A few hundred years ago people would punish the sick and sometimes throw them into wells, making the rest of the village sick. I wondered if violence could be modeled as a plague. Once you're exposed, you're starting to catch it. Imagine that being violent to violent people spreads this disease.

That resonates with what you said - if we could absorb violence and not pass it on we can contain it. Unfortunately, the western world handles violence with more violence, which is the same as throwing a sick person into the village well.