Response to interpellation 2022/23:390 on the criminalization of psychological violence

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! Sanna Backeskog has asked me whether I and the government will work to ensure that psychological violence is criminalized and when the Riksdag can expect to receive such a bill.

Preventing and combating violence against women and violence in close relationships is a high priority for the government as well as for the Riksdag. Violence against women and violence in close relationships is a serious societal problem that can never be accepted. Fundamentally, it is a matter of all people in our country having the same right to be free and to be safe.

The concept of psychological violence is not defined in Swedish criminal legislation. According to both the Swedish Social Insurance and Housing Authority's and the WHO's definitions, however, violence can be both physical and psychological. This relates to how the concept of violence is used in several international legal documents, for example, the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Council of Europe's current convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the Istanbul Convention.

That psychological violence is a real and serious problem stands beyond all reasonable doubt. Psychological violence can occur in a close relationship, together with or without other violence. It can also occur in connection with honor-related violence and oppression. Psychological violence often occurs systematically and on repeated occasions, and it is more common to be subjected to psychological violence than physical violence in a close relationship. It is therefore of great importance that there are legal tools to combat acts that cause psychological harm or that involve negative social control.

As Sanna Backeskog has indicated, an investigator has been tasked with submitting proposals on how the criminal law protection against psychological violence can be further strengthened. In the memorandum *Straffansvar för psykiskt våld*, the investigator has made the assessment that psychological violence is already punishable to some extent, but that there is a need to further strengthen the criminal law protection. The investigator therefore proposes that a new specific crime type should be introduced aimed at precisely psychological violence.

The memorandum has been referred, and the referral period expired in November 2022. The memorandum and the referral responses are currently being prepared within the Government Offices. I do not wish to anticipate the result of that process other than by reiterating that the fundamental issue of men's and women's equal right to safety and thus also freedom stands high on the government's priority list.

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Sanna Backeskog (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister of Justice!

Here in the Riksdag, most of our colleagues have packed up their things and are now doing the last few days' work at home or in Almedalen. The MPs' children have had their school graduation and are looking forward to a summer break that, for them, feels eternal. But, Mr. Speaker, violence does not take a summer break. On the contrary, violence against women and children tends to escalate during the summer. No employer keeps track of whether the woman makes it to work every day. No teacher looks the child in the eye and asks how they are doing. The summer holidays and Christmas holidays, which for most children create the most wonderful, thrilling, and warmest memories, are for other children pure experiences of terror that leave deep and lifelong scars.

This interpellation debate is about psychological violence. Just as the Minister for Justice mentions, psychological violence occurs in many different forms and variations and is far more common in close relationships than physical violence. Many are the women who have lived under violence from a man who testifies that the first blow was preceded by a long period of psychological violence. It is violence that can harm and violate at least as much as physical violence. It is also through the psychological violence that the man often maintains the perpetration of violence even after the woman has left the relationship by exercising so-called post-violence.

Psychological violence in close relationships is about power and control. Psychological violence occurs throughout society, in all social groups, and in both same-sex and heterosexual relationships. It can hit children, young people, hbtqi persons, people with disabilities, and the elderly particularly hard.

As the Minister for Justice mentions, there is no comprehensive definition of psychological violence, but it can involve repeated violations, shaming the victim in front of others, and shaming and blaming.

Often it is a matter of wanting to take control over and restrict the victim's living space by deciding whom the victim is allowed to meet or where she is allowed to move. It can also involve economic control – taking complete control over another's finances and withholding income or indepting the victim and wasting away savings.

Inflicting physical violence on or even killing pets to harm the victim is all too common. The County Administrative Board is alarmed by this.

The post-violence can also involve repeated insults and violations and talking poorly about and spreading lies about the victim to family and mutual friends. Many women testify about withholding financial means or about the perpetrator repeatedly initiating different types of proceedings, for example custody disputes – all to prevent the victim from living a safe and calm life after leaving the perpetrator.

Psychological abuse is also about systematically and repeatedly violating the victim. Often, the perpetrator is a very manipulative person. It is common for the victim to eventually begin to believe the perpetrator's violations. These can be directed at everything that defines the person: parenting ability, intelligence, humor, clothing style, sexuality, and relationships within both private and professional life.

Psychological abuse in a relationship is the form of violence that first manifests. It is also often the violence that is perceived as most offensive, unpredictable, and stressful.

