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<p>The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.</p>

The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen understanding of elder abuse (EA) by exploring and comparing perceptions held by experts, older persons, representatives of potential support organizations, and family members. Experts’ perspectives (I) were examined through risk indicators and screening questions (a) located in EA literature and (b) selected by an international Delphi panel. Risk indicators most commonly found in the literature or selected by the panel were compiled into consensus lists. There were differences between risk indicators and questions in the two lists. In papers II and III participants were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA. Older persons (II) considered EA to be due to changing society and family systems where children are not brought up to respect older persons. EA was mainly conceptualized as ageism, criminal actions, mistreatment in residential care, and societal abuse. The abuser was perceived as a stranger or a healthcare worker. Fear was discussed as a major consequence of EA; especially fear among women. Abused persons were described as carrying the responsibility to seek help. Witnesses were described as hesitant to get involved. Improvements in society such as educating children and healthcare workers were considered ways to cope with EA. Besides family and friends there were few spontaneous suggestions for where to seek help and support in society. These suggestions included healthcare, police, church, and volunteer organizations. Representatives of these suggested organizations were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of EA (III). Perceptions of both causes and conceptions of EA were very similar to perceptions of older persons (II). Four themes emerged in the data; good intentions in abusive situations, older generation’s responsibility for EA, failing to report abuse, and prevention of abuse. Participants (III) also expressed ageist attitudes themselves and findings included victim blaming and tolerance for EA. Participants perceived that anyone could be provoked to abuse, and that abusers can be considered victims in abusive situations. Confidentiality was discussed as a barrier to reporting and the need for educating children to show respect for older persons was identified. Interviews with an adult family member (IV) explored her experiences of witnessing abuse situations between her uncle and his wife. In her desire to protect and remain loyal to her family she felt powerless and tolerated abuse. She longed for support she could trust but was locked into passivity by her feelings of shame. Synthesis of findings (I – IV) revealed issues of isolation, autonomy, vulnerability, victim blaming, perceiving the abuser as a victim of circumstances, ageism, tolerating EA, shame, and power as essential elements in EA. Based on the findings, alternative descriptions of EA are offered as a challenge to existing EA definitions. Findings suggest that a key to unlocking EA is compassion, understood as the ability to see a situation as if we were in it ourselves, experiencing the potential for disrespect, shame and unworthiness inherent in abusive acts.

This essay aims to investigate how female murder victims are portrayed in Swedish newspapers. By analyzing how the murder of the two Swedish women, Tova Moberg and Kim Wall, are portrayed in four of Sweden’s biggest newspapers; Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet we aim to understand if, and how, they differ. Four research questions have therefore been conducted: 1) What are the similarities and differences between Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet’s way of portraying female murder victims? 2) What meaning does the genre, for example type of newspaper, the editorial department and type of article have in the depiction of female murder victims? 3) What meaning does the production of the male suspects (in these two specific cases) have for the portrait of the female murder victims? And lastly 4) How can our results be connected to previous research, in terms of media representations of women as crime victims? The theoretical framework was used to answer these four questions, and involves the social constructionism perspective, genre theory, gender theory and a combined chapter of media rethorics, media logic and media dramaturgy. The material consists of articles from the four newspapers, and the chosen method is textual analysis. The results show, that there are explicit examples, and implicit tendencies of victim blaming in both murder cases, but not in all four papers. In conclusion, the tabloids tend to write in a way to intrigue and interest, while the daily newspapers seem to write in more of an objective and neutral manner. This essay is partly built upon previous studies on victim blaming in british newspapers. Previous research about the phenomena of victim blaming or ideal victim has not been conducted in swedish press and this essay can therefore serve as a contribution to the scientific field of media and communication and journalism in Sweden.

This thesis critically examines dominant conceptualizations of safety crimes – offences by corporations that seriously injure and kill workers – within the Alberta oil and gas industry. Using critical discourse analysis, and relying on and Foucaultian and Marxist literatures, the thesis critically examines the extent to which government fatality reports, workplace safety education campaigns and court decisions characterize safety crimes primarily as ‘accidents’ caused by ‘careless’ workers. Two main discourses were found: first, workers were responsibilized, effectively blamed for their own injury and death in the workplace while employers were characterized as largely good and law-abiding; second, serious injury and death was (re)conventionalized as the regrettable but largely unintentional and unavoidable side effect of capitalist production. In the process, the underlying causes of safety crimes, including weak and under-enforced laws and a socio-economic context that prioritizes profits over worker safety, remain untouched.

