Barn som bevittnat våld i nära relationer - En komparativ studie om innebörden av att inte ha målsägandestatus

Abstract

Aims and objectives: Children who witness domestic violence in Sweden are defined as crime victims in their own right. They have the right to receive crime victim compensation from the state. In a criminal law sense these children do not have an explicit legal position, since they do not have the status as plaintiffs. The aim of the present study is to examine what consequences this insecure legal position might lead to. The study compare the situation in Sweden with the situation in Norway for these children. In Norway, children who witness domestic violence have a more explicit legal position, in consideration of their status as plaintiffs. Method and data: The primary empirical data consists of individual interviews with six persons. Four works within the Swedish police and two of them works within the Norwegian police. The secondary data consists of publications, legislation and documents regarding the topic of the study. Through an analysis of the secondary data several questions arose, which could be answered through the primary data. Results: The results from the study shows that the consequences of the insecure legal position these children have, makes it very difficult for the police to discover them and be able to give them the help they are entitled to. By giving these children a more explicit legal position as plaintiffs it will be a statement that this question is taken seriously and make them more visible.