In my home county of Gävleborg, more women die as a result of men's violence in close relationships than people die in a gang context. In both cases, it concerns very gross and serious crimes.

Mr. Speaker! The Minister for Justice and I seem to agree that it is important to work against all forms of violence, including psychological violence. That is good. Therefore, I would like to ask for a clear statement from the Minister. Does this government want psychological violence to be criminalized? If so, why has the bill not been presented yet? When can I and everyone watching the debate expect it to come to the Riksdag?

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank my fellow Member of Parliament for this incredibly important interpellation. I would also like to thank the Minister for the answer. It felt good to hear. It was a good reasoning. A number of things were established that I agree with the Minister on.

The Minister's answer took me back to an arrangement I was at here in Stockholm, which is not my home. Therefore, it was a bit different for me. It was an apolitical arrangement, but I believe the initiative came from a moderate opposition council here in Stockholm. There we talked about precisely equality. Many actors were invited. It was incredibly rewarding to listen to so many parts of society discuss this. Among other things, this investigation came up there. One asked where it has gone and if it will become anything. Therefore, I think back to that evening.

In this context, just as I have done both then and during several other interpellation debates and at committee meetings with the Minister for Equality, I want to discuss that it concerns several forms of violence. It is, among other things, the physical violence. We also see what this debate is about: the psychological violence. But it also concerns economic violence and sexual violence. There are, therefore, several forms of violence. It is important to put it in a larger context. But that should not be what the debate today is about.

Psychological violence is a widespread problem that leads to these major consequences for those who are subjected to it. There is a great need to make it visible in a criminal justice system. I want to emphasize several of the parts and the major consequences that the interpellor highlights, perhaps above all that psychological violence is carried out systematically over time, before the first blow, before it transitions to physical violence.

We here in the Riksdag, as the Minister stated at the beginning, but also the government want it to be high on the agenda to break men's violence against women. Given that, there should be a special focus on being able to break the psychological violence in time.

It is also about what legislation that criminalizes this could lead to. It is important to talk to many, especially the younger generation. It is important that violence in young relationships is put on the agenda. And people within different instances in society should be trained to be able to break it. We must make it visible in a way that leads to that. I want to emphasize that it is important.

That is why it is important for us to ask the Minister when the reform will be on the floor of the Riksdag. What is the next step? It has been some time since the referral responses were submitted. The pace of the reform may not have been very high yet. I therefore think that there should be openings to move forward with this type of reform.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! First and foremost, I would like to extend a big thank you to Sanna Backeskog, who has raised the question. A big thank you also for an excellent description of the depth and breadth of the problem for the individuals concerned immediately, but also for society as a whole. It is already an extraordinarily important contribution.

It is quite true that the issue was investigated during the previous parliamentary term. The report has been sent out for consultation, and we have now received the consultation responses. This is my impression of the responses, and it perhaps says something about the way forward.

Overall, there is an approving attitude towards this approach. I also think it can be confirmed that there is high quality in the investigation work.

A number of referral bodies that are quite close to what we can call criminal practice - prosecutors, courts and others - have raised a couple of warning flags. They are actually of two types. One concerns what is called legality, i.e., whether the new penalty is sufficiently precisely designed to be applicable in practice.

The second warning flag concerns the fact that Denmark has been pointed out, which already has this. That other comparable countries apply it is for me a strong argument to have as a starting point that we should also do so. But nevertheless, the practical impact of perhaps precisely this way of meeting this very real and serious issue has not necessarily had the practical effect that one had envisioned.

It is not arguments for me that lead to the conclusion that we should not carry it out. But I believe that is the explanation for why the preparatory work at the department is proceeding quite properly in depth to analyze the objections that have been received in a proper manner.

I cannot say which day the bill will be submitted. But I can assure both Sanna Backeskog and Sofia Amloh that the work is being driven forward very purposefully at the department.

My starting point is that the problems described are real. There is probably no doubt that there is a larger scope within the framework of existing penalties to possibly address part of the issues, but not all of the issues, that the interpellator raises. It requires that we find a way to address psychological violence in a particular order. That is my direction or instinct on the matter.

I would like to inform the interpellator and everyone else here in the chamber and in the Riksdag who feels a special commitment to the issue about how the process is moving forward. It is doing so with the goal of finding a solution that is in line with what has been proposed in the committee report.

