Polisers rätt till kränkningsersättning : Ska polisers rätt till kränkningsersättning vara begränsad på grund av deras yrke?

Sammanfattning: A person who through crime severely violates another person’s person, freedom, peace or honour shall indemnify the injured party for damage such violation inflicts on the injured party. This is called ”kränkningsersättning” and is regulated in Chapter 2, Section 3 of the Swedish Act on Tort damages (skadeståndslagen). The sections contain three necessary prerequisites, that the crime committed is a crime that violates another person’s person, freedom, peace or honour, that the crime constitutes a violation and that such violation is severe. This thesis will focus on the latter, whether or not the violation is severe and how the victim’s profession can have an effect on that, in this case regarding the police profession.   In Swedish legal precedents there have been several cases where certain professions are considered to be particularly exposed and that they need to be able to tolerate more than other people before being entitled to ”kränkningsersättning”. This has been established for police officers, security guards and prison staff but has been considered for other professions as well. The reason for their limited right to compensation is that their professions come with an increased mental awareness compared to others. The limited right to compensation comes in the form of a threshold where the violation needs to be more severe for the injured party to get compensation but does not lead to a smaller compensation if the violation is severe enough to constitute a severe violation.   The purpose of this thesis is to examine the law regarding police officer’s right to ”kränkningsersättning” for crimes committed against them in their role as a police officer. The plenary ruling from the Swedish supreme court in NJA 2005 s. 738 and its impact on the legal position after the previous ruling in NJA 1999 s. 725 will be considered and analysed thoroughly.