This study aims to describe norms around sexual violence and its victims and perpetrators, as constructed discursively in Swedish court cases and how these are altered since the sexual consent legal reform of 2018. Through ideology critical discourse eight rape cases in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, before and after the reform, are analysed. Social constructivism and feminist theory, such as gender dualism, gender order and the heterosexual matrix, provide tools for analysing the discourses surrounding the cases. The study identifies nine discourses: Consent, Violence, Emotions, Sexually available, Attraction, Nice Guy, (Threat of) violence, Resistance, and Not a big deal. It is shown that the emerging Consent discourse has altered foremost the discourses concerning the rape crime itself. The results reveal a tendency to renegotiate the victim ́s sexual boundaries and consent prior to the rape crimes. The study also shows absence of significant change in the discourses surrounding the victim and perpetrator, indicating that gender norms are not easily affected by legislation, which has broad implications for society and social work. It is concluded that the legal reform so far has limited reach and that complementary strategies are needed to make sexual consent a principal social norm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-184746 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Rost, Elin |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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