There is also another aspect, which relates to what the interpellator raised. The way this violence manifests can also be such that each individual act does not necessarily reach what is currently punishable, but the pattern or repetition over a longer period makes it offensive in the aggregate if it cannot be addressed with our penal legislation. How this violence is exercised in practice speaks strongly for us finding a way forward that is in line with the content of the investigation.

I ask to be allowed to return very shortly to some other matters in the area. But since this was the question, I focused this answer on it.

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Sanna Backeskog (S)

Mr. Speaker! I would like us to dwell a little extra on the children. Unfortunately, children grow up with psychological violence, either as directly exposed victims or by virtue of a parent being exposed. This causes great harm to the individual child but also for society as a whole.

We know that children who are subjected to or experience violence in the home run a greater risk of subjecting others to violence or being subjected to it themselves in adulthood. We also unfortunately know all too well that just as in the case of violence against women, physical abuse is most often preceded by psychological abuse.

Children's rights must be constantly monitored and strengthened, and it is high time to take more steps in both preventive and criminal justice work. The foundation Allmänna Barnahuset's mapping from 2022 showed that 15 percent of students reported that they had been subjected to psychological violence by an adult. 12 percent reported that they had been subjected to it by a parent.

A child from the mapping describes it like this: "Only live with my dad and he usually has a tendency to get angry very easily. It has affected me negatively and given me anxiety. Experience his anger as very scary as I feel insecure at home, he has never physically abused me but sometimes it feels like he could be capable of it. Have become so paranoid that I usually monitor my door to my room because I am afraid he will storm in and scream at me. Because of that, I have developed social anxiety and depression, it has affected me negatively."

Mr. Speaker! We must not betray these children. Criminal liability is a step on the way toward the children's right to redress, but imposing punishment is obviously not the only solution. For every krona invested in the justice system, at least as much should be invested in preventive work.

I am worried about the "steel bath" that municipalities and regions are being subjected to, because cuts in welfare are the worst thing that can happen to our country right now. Sweden needs more teachers, social workers, field assistants, and nurses. These are people who can work preventatively, see every child, and catch all the signs that perhaps everything is not quite right at home – because the signs are usually there.

Knowledge of violence in close relationships and violence in an honor context must be strengthened throughout society, but perhaps above all within the justice system, in schools, in healthcare, and in social services. I would therefore wish, Mr. Speaker, that the Minister for Justice informs municipalities and regions about what resources they can count on moving forward in order to be able to carry out this vital competence-enhancing and preventive work.

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Mr. Speaker! I understand that the Minister and his department want to delve into the various referral responses. I also see that the focus of the referral responses may differ slightly, but I still want to cheer on the government when it comes to picking a low-hanging fruit – a reform to place on the Riksdag's table.

The government says that the crime victim needs to come more into focus, and I cannot emphasize it enough. I hope that it also weighs very heavily when a reform eventually comes to the table and that we truly emphasize the importance of that and everything that has been said earlier in this debate.

I understand that the Minister cannot give us a date or a day in this situation, but I think there are a couple more steps to go through the Government Offices to the Riksdag's table. Some kind of timetable is probably not unreasonable to demand now that we are so clearly in agreement that this is important and needs to be implemented. We Social Democrats are very careful to say that we do not think this should be competed out by other violence, for example, men's violence against other men and gang crime. This should not take a backseat because of such things.

Will we have to stand here and have an interpellation debate in exactly one year's time again because we haven't gotten this on the table? That is the question I choose to put to the Minister.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I turn the tables and say that if this is not on the Riksdag's table in a year, you can escort me out of this speaker's chair with a blue light at that time. I just want to confirm that the crime victim perspective is a very strong reason to legislate against actions that obviously are not caught by criminal law today but which we, for a number of reasons, believe that the whole of society, ultimately through the state and criminal law, must mark sharply against. It is urgent to find a way forward.

I say that it is important to do this carefully, and I do not experience anyone opposing that. I read Brå's referral response, and they point out, among other things, Denmark where this type of legislation already exists, which is a strong reason to introduce it here as well. Brå possibly wonders what practical impact it has received and then highlights that it may have a normative or more symbolic effect. I think those can be important reasons for legislation.

The only catch is that criminal law must be able to be applied in practice and function when prosecutors bring charges or courts are to apply it. That means that the very serious views that have been raised on that part must nevertheless be considered and analyzed properly. But do not take that as an expression of a low level of ambition or a different perception of the direction! It is merely an expression that this is so important that the legislation must be so good that, when it finally arrives, it also achieves the intended effect. As I said: Feel free to hunt me down here in a year if it is not on the Riksdag's table at that time.

