Research project The legal framework as a way of correcting attrition in sexual offences: Lessons learned from Sweden
Research project in criminal law that aims to analyse the Swedish statutory law on rape and what areas of attrition that are present in the current regulation.
Sweden often ranks well internationally regarding gender equality. For decades, Sweden has introduced legal frameworks aiming at improving gender equality. In 2018, the Swedish government at the time, who claimed to be a “feminist government”, introduced a law on involuntariness in regards to rape. The reform also introduced the new offence of negligent rape. The 2018 reform was motivated by feminist and victim-related arguments. The 2018 reform was a result of #metoo, raising demands that a law on consent and the offence of negligent crime should be introduced into Swedish criminal law. The government adhered to these demands. Hence, the government successfully used political momentum when introducing the 2018 reform. But what was the result of the 2018 reform: Does it exist a discrepancy between the statutory law and the policy decision made by the government? What positive features exist in the Swedish statutory law on rape? What areas of attrition is present in the Swedish rape law? And what lessons can be learned from the current Swedish rape law? This research project analyses primarily these questions.
The research project is part of a European research project, led by Dr Rahime Erbaş, assistant professor in criminal law at Istanbul University. The project collects researchers from United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey and Sweden.
Project description
The main objective of the research project is to analyse the legal framework of the Swedish statutory rape law. The project focuses on the statutory law and the policy behind the rape law. Thus, the project mainly explores the legal design of the statutory law, how the current rape law was shaped by policy and the socio-political context which has affected the current and past Swedish statutory rape law. Here, important features include the Nordic Welfare State, gender equality and the entanglement between these policy areas. Therefore, the aim of the project is to analyse the Swedish statutory rape law and what areas of attrition that exist within the current legal framework. This is primarily done by placing the Swedish legal framework on rape in a Nordic and international context.
Hence, the following questions is of particular interest for the project: How has the current Swedish statutory rape law been designed – and why has it been designed in this way? What areas of attrition exist in the current Swedish legal framework regarding rape? What discrepancies exist between the design of the statutory rape law and the policies motivating the introduction of involuntariness as a prerequisite for intentional rape and the new crime of negligent rape? And what can we learn from the Swedish statutory rape law?
Project members
Project managers
More about this project
This research project has been presented at the following conferences:
- Kriminologikonferansen 2023, arranged by Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo, Oslo, 23-24 May 2023.
- Stockholm Criminology Symposium, arranged by (the Swedish) National Council for Crime Prevention, Stockholm, 12-14 June 2023.
Note that the Swedish Ethical Review Authority has approved this research project.