Värdet bakom våldtäkten : En diskursanalys av fyra rättsfall

This paper seeks to explore how victims of crime and defendants are portrayed in sexual assault cases. Lately, more and more voices have been raised in appal against values demonstrated in court decisions and we’ve seen the implementation of a new sexual assault legislation in attempt to increase people’s sexual integrity. Yet, at the same time, there is still a tremendously low amount of reported sexual assaults that go to trial and even fewer result in conviction. This paper is not an attempt to scrutinize the legal system, but to draw attention to what values are portrayed in sexual assault cases. The purpose is to examine the court decisions under consideration to see if and what values are portrayed. My paper can in no way allow generalization; it is merely a small sample of reality. The data consists of four court decisions from Östersund’s Tingsrätt; two of them resulting in conviction and two of them in dismissal. The data was collected systematically and undergoes a discourse analysis; hence it is a qualitative study. The result of the analysis is that although somewhat subtle, the court decisions do indeed portray stereotypical gender roles, particularly regarding victims’ prior sexual history, women’s room to manoeuvre and their given life conditions