Behovet av att komplettera det straffrättsliga skyddet mot hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck

Sammanfattning: In this study, two suggestions on combating honour-related violence and oppression are evaluated. The suggestions are to introduce a legal provision concerning acts committed with an honour motive and to introduce honour motives as a specific aggravating circumstance. The suggestions are evaluated from the victim’s perspective and the rules of criminalisation in order to decide which of the suggestions that can make the governmental treatment of honour-related crimes satisfactory. Where norms of honour are applied, a family’s honour is crucial for its reputation. The family members are controlled to prevent them from violating the norms. The control is most strict against women and violations of the norms are punished through violence and more oppression in order to re-establish the family’s honour. Honour motives can be an aggravating circumstance in the assessment of a crime’s penal value. Although, honour motives are not part of an explicit provision in the law and according to the suggestion, such a provision would improve the chance that a court detects the motive. During the last decade, honour motives have been detected but not thoroughly discussed by the courts. Therefore, it is unclear how a court determines that the incentive behind a crime is honour-related and how the motive affects the penalty. The suggestion of forming a specific aggravating circumstance is the most appropriate, mainly since a legal provision cannot be made predictable. Also, the predictability and the chance of redress for the victim can increase through a specific aggravating circumstance. Since honour motives often are detected today and it is clear that the motive can be considered as an aggravating circumstance, the governmental treatment of honour-related crimes is satisfactory. However, a specific aggravating circumstance should still be introduced in order to make the treatment more satisfactory.