Findings suggest that globalization and modernization lead to a relatively homogenous set of laws against domestic violence. The study examined the coincidence of modern law and modern institutions of government with the notion of criminalization, the notion of what is a crime, and what is not acceptable within the boundaries of modern law, suggesting that the higher the level of modernization in a society, the wider its scope of criminalization. Although there are national differences in the nature of laws and statutes and the extent of criminalization regarding domestic violence, increasing modernization and globalization of the issues of human rights, gender equality, and laws against interpersonal violence are increasingly homogenous throughout the world. Societies that are undergoing modernization and globalization are bound to enlarge their boundaries of criminalization, particularly in the expansion and protection of human rights and freedom. Criminalization of domestic violence in the United States, Brazil, India, Japan, Bangladesh, and Ghana came in response to a number of issues related to human rights, women's rights, gender equality, and the role of women in development, those issues broadly related to modernization and globalization. 2 tables