First findings from the Balkan Homicide Study

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.