Att söka upp sin förövare - En diskursanalys av den rättsliga konstruktionen av det sexuellt självskadande subjektet

Sammanfattning: Sex as self-injury could be described as a pattern of seeking destructive sexual connections in order to harm oneself mentally and/or physically. In Sweden, this behaviour is relatively unexplored, especially within the legal system. Nevertheless, people, which could be assumed to suffer from sex as self-injury, are to be found in both penal- and administrative fields of law. In this thesis I firstly examine the understanding of rape defined in Chapter 6 of the Penal Code, in cases which include sex as self-injury. I also examine article 3 of the Care of Young Persons Act. Moreover, the defendant’s guilt is discussed, and special attention is paid to the new provision of negligent rape in Chapter 6 art. 1 a of the Penal Code. Despite the lack of established assessments of negligence in this field, one could argue that such an assessment most probably will depend on external, visible factors like cuts, burns and/or previous contacts between the parties. Furthermore, the current way of describing sex as self-injury have been criticized for blaming the subjects who self-harm since they, in many cases, have contacted their perpetrators. This raises the question of how these subjects are described within the legal system. I therefore analyse, using discourse analysis, how subjects who self-harm using sex, are constructed in 14 judgements from general and administrative courts. I study how situations of sexual acts are constructed through recurrent portrayals; this as a way of studying the construction of subjects who self-harm using sex. My work is based on social constructionist theory which emphasises that describing subjects and objects in different ways, gives them different content. My study of the 14 judgements shows that subjects who self-harm in many cases are constructed as active subjects. The sexual acts committed are in several cases described as a consequence of their behaviour, for example their selling of sex or other risk-taking conduct. An alternative discourse focused on the subject’s poor mental health as an explanation of the situation. The findings of the discourse analysis are lastly brought to an analysis of how individuals’ behaviours should be understood in the light of contextual aspects such as unequal power balances. Several scholars have stressed the importance of contextual aspects to understand certain behaviours while not reducing the subject’s agency. Regarding subjects who self-harm using sex, such theories can be used to understand their behaviour as neither fully consenting nor as only irrational. To be able to make such flexible interpretation of those subjects in the legal system, more knowledge of sex as self-injury is required.