Violence rates have been decreasing in developed countries. Every year there are fewer cases of murders and other violent crimes in the population, however, this in itself does not mean that all violence is reduced.
There are different patterns of victimization that, despite the development of society, continue to occur in a quite noticeable way, one of them being cases of domestic violence.
In this article we are going to see Verkko’s laws that explain this phenomenon in addition to contextualizing it.
Veli Kaarle Verkko (1893-1955) was a Finnish criminologist, pioneer in the study of comparative homicide research between countries. This researcher addressed how and in what way cases of murder occurred in various societies, both in the domestic context and on the street, relating it to culture, development, awareness of inequalities and wealth, among other factors.
From his research he postulated two laws, which are known as Verkko’s laws, which explain patterns in statistics regarding violence and, especially, homicides, both at a temporal and transversal level.
Verkko observed that not all homicides were the same Although this may seem obvious, it is not so obvious if we take into account that there are many reasons that can lead a person to commit a crime as serious as murder. Verkko saw the need to try to relate the context in which the homicide case occurred with what relationship the murderer had with his victim.
Not all murder victims meet the same characteristics, nor do they have the same chances of ending up being murdered. If you compare the chances of being murdered, there are big differences between whether you are a man or a woman Worldwide, for every woman murdered there are four men murdered.
But the thing does not stop there, given that although there are more men who are murdered compared to women globally, this is different depending on the country and taking into account the type of violence that has occurred.
Verkko’s Laws
Veli Verkko observed that there were different murder rates depending on the degree of development of the country, seeing that the more developed a society was, the fewer cases of murders there were. However, Fewer murders in general did not mean there were fewer cases of femicides
Based on his observations, the Finnish criminologist introduced his two famous laws.
1. Verkko’s first law
Verkko’s first law, also called static Verkko law, postulates that The degree of victimization of women in a society will be reflected taking into account the total number of homicides
It is called static since it explains the variations in the homicide rate of a country at a specific moment, without having a perspective over time.
This law maintains that the more homicides there are in a society, both of men and women, the lower the percentage of murdered women is to be expected.
In other words, The fewer murders there are, the more likely it is that the percentage of female homicide victims will be higher
In most cases, when a homicide is committed, it usually occurs in a situation that is already criminal in itself and, statistically, more men than women are usually involved.
It is for this reason that the more crimes committed in a society, the more likely it is that the people murdered will be men.
2. Verkko’s second law
Street violence, also called non-domestic, is not the same as domestic violence. The way in which both types of violence evolve, and, therefore, the homicides they may end up committing, is different.
The more a country develops, the more predictable it is that street violence will decrease but domestic violence does not do it that way, or at least in the same way.
Verkko’s second or dynamic law, which is the best known, postulates that changes in homicide rates in a society are due to the way in which, above all, men carry out fewer homicides in a street context than not. in domestic context.
We must understand what we mean by domestic violence. This construct would incorporate within it any violent act committed towards a person close to the aggressor being the partner, children, parents, siblings or other relatives.
This may be related to interpersonal conflicts in families. This type of violence will always take place, regardless of time.
Domestic violence cases remain more stable than non-domestic violence cases which imply that the aggressor commits aggression towards someone he does not know.
By non-domestic violence we refer to a violent act, which can include, of course, homicide, perpetrated by a person who did not know or did not have a close relationship or kinship with the victim.
The contexts of non-domestic violence tend to be situations of robbery, nocturnal violence, sexual abuse or rape outside the couple, and drug crimes. Leaving aside the case of sexual violence, in the majority of these crimes the aggression is between man and man.
These types of crimes fluctuate depending on how developed and prosperous the society is in addition to whether or not there are laws that ensure that these criminal acts do not occur.
What explanation is behind all this?
As we were already saying, the best known Verkko law is the second one, the dynamic one. It postulates that cases of domestic violence, compared to non-domestic violence, have remained more static throughout history. The aggressor of this type of violence is usually a man who kills a member of his family. There are several people who have tried to give a sociocultural explanation to this phenomenon
One of them is the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, who in his famous book The angels we carry inside highlights the explanation of other psychologists, Martin Dally and Margo Wilson. According to these two researchers, the reason why violence in the domestic context remains more or less stable is the fact that Every family member tends to get on each other’s nerves, something that has always happened and always will happen
This is not to say that in every family in which there is some tension, a crime is going to be committed, much less a homicide. However, with this explanation we can understand why, as a society develops, street violence decreases, but domestic violence does not decrease in the same way: in every good family there are conflicts.
In a family, members will always have some type of conflict of interest. Besides, By sharing the same space and also the same genetics, there will always be two people who want to have the same thing, but only one will be able to obtain it in the end, and to achieve it it will be necessary to fight. Aggression, from an evolutionary perspective, is carried out between equals in order to get what they want, this being the most normal motive among men.
However, the majority of victims of domestic violence tend to be women, something that is reflected even in the statistics of the most developed countries. The clearest example of this is the case of the Nordic countries.
The five independent Nordic countries to date, that is, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, share two apparently contradictory characteristics: the first is that in all of them there is a deep sensitivity towards the acquisition of equality and the rights of women. women, the second is that They are the countries with the most cases of murders due to sexist violence
This is striking because it would be expected that, with greater awareness of the privileges of men and the difficulties of women, society would have lower rates of sexist violence. Although street violence has been considerably reduced in these countries, intimate partner violence is still significantly higher than in Mediterranean countries.
It should be said that this phenomenon in the Nordic countries has its explanation. In these countries, whether due to their climate or cultural factors, It is more common to spend time with family and friends at home than going for a walk Given that Verkko’s second law explains that domestic violence is based on the fight for resources and spaces, it is logical to think that the longer one is locked up at home with family members, the more tension there can be and, in turn, the greater the risk of violence.
