AbstractThis chapter provides indispensable insights into the BHS research design and its practical operationalization. The chapter's leitmotiv is that there is no perfect empirical violence research – with each study we come a bit closer to revealing few of the many unknowns of (lethal) violence, while making valuable mistakes that open new lines of research. In that sense, the most meaningful way of handling the methodological and practical imperfections of the BHS is to be transparent and

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... ective about the crucial "whys and hows" of its research design. After explaining the study's two core objectives, the main methodological decisions and challenges will be presented. This includes various aspects of designing and using a unique instrument for data collection, sampling strategies, data representativeness, normative and statistical context, as well as field work and data analysis challenges. The chapter's aim is to realistically depict all the methodological ups and downs of the BHS. It will equip readers with all the necessary information needed to arrive at own, potentially even divergent, conclusions on the study's first findings.