Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2022.59.143.145
First findings from the Balkan Homicide Study: introducing a genuine violence classification system
Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law
Dalia Pribisalić
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law
Petra Šprem
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to introduce a genuine violence classification system. The system has been
created using an innovative empirical rather than a mainstream normative approach. It aims to test the
possibilities and benefits of conceptualising and understanding violence regardless of its normative
constructs which have been created on the basis of legal, abstract, and non-empirical grounds. With
a specific focus on physical violence, the here proposed classification system has been designed by
using original empirical data from case file analysis, obtained through the Balkan Homicide Study
(BHS). Using a qualitative method, 2073 finally adjudicated attempted and completed homicide
cases were analysed. As a result, the genuine violence classification system includes 20 types of
violence primarily determined by the various contextual backgrounds of the offences and their main
triggers, occasionally also considering the location of the offence, the offender’s motive and the
victim-offender relationship. The ultimate purpose of the introduced genuine violence classification
system is to provide a new and innovative approach to violence research, one that might prove to
be a useful tool for minimising the impact of differences due to changing legal frameworks through
time (e.g., reforms) and amongst different countries. In this sense, it should facilitate and upgrade
future (comparative) criminological violence research. The basic terms and types of violence are
defined primarily for the purpose of the BHS and should not be understood as axioms generally
applicable outside the framework of the study, at least not without further testing and adjustment of
the classification system.
Keywords
violence classification; typology of violence; violence phenomenology; Balkan Homicide Study
Hrčak ID:
275654
URI
Publication date:
26.4.2022.
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