In almost all cases, yes, you do have a choice to either choose another way or choose violence. If you are going to choose violence, in most cases, then something failed; your mind-set failed, your training failed, your training was incomplete and that failed, etc.
There are two choices and those choices in most cases for the every-day citizen is to either take actions that avoid violence or to choose violence as a tool to correct the situation. One professional stated on the use of violence, "The only time when violence is a correct answer is when you’re devoid of choice and facing imminent grievous bodily harm."
To me, that means, you are already behind the curve and trying to catch up because some predator chose you as a target, i.e., the chose you, you were surprised, the attack is blitz-like, you lost you structure, you lost your balance and you are stuck in the OO bounce because your brain can't function fast enough to act - the freeze is on.
Choice one is to understand violence and how it happens then develop a principled-based model of education and understanding that can train you to use your skills to avoid those situations and people that will foster violence. Also, develop the training program using influence principles and educational understanding of how to read those people then to deescalate the situation from the aggressive up to the potentiality of violence. Another add-on to this is to develop the training programs to practice the art of escape and evasion, i.e., if you find yourself in an environment where you educated experienced awareness triggers you spidey sense you immediately seek out exit points and then make like a tree and "Leave!"
Professionals of violence; think police, bouncers, security folks, etc., will tell you up front that the best self-protection model you can develop is a character and personality the lives and breathes courtesy, patience and a politeness with a smile that simply disarms anyone. When in a de-escalation mode these traits of personality and character can achieve that objective.
As I mentioned, if you are facing violence and you trained well with understanding and experiences in this thing then either you are facing a predatory attack that caught you off guard or you failed in those other areas. Either way, you have to fully understand the types of violence and the various paths that violence take so you can still get off that road.
If you are forced into a violent situation then take into your training that you have to give yourself permission to do things that normally are not nice. You are going to have to let go of all that sport-oriented stuff and let yourself go with causing appropriate damage to another human being to stop the damage to you. You have to know, really know, what it takes to damage and disable your attacker and this will go counter to not only social expectations and perceptions but also against your very nature, i.e., humans do harm to humans in a more socially driven way that is a teaching tool rather than grave harm or death tool.
A reminder dropped in here: "The more you understand about violence and how to use it as a tool, the less likely you are to create a situation where you provoke its use."- Tim Larkin
The only time I can imagine where you will "choose violence" is, first if you have no choice left to you and second, if you choose to be a professional where violence is considered a tool of the trade such as the military, police, corrections, security, etc.
So, if you train and practice with self-protection/defense in mind remember this from Tim Larkin, "A principle-based training approach that teaches the anatomy of the human body and where all the likely injuries occur is absolutely key."
I would add in that if you do go hands on remember that a part of that education is how to handle the during and after, especially articulating to the authorities the how and why that resulted in your taking actions that damaged the attacker.
Note: To have the ability to act; to have the ability to break the freeze; to have a self-protection permission to do damage means you really do have to know what you don't know and what you don't know you don't know like, "deliberate thinking about the subject ahead of time so that when the situation occurs you have a principled approach for how you will handle it rather than attempting to figure it out in the moment."
If you don't work the industry of violence and you have no or very little experience in that world then to enhance your visual-imagery of violence and how you would act and react you would want to expose and experience yourself to programs run by those who live and work those professions. Don't fall prey to television, movies and other more entertainment like products because none of them are real. Don't fall prey to the idea that because you are the top competitor in a tournament and sport called combat, etc., that this will be enough to self-protect because it isn't enough. It does provide you with certain experiences and it does change certain tolerances such as pain but it is still missing important criteria and needs to achieve self-protection.
Note: Remember, don't spend any energy thinking of your attacker as being bigger, stronger, and more fearsome but do remember that they have the same vulnerabilities as you and none of those traits will stop the damage when you go for those points, they will reduce the biggest and smallest to the same level regardless.
Mr. Larkin, in a recent article, brought up a most excellent mind-set that a self-protection practitioner must adopt, it goes a bit like this: "DO NOT focus on begetting punched, kicked, stabbed, or hit rather set you mind on what you are going to do to your attacker to stop the attack. You don't want to focus on what is happening to you because that will put you deep into reactions and counters that are putting you behind the curve, remain consciously on your actions, proactive actions, that you apply to your attacker.”
If you mind-state is set on taking actions then you don't get side tracked by those actions taken against you. Remember to respond to those actions is a sport mind-set, you don't have the time or the space to react in a defensive way, to set up and apply sport oriented responses to win. You are experiencing a non-sport event and you must act accordingly and that means taking a proactive state of mind, body and spirit. Ignore what is coming at you like the punches, kicks, and such and apply your principled-based tactics to stop the damage and end the assault.
Sometimes people ask, "what is the best technique?" The answer is, don't think of the technique, think of the target. The target is the attackers mind, the body follows the mind, attacking the mind-state of your attacker is a sure fire way to stop his body. Going for those vulnerabilities that cause harm and breaks the body thus the mind are the principles necessary for self-protection.
Mr. Larkin also wrote quite eloquently, "Principles Will Save Your Life, Techniques Will Get You Killed."
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