Grov fridskränkning och grov kvinnofridskränkning : Fridskränkningsbrotten som rättslig konstruktion

Sammanfattning: Over the last decades men’s physical and psychological violence against women in intimate relationships (domestic violence) has become a central issue in Swedish politics. Men’s physical and psychological violence against women is generally be understood as including physical, sexual and psychological violence (e.g rape, battery, sexual abuse or insults) that occurs within the family, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the woman. Law reforms have been carried through with the objective of enhancing criminal legal protection for women. In 1999, a new law came into force within the framework of chapter 4 of the Penal Code which includes any member of the family with the objective to treat acts that are already criminal from a different perspective if they are committed within a pattern of systematic physical and psychological violence.This doctoral thesis examines the concept of domestic violence and the criminal act in Chapter 4, section 4 a of the Swedish Penal Code which prescribes liability for violation of integrity offences. According to the first paragraph, a person who commits criminal acts as defined in Chapters 3, 4, 6 or 12  or of the Swedish Penal Code (e.g. rape, battery, sexual abuse or insults) or violation of a restraining order  against a person with whom they have or have previously had, a close relationship will be sentenced for gross violation of integrity to imprisonment for at least nine months and at most six years if each of the acts were part of a repeated violation of the person’s integrity and the acts were liable to severely damage the person’s self-esteem. The second paragraph states if the acts were committed by a man against a woman to whom he is, or has been married or with whom he is, or has been cohabiting under circumstances comparable to marriage. He will instead be sentenced for a gross violation of a woman’s integrity to the same punishment. The objective of introducing a violation of integrity offence was to enable criminal proceedings to take in to account the abused person’s entire situation when he or she has been subjected to a series of albeit punishable but often individually relatively minor acts and to bring about an upgrading of the penal value of such acts. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine when and under which circumstances a person can be held responsible for gross violation of integrity or gross violation of a woman’s integrity. The analysis aims at the construction of the law, but also to examine the legal and social consequences and the interpretation and application of the law.