If I may broaden the perspective somewhat, I want to say that the work, as mentioned, takes place in a broader context. There is much in the view that there is a risk that other issues will fall into the background when we have a societal development with 62 fatal shootings last year, but let me still just say a few more things in this area.

In this context, we shall also address psychological violence in the field of criminal law. We are reviewing the legislation on restraining orders and the sentencing scales regarding crimes against children, gross violation of peace, and gross violation of women's peace. We have another investigation underway that looks at stricter rules for parole and permission, not least regarding the type of crime we are now speaking about.

Rules on stay-away orders after a judgment are intended to provide increased protection for those subjected to violence in close relationships or honor-related violence and oppression. We have tightened the directives to an ongoing investigation in order to propose a criminalization of virginity checks and virginity operations, considering that the psychological violence we are talking about also occurs in the honor-cultural context.

In an EU context, against the background of the presidency entering the final stretch this week, we have pushed forward a general guideline that we have had all member states stand behind in the form of a new directive to combat violence against women and violence in close relationships.

I also want to highlight things that do not fall within the criminal law area, as that question was raised. We have recently begun work on a new national action program against men's violence against women which will apply for 2024-2026. We are going to develop an additional, longer-term strategy regarding the prevention and combating of gender-related violence, violence in close relationships, and honor-related violence and oppression. The prosecution authority has received clearer reporting requirements in the regulatory letter regarding these issues - and so on.

I am not saying this to take the spotlight away from today's main issue, but to say that it exists in a broader context that overall aims for one thing: to stand up for the crime victims and ensure that violence and oppression, regardless of how it is exercised, are taken most seriously and receive exactly the consequences we have the right to expect from a modern penal code.

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Sanna Backeskog (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is very pleasing that the Minister for Justice and his party and we in our party take crime victim issues most seriously.

Over a long series of years, the Social Democrats in government have step by step ensured that there have been more police officers with better tools while the penalties have been tightened.

The police have reinforced the work against men's violence against women with 350 new investigators. The consent law, which makes it even clearer that sex that is not voluntary is illegal, constitutes one of the milestones. In government position, we tightened the penalties for several sexual offenses as well as for assault, aggravated violation of a woman's peace, and violation of a restraining order.

It is also now a criminal offense to expose a child to seeing and hearing crimes of violence in a close relationship. Children who are exposed to this are also considered crime victims in the sense of the law. This is good, but it is obviously not enough.

It would be extremely important to make psychological violence more visible even in criminal law contexts, given the impact and harm that psychological abuse has on a vulnerable person. I and my party want to see new legislation against psychological abuse.

A crime victim law is also needed that gathers and strengthens the rights of crime victims. I know that the Moderates and the Social Democrats are in complete agreement on that.

Much good work is currently taking place across the country. Police and social services are joining forces to prevent and detect violence. But I believe we also need to connect the regions more clearly. Maternity care, child healthcare, the health center, and psychiatry are perhaps the most important institutions for cooperation. For this, the welfare needs money. Better conditions are needed to be able to participate in the preventive work.

Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for Justice for an important and constructive debate. I feel cautiously positive that our parties will be able to cooperate in a concerted effort against the serious crimes that primarily affect women and children within the walls of the home.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Mr. Speaker! I would like once again to thank the interpellor Sanna Backeskog for raising an extraordinarily important issue in the chamber today and for also shedding light on the legislative work currently underway in the context of the investigation that was completed before Christmas and which has been referred.

I want to confirm the direction in all the legislative work in the area concerning oppression and violence affecting women and children and, in that regard, also men in certain vulnerable situations. I hope to find broad alliances in the Swedish Riksdag for the important legislative work.

Now, I happen to be the Minister for Justice and am responsible for the criminal law part, but let me confirm that it is obvious that other parts of society must also be mobilized to both prevent and deter crime such as this. When it does occur, sufficiently high-quality evidence must also be produced so that the criminal provisions that exist in the legislation can be used. The law is one part, but it is absolutely crucial to establish what has actually happened so that the legislation can have real life and impact in that part.

Many thanks for the opportunity to discuss an important issue today! Let us return to each other during the course of work in both this and other legislative work.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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