Damage is any
change
Change or Changing may refer to:
Alteration
* Impermanence, a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time
* Menopause, also referred to as "the change", the permanent cessation of the menstrual period
* Metamorphosis, or change, ...
in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".
[Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., Park, G.,]
Converting Large Sensor Array Data into Structural Health Information
, in Andrew Smyth, Raimondo Betti, ''The 4th International Workshop on Structural Control'' (2005), p. 67. Damage "does not necessarily imply total loss of system functionality, but rather that the system is no longer operating in its optimal manner".
Damage to physical objects is "the progressive physical process by which they break",
[Jean Lemaitre, ''A Course on Damage Mechanics'' (2013).] and includes
mechanical stress
In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity. It is a quantity that describes the magnitude of forces that cause deformation. Stress is defined as ''force per unit area''. When an object is pulled apart by a force it will cause elonga ...
that weakens a structure, even if this is not visible.
Physical damage
![Hurricane Ike Bridge City TX Shell gas station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Hurricane_Ike_Bridge_City_TX_Shell_gas_station.jpg)
All physical damage begins on the
atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, ...
ic level, with the shifting or breaking of
atomic bond
A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atoms or ions that enables the formation of molecules and crystals. The bond may result from the electrostatic force between oppositely charged ions as in ionic bonds, or through the sharing of ...
s, and the rate at which damage to any physical thing occurs is therefore largely dependent on the elasticity of such bonds in the material being subjected to stress. Damage can occur where atomic bonds are not completely broken, but are shifted to create unstable pockets of concentration and diffusion of the material, which are more susceptible to later breakage.
The effect of outside forces on a material depends on the relative
elasticity or
plasticity of the material; if a material tends towards elasticity, then changes to its consistency are reversible, and it can bounce back from potential damage. However, if the material tends towards plasticity, then such changes are permanent, and each such change increases the possibility of a crack or fault appearing in the material.
Although all damage at the atomic level manifests as broken atomic bonds, the manifestation of damage at the macroscopic level depends on the material, and can include
cracks and
deformation
Deformation can refer to:
* Deformation (engineering), changes in an object's shape or form due to the application of a force or forces.
** Deformation (physics), such changes considered and analyzed as displacements of continuum bodies.
* Defor ...
, as well as structural weakening that is not visible.
Damage to objects
Damage to structures and other objects can take a number of forms, such as
fire damage
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are pr ...
caused by the effects of burning,
water damage
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
done by
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
to materials not resistant to its effects, and
radiation damage
Radiation damage is the effect of ionizing radiation on physical objects including non-living structural materials. It can be either detrimental or beneficial for materials.
Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on livin ...
due to
ionizing radiation. Some kinds of damage are specific to vehicles and mechanical or electronic systems, such as
foreign object damage
In aviation and aerospace, foreign object debris (FOD), is any particle or substance, alien to an aircraft or system, which could potentially cause damage.
External FOD hazards include bird strikes, hail, ice, sandstorms, ash-clouds or obje ...
caused by the presence of any foreign substance, debris, or article;
hydrogen damage due to interactions between metals and hydrogen; and
damage mechanics, which includes damage to materials due to cyclic mechanical loads. When an object has been damaged, it may be possible to
repair
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...
the object, thereby restoring it to its original condition, or to a new condition that allows it to function despite the damage.
Damage can be intentional or accidental. When an object or building is deliberately damaged, the act can be socially significant as a way to degrade the meaning of the object. Though things can have multiple meanings, in circumstances where they are deliberately damaged one meaning—which prompts the act—takes precedence.
Damage to living organisms
Damage to a living organism may be referred to as an
injury.
The kinds of damage experienced by living things range from microscopic
direct DNA damage
Direct may refer to:
Mathematics
* Directed set, in order theory
* Direct limit of (pre), sheaves
* Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces
Computing
* Direct access (disambiguation), ...
and
cell damage
Cell damage (also known as cell injury) is a variety of changes of stress that a cell suffers due to external as well as internal environmental changes. Amongst other causes, this can be due to physical, chemical, infectious, biological, nutrition ...
in a biological cell, to damage to larger systems such as
nerve damage
Nerve injury is an injury to nervous tissue. There is no single classification system that can describe all the many variations of nerve injuries. In 1941, Seddon introduced a classification of nerve injuries based on three main types of nerve f ...
,
brain damage, and
articular cartilage damage
Cartilage structures and functions can be damaged. Such damage can result from a variety of causes, such as a bad fall or traumatic sport-accident, previous knee injuries or wear and tear over time. Immobilization for long periods can also result i ...
