"violence prevailed" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use this phrase to describe a situation in which violence was widespread and/or constantly present. For example, "After decades of civil war, violence prevailed in the country."
Secretary Powell, in recent statements, has indicated that the administration has absorbed the lesson that without American involvement, violence prevails.
The bill has since been declared invalid by the constitutional court, but a climate of homophobia and anti-gay violence prevails.
A fragile stand-off, punctuated by continuing violence, prevails in and around the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, where some 2,000 diehard Sunni insurgents, including many from abroad, are dug in, while the Americans tighten a noose around them.
In addition to the ongoing crises of homelessness and cholera, a chronic emergency of sexual violence prevails in the settlements where hundreds of thousands still live, well over a year after the disaster.
It is our job as advocates for animals to promote the ethical and scientific arguments that advance science without harming animals — within the parameters of a democratic process in which the truth, not violence, prevails.
If violence prevails in Libya, the momentum for peaceful change across the Middle East may drain away, as both autocrats and protesters elsewhere in the Arab world conclude that violence is after all an essential tool for getting their way.Be practical, as well as principledThe sceptics' second retort is that the West is guilty of hypocrisy.
State violence prevails and sits heavily over Ferguson this week.
In Liberia, sexual violence against girls and women was common place in a culture of violence which prevailed during the recent conflict.
