Det offentliga bemötandet av icke ideala brottsoffer inom det svenska rättsväsendet - En rättssociologisk studie av brottsofferbegreppets betydelse för rättsväsendets arbete

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this study is to examine whether a specific group of non ideal crime victims senses that the standard view of the ideal crime victim stands in the way of them getting the help from the judiciary that they are entitled to. If a discrepancy between theory and practice do exists, then why does it exist and what changes need to be done to eliminate it? These questions have been studied from a sociology of law point of view and the main tool for analyzing the results has been norm theory used in sociology of law. In addition, the term ideal victim coined by the Norwegian criminologist Nils Christie has been used to analyze whether a specific group of crime victims is to be considered as ideal or non ideal crime victims. Firstly, a qualitative documentary study was made of the policy documents and laws that control how the police and the public prosecutors treat crime victims. I also conducted interviews with representatives from the police department, the public prosecutor’s office and two different nonprofit organizations to see if and how these documents and laws have an impact on the work of the judiciary. Lastly, I interviewed three crime victims with some sort of developmental disorder like ADHD and/or pervasive development disorders such as autism and Asperger syndrome to explain how a specific group of non ideal crime victims experience the contact with the judiciary. The result shows that neither policy documents or laws contain practical directions for the judiciary and they only briefly deal with the fact that crime victims is not a homogeneous group. It also indicates that the policy documents and laws lack proper guidelines and proper definitions of important concepts such as ‘crime victim’ to have an actual impact on the judiciary. The result also concludes that a specific group of non ideal crime victims experiences that they do not get the help from the judiciary that they need and are entitled to. My conclusion from this study is that the lack of a legal definition of the term crime victim is of great importance for how crime victims are treated. Furthermore, the problems with the crime victim issues can be explained by a lack of knowledge and an insufficient system. From these conclusions it is clear that many crime victims still to this day are not treated appropriately by the judiciary and do not get the help they need.