Våldtagen eller inte? En studie kring professionellas syn på den våldtagna kvinnan och den rättsprocess hon genomgår

Sammanfattning: Many sexual crime matters are in a difficult position when it comes to proof, where it's word against word between the parties. However, the legislation states that it's the offender's actions that are to be in focus for the judicial judgement, but often the focus is on the woman, whether she said no and how she acted in that particular situation (Sutorius & Kaldal, 2003). The purpose with this essay was to investigate the professionals' view of the raped woman and what image the professionals convey/construct of the legal proceedings she goes through. With professionals, we mean lawyers and other professionals that function as support or treatment contacts for raped women. The questions we considered to be relevant for our investigation were: What image of the raped woman do the professionals convey? What image of the crime rape do the professionals convey and what image do they convey/construct of the legal proceedings the woman goes through? How is the view of the raped woman constructed in society? We considered qualitative interviews mixed with earlier studies and theories to be the best investigative method for our purpose. We have used the theories radical feminism and social constructivism. We chose to interview a prosecutor, three lawyers, whereof all three have had cases as both defender and plaintiff counsel, a hospital welfare officer, a welfare officer from a youth reception, a person who works at a be on call unit for crime victims and a person who works at a be on call unit for women. During our investigation we learned that the people we interviewed thought that the view of the raped woman and rape has changed for the better in society, that the woman's position has strengthened and that we have gotten a more modern legislation. However, despite the progress there are still prejudiced attitudes toward the raped woman and rape and the raped woman's status still needs to improve considerably. We have also noticed that the rape, the raped woman and the legal proceedings are constructed and reshaped depending on the context and social framing of the time. Regardless what meaning is put into the term rape, the act still remains.