Response to interpellation 2023/24:273 on domestic violence among young people
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns violence in close relationships among young people. L considers it a major societal problem that requires the full force of society 1. L prioritizes preventive work in the government's strategy and wants to use schools to create a culture of consent 1. L wants to focus on digital violence 2 3, work with norms and values, highlight the perspective of crime victims, review repressive measures for perpetrators as well as investigate more restraining orders with electronic tags. SD considers that violence has become more common, especially against women 4. SD wants more knowledge in schools and better support so that women can break free 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Sara Gille has asked me in what way I intend to prevent more young people from ending up in a violent relationship, and how I intend to help those who have already been affected.
I would like to thank the member for the question and the commitment to counter violence in young people's relationships, a commitment that the government shares. Violence in close relationships must be combated with the full force of society. It is a self-evident and important part of the government's priorities.
Preventing violence from arising or recurring at all is the primary starting point for the government's ten-year national strategy to counter and combat men's violence against women. Expanded and effective prevention work against violence is one of the most prioritized areas in the strategy and the action program applicable for 2021-2023. Currently, work is underway on a new action program to be applicable for 2024-2026. The violence prevention work will continue to be in focus for the work, as well as offering those affected by violence the protection and support they are entitled to.
Based on the ten-year national strategy, the government is taking several measures aimed at preventing and detecting violence in young people's relationships.
In June 2023, the Gender Equality Authority received a new and broadened mandate regarding violence in young people's romantic relationships. The Gender Equality Authority shall, among other things, submit proposals on how the work to prevent and detect violence in young people's romantic relationships can be improved. The Authority shall also disseminate and make support material available to professionals and carry out competence-enhancing initiatives. The mandate shall cover both vulnerability to violence as well as the perpetration of violence in young people's romantic relationships.
The Gender Equality Authority also has a mandate to translate, adapt, and impact-evaluate violence prevention programs aimed at school-aged youth. Results from evaluations of the programs when used in American contexts show positive effects on both vulnerability to violence and the perpetration of violence in young people's peer relationships. The mandate is to be reported on 1 October 2025.
The school has an important role in contributing to the creation of a culture of consent, where sex is based on voluntariness and sexual violence is not normalized. The school curricula were changed in 2022 to improve the quality of teaching regarding sexuality, consent, and relationships. Consent has been added to emphasize the importance of students developing an understanding of their own and others' rights and to convey the importance of sexuality and relationships being characterized by mutuality. This summer, the government tasked the Swedish Schools Inspectorate with reviewing the schools' work regarding the new knowledge area, including the work to prevent violence. Skolverket was simultaneously given a reinforced mandate to counter honor-related violence and oppression.
Regarding the dissemination of images, I also want to mention an ongoing investigation that is to map the knowledge base on violence and other abuses against adults and exploitation of children in the production and distribution of pornography, as well as propose how access to protection, support, and care for adults and children can be improved. I look forward to taking part in these proposals which are presented now in December.
Violence in close relationships is a major societal problem that causes great individual suffering. The Government is carrying out several important initiatives within the area of mental health. We are strengthening the work against men's violence against women, honor-related violence and oppression, as well as prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes on a broad front. In the budget bill for 2024, the Government proposes that just over 600 million kronor be allocated within the gender equality policy for the area. Through the initiatives, the protection against violence and oppression can be strengthened while the support for the vulnerable is improved.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer to my interpellation!
I have submitted this interpellation because I believe it is an extremely important subject and area to highlight where we need to do more to combat violence and support those who are vulnerable.
It is good that we agree that violence in close relationships is a major societal problem and that it must be combated. Unfortunately, we see that violence in close relationships has become more common, and then especially against women. Not being able to feel safe with the one who stands closest to you is terrifying, and it is nothing that anyone should have to experience.
According to research, it has been shown that young women are exposed to violence in close relationships to a greater extent than adult women. It is also significantly more common for girls than for boys to be subjected to repeated violence from a partner. Even though it is more common for a boy to commit violence against his girlfriend, it can of course look different. Violence can occur in all kinds of relationships.
Killer's violence against girls and violence in young people's relationships is a major and serious societal problem that affects young people's lives and health. Someone who lives in a violent relationship and is young can be extra vulnerable as the person lives under different conditions than an adult does. It can also be difficult to know where the line is for what is acceptable in a relationship if one is experiencing their very first relationship.
Madam Speaker! An adult who is subject to violence may experience their job as a sanctuary, while a vulnerable teenager may go to a school where the perpetrator is, or experience that the perpetrator seeks out the school area, where studies also show that violence occurs. This makes it even harder for them to focus on school and reach their goals, which is important for them in order to succeed in their studies and future work.
Being forced to face the perpetrator every day can affect young people's ability to end a violent relationship. Psychological violence is the most common type of violence in a close relationship, both among girls and among boys. It also includes monitoring on social media, where today's youth are extra vulnerable today. For example, it is not uncommon for monitoring to occur digitally, which affects young people's opportunities to protect themselves and hide. Unfortunately, there are many young people who increasingly report that they have been subjected to some form of psychological violence online.
Madam Speaker! I would very much like the Minister to elaborate a little on how she and the government intend to act to help the young girls who are subjected to psychological violence via social media.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! Even in this question, I would like to thank the interpellor for that we are standing and talking about an important issue that deserves more focus than it has received until now.
Recently, a report was released from the researchers Shilan Caman and Sara Skott, who have reviewed fatal partner violence. The research shows that while the fatal violence from a male partner against adult women is decreasing over time, the violence remains at an unchanged level when it concerns specifically young people. This, of course, we must investigate: Why is it that way?
According to the researchers, it