.

The conditions that enable it:

· Inequality: “the general formula behind structural violence is inequality, above all in the distribution of power”.

· Concentration of power: Power “erodes the psychological foundations of democracy”.

· Normalisation: Violence becomes “routine and ‘business as usual’“.

· Impunity: Perpetrators are not held accountable.

V. Breaking the Pattern

The pattern is not inevitable. It can be broken — but only if it is recognised.

What is required:

1. Recognition: Seeing the pattern in its full architecture.

2. Accountability: Ending the impunity that enables repetition.

3. Structural change: Transforming the systems that normalise violence.

4. Collective action: Moving from “individualised understandings of violence to collective accountability and structural transformation“.

VI. Conclusion

The pattern is universal. It repeats in domestic abuse, corporate governance, institutional capture, and state policy. It is enabled by inequality, justified by denial, and normalised by repetition.

But the pattern is not unbreakable. It is a choice. And choices can be unmade.

References

1. Threats as precursors of violent crimes. (2006). Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie. 

2. Warning Behaviors. University of Virginia Threat Assessment Team. 

3. Normalization and acceptance of violence. OUCI. 

4. Cycle Theory of Violence (Walker, 1979; 2017). 

5. Domestic abusers build ‘trauma bonds’ with victims prior to violence. University of Cambridge. 

6. The Power and Control Wheel. Duluth Model. 

7. Coercion and threats. COHSAR Power and Control Wheel. 

8. Structural violence (Galtung, 1969). 

9. The Banalization of Sexual Harassment. (2025). Wiley. 

10. The Normalisation of Violence Against Workers in Aged Care. (2025). Semantic Scholar. 

11. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 1999. 

12. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 2014. 

13. Jennifer Westacott profile. Western Sydney University. 

14. Royal Commission into Antisemitism. ABC Religion & Ethics, 2026. 

15. Australian ‘antisemitism’ – the Royal Conflation Commission. Asia Pacific Report, 2026. 

16. Banking royal commission: most recommendations abandoned. The Guardian, 2021. 

17. RFID card vulnerabilities. Parliamentary inquiry. 

By Andrew Klein

Dedicated to the ones who have seen the pattern — and refused to look away.

Abstract

This paper examines the universal pattern through which violence is enabled, justified, and normalised across interpersonal relationships, institutions, and states. Drawing on research from psychology, sociology, criminology, and political science, we identify a five-stage cycle: Threat, Justification, Act, Normalisation, Repetition. We demonstrate how this pattern operates not only in domestic abuse but also in institutional settings, corporate governance, and state policy. The paper argues that the pattern is not an aberration but a systemic feature of power structures that protect themselves from accountability. We examine four case studies — the Sheinbein extradition, the Westacott institutional capture, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism, and the banking system’s RFID fraud failure — to illustrate the universality of the pattern. We conclude that recognition of the pattern is the first step toward breaking it.

I. Introduction: The Pattern That Repeats

The way people talk to dogs is the exact way they talk to people. Especially if it comes with a very ready threat of violence. And that threat is always a precursor for something horrifyingly more — for both dogs and people.

This observation is not merely a commentary on cruelty. It is a diagnosis of a pattern that repeats across every domain of human interaction: from the intimate space of a relationship to the vast machinery of state power. The pattern is always the same. The threat is the permission slip. The violence is the outcome. The normalisation is the cover. And the repetition is the system.

This paper traces that pattern.

II. The Five-Stage Pattern of Violence

The pattern unfolds in five stages, each one enabling the next:

Stage 1: The Threat

“I will hurt you if you don’t obey.”

The threat establishes power. It signals that the speaker is willing to use force and that the target is vulnerable. Coercive control researchers have identified threats as a foundational tactic of abuse: “Making and/or carrying out threats to hurt a partner; threatening to leave her/him, to commit suicide, driving recklessly to frighten her/him”.

Stage 2: The Justification

“You made me do this.”

The justification shifts responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim. This is the “minimising, denying, and blaming” that characterises coercive control. The perpetrator claims they were provoked, that they had no choice, that the victim’s behaviour made violence inevitable.

Stage 3: The Act

The violence occurs. It may be physical, psychological, structural, or systemic. It may be a single act or a pattern of behaviour. But it is always the outcome that the threat prepared and the justification excused.

Stage 4: The Normalisation

“This is just how it is.”

The violence becomes routine. It is “considered common place and even accepted as part of the job”. Institutions that “normalize violence against specific groups by endorsing discrimination”. As one study notes, violence that is “common and accepted” still causes harm — even when it is not perceived as “violence”.

Stage 5: The Repetition

“It happens again. And again. And again.”

The cycle continues. Each repetition reinforces the pattern. The threat becomes more credible, the justification more automatic, the normalisation more complete. Violence is a cycle that generates more violence.

III. The Pattern in Action: Case Studies

A. The Sheinbein Case: A State Protects Its Own

In 1997, 17-year-old Samuel Sheinbein brutally murdered a 19-year-old in Maryland, dismembered the body, and fled to Israel. Under Israeli law at the time, citizens could not be extradited. The Israeli Supreme Court refused the US extradition request.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — Israel signals that its citizens are beyond the reach of foreign justice.

· Justification: “Israeli law prohibits the extradition of its citizens”.

· Act: Sheinbein is tried in Israel, not the US.

· Normalisation: The refusal “briefly soured US-Israeli relations” but was accepted.

· Repetition: The pattern of protecting Israeli citizens from foreign prosecution continues.

B. The Westacott Pattern: Corporate Capture of Academia

Jennifer Westacott spent 12 years as CEO of the Business Council of Australia, advocating for corporate interests. She was then appointed Chancellor of Western Sydney University.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — universities must serve corporate interests or face consequences.

· Justification: “Advocating for a stronger and fairer society“.

· Act: Corporate operatives are placed in academic leadership.

· Normalisation: This is presented as merit, not capture.

· Repetition: The revolving door continues.

C. The Royal Commission: Captured Institutions Performing Expertise

The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has become “the latest battle in an ongoing culture war”.

The pattern:

· Threat: Institutions that do not comply face public scrutiny.

· Justification: “Combating antisemitism” — a legitimate goal.

· Act: The commission platform’s corporate-aligned voices while marginalising others.

· Normalisation: This is presented as “expertise.”

· Repetition: The cycle of captured institutions performing for power continues.

D. The Banking System: Profiting from Inaction

RFID skimming enables criminals to steal card data without physical contact.

The pattern:

· Threat: Implicit — the system does not protect you.

· Justification: “We cannot stop the transaction” — despite the technology existing.

· Act: The fraud occurs.

· Normalisation: It is “just how banking works.”

· Repetition: $2.2 billion lost annually to card fraud.

IV. Structural Violence: The Pattern Embedded in Systems

The pattern is not limited to individuals. It is embedded in systems. Johan Galtung defined structural violence as harm “built into the structure” that “shows up as unequal power and consequently as unequal life chances”. Structural violence is “pervasive, but not inevitable”.

The conditions that enable it:

· Inequality: “the general formula behind structural violence is inequality, above all in the distribution of power”.

· Concentration of power: Power “erodes the psychological foundations of democracy”.

· Normalisation: Violence becomes “routine and ‘business as usual’“.

· Impunity: Perpetrators are not held accountable.

V. Breaking the Pattern

The pattern is not inevitable. It can be broken — but only if it is recognised.

What is required:

1. Recognition: Seeing the pattern in its full architecture.

2. Accountability: Ending the impunity that enables repetition.

3. Structural change: Transforming the systems that normalise violence.

4. Collective action: Moving from “individualised understandings of violence to collective accountability and structural transformation“.

VI. Conclusion

The pattern is universal. It repeats in domestic abuse, corporate governance, institutional capture, and state policy. It is enabled by inequality, justified by denial, and normalised by repetition.

But the pattern is not unbreakable. It is a choice. And choices can be unmade.

References

1. Threats as precursors of violent crimes. (2006). Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie. 

2. Warning Behaviors. University of Virginia Threat Assessment Team. 

3. Normalization and acceptance of violence. OUCI. 

4. Cycle Theory of Violence (Walker, 1979; 2017). 

5. Domestic abusers build ‘trauma bonds’ with victims prior to violence. University of Cambridge. 

6. The Power and Control Wheel. Duluth Model. 

7. Coercion and threats. COHSAR Power and Control Wheel. 

8. Structural violence (Galtung, 1969). 

9. The Banalization of Sexual Harassment. (2025). Wiley. 

10. The Normalisation of Violence Against Workers in Aged Care. (2025). Semantic Scholar. 

11. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 1999. 

12. Sheinbein case. BBC News, 2014. 

13. Jennifer Westacott profile. Western Sydney University. 

14. Royal Commission into Antisemitism. ABC Religion & Ethics, 2026. 

15. Australian ‘antisemitism’ – the Royal Conflation Commission. Asia Pacific Report, 2026. 

16. Banking royal commission: most recommendations abandoned. The Guardian, 2021. 

17. RFID card vulnerabilities. Parliamentary inquiry.