. Damage to the body on a larger scale is often referred to as
trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
* Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source
* Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event
*Traumatic i ...
.
Ageing is accompanied by a loss of ability to recover quickly from various kinds of biological damage. Damage is one of two factors proposed to influence biological ageing (the other being programmed factors follow a biological timetable). Damage-related factors include internal and environmental assaults to living organisms that induce cumulative damage at various levels.
Other concepts of damage
Damage that occurs as an
unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...
of an effort to cause intentional damage elsewhere, such as with a military operation, is called
collateral damage
Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts.
Since the development of precision guided ...
,
while damage specifically done to public or private property is called
property damage
Property damage (or cf. criminal damage in England and Wales) is damage or destruction of real or tangible personal property, caused by negligence, willful destruction, or act of nature.
It is similar to vandalism and arson (destroying prop ...
. By extension, damage is also used to describe a degradation in the value of intangible things such as
relationships,
self-image
Self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to an objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, etc.), but also items that h ...
,
reputation
The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance.
Reputation is a ubiquitous ...
, and
goodwill.
Economics of damage
The propensity for damage to occur to physical objects and systems, as well as to intangible characteristics, is built into the prices of goods and services that depend on the supply of these things, particularly as a component of
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
costs. In
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
are the award, typically of
money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury (i.e., economic or physical damage).
[International principle]
Trans-Lex.org
Garner, p.416
Institutional damage
Institutional damage is broadly defined as
unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by Ameri ...
s to an individual resulting from interaction with an institution which has responsibility for his or her care. The individual might be a
hospital patient, a child in a school, or a prison
inmate
A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...
. Some forms of institutional damage, such as
medical error
A medical error is a preventable adverse effect of care (" iatrogenesis"), whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a disease, injury, syndrome, behavior ...
s and
hospital-acquired infection
A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a nosocomial infection (from the Greek , meaning "hospital"), is an infection that is acquired in a hospital or other health care facility. To emphasize both hospital and nonhospital settings, it is so ...
are relatively easily measured; others, such as long-term damage to development and
mental health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
are significantly harder to measure. There is controversy as to whether such damage can be measured and if it actually occurs.
It is not a widely used term, however, but it is a legal concept of considerable importance, because it is extremely common, particularly in countries where
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
of prisoners and other people under institutional care are not respected or guaranteed by
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
.
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...
,
civil law (common law) and
criminal law codices have many provisions to protect individuals against injuries caused by institutions to which they are unwillingly committed. The extent and the respect to these laws vary widely among countries and communities. These controversies relate to the old
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
versus
individual debate which has permeated philosophy and political science since
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...
.
Damage to institutions
The same expression is also used in the opposite sense, i.e., as damage caused to institutions, as opposed to damage caused to individuals. For example,
political exception situations, such as the suspension of
political rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
for a time, are said to damage
democratic institutions. Other examples are
vandalism
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...
of public buildings, extremely large
epidemics
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious d ...
that disrupt normal functioning of society's institutions, such as in the case of
AIDS in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
; external military intervention, such as in the invasion of
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
by the USA and
allied nations
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
; and even (paradoxically), external aid to countries which are rich in natural resources but have a poor
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and/or
corrupt
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
government (the so-called "
resource curse
The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse ...
")
The two concepts, damage caused by institutions and damage caused to institutions, are related in many situations. In widespread political trials ("
witch hunting
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern per ...
") in democratic countries, such as in the famous
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
in the 1940s, damage was said to occur in both directions, i.e., not only the lives, families and professional activities of a number of individuals were wrecked by the public exposure, but also the political institutions of individual rights and freedom in the United States were also similarly damaged by the Committee's activities.
See also
*
Deformation (mechanics)
In physics, deformation is the continuum mechanics transformation of a body from a ''reference'' configuration to a ''current'' configuration. A configuration is a set containing the positions of all particles of the body.
A deformation can ...
*
Degradation
Degradation may refer to:
Science
* Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion
* Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal
* Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms
* Environmental degradatio ...
*
Virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
* Death
References
External links
* Metzgar, Jack
Institutional Damage Dissent Magazine. Stories about the damage wrought on individuals who were subjected to the
House Un-American Activities Committee's investigations in the 1940s.
* Harford, T. and Klein, M
Aid and the Resource Curse World Bank article on the damage to institutions of
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
caused by external aid.
{{Authority control
Broad-concept articles
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