The victim-offender overlap has been extensively studied and documented overthe last decades. Various studies have identified young men as the most commonvictims of violent assault, yet the public, the media, but also criminologicalresearch have actively favored the discourse on the ideal victim. Consequently,not much is known about how victim-offenders experience and perceivevictimization.The present systematic literature review aims to analyze how violent victimizationis experienced and narrated by male victim-offenders in the context of hegemonicmasculinity. Secondly, it aims to analyze in how far the public’s attitudes ofvictim blaming and victim concern are affected by a belief in a just world.Collectively, these findings aim to create a better understanding of criminal men’svictim identities.The public’s empathy and concern are reserved to the innocent and vulnerablevictim; criminal men are perceived as culpable and deserving of victimization.The latter use violence as an instrument of dominance and subordination, in linewith hegemonic masculinity beliefs, and reject the victim identity (antithesis ofmasculinity), forming a new category of the nonideal victim.

The Finnish police have power and influence as they are gate keepers of the criminal justice system. Governmental crime reduction policies rely on the actions of the police and in 2020 the Finnish police made a TikTok video to warn adolescences about dangers of sexting. My thesis uses Lerner’s Just world hypothesis and Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be as a theoretical framework, and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) to identify how the victim is represented in the TikTok video. The analysis on the content of the TikTok video is representing the victim as culpable for the crime against him/her. When the analysis is applied to the theoretical framework, it can be argued that the instructive TikTok video bears pressing social and institutional problems and extends people’s responsibility for avoiding crime and therefore fails achieving a balanced policy between crime prevention and criminal justice response.

Throughout history, sex and sexuality has been a subject for many debates. It has been regulated through both authorities and social norms. Female sexuality has been seen both as a symbol for motherhood and as a sin. Women have also been judged both for their virginity and their lack of it. This matter appears regularly in the media, whereas women still are objectified and judged for how they choose to exert their sexuality. Therefor, we have chosen to study how this appears in teenage movies in modern times, through a case study of the movies Easy A, Juno and The first time. We want to examine which kind of messages that are transmitted to youths about women and their sexuality. We have used the variables informal sexual education, slut shaming, victim blaming, the madonna/whore complex and objectification. Our results shows that women’s sexuality still is criticized and regulated by society and its values.

This paper will explore how portrayals of male violence against female characters in film and television have affected the way in which women navigate through society. Images of exploitation, degradation, and violence towards females are constantly presented in television and film, creating an over saturation in the media market and fostering a sense of normalcy the extremely problematic issue of violence. Often, these images are internalized by women to the extent that their view the men around them becomes as distorted as the men who view them as nothing more than sex object. Men become their source of fear and what was carried out on television becomes an accepted possibility and expectation in reality, regardless of whether these men actually pose of threat. Through examining television shows and news broadcasts, the paper reveals how media serves to perpetuate traditional notions of gender, power, and assault created in American society and offers solutions to rework the traditional systems or thought.

Intimate partner violence is one of the most common forms of violence againstwomen and is a widespread social problem that affects women among allsocioeconomic, religious and cultural groups. It is the social services responsibilityto meet these women and to especially consider the well-being of women who havebeen exposed to violence or abuse by a partner. Research within the field shows thatthere are several reasons why it may be difficult for abused women to break therelationship with the abuser. One reason is the feelings of guilt and shame thatcommonly submerge in an abusive relationship. Research suggests that women whohave been victims to domestic abuse may need informal support before they seekfurther support from professionals. How this first uncovering of the violence isreceived may be crucial to the woman's further actions and reasoning about hersituation. In today's society we live a big part of our lives online where we interactwith each other on a daily basis. Several people turn to digital platforms to receiveadvice and support for their real issues when they may feel like they can't turn topeople around them in real life. These digital platforms have been seen gettingincreasingly used by survivors of intimate partner violence to share theirexperiences as well as seek support and advice. This study is a netnographic study about women exposed to intimate partnerviolence and their help seeking behaviors on the Swedish online forums Flashbackand Familjeliv. The aim of this study is to explore the responses these women getwhen they seek support and advice about their situation online. The results of thisstudy shows that women who seek support online receive a wide range of responseswhere we could identify stigmatizing as well as destigmatizing elements. Thestigmatizing responses consisted mainly of victim blaming where the woman wastold she had herself to blame whereas the destigmatizing responses consisted ofemotional support and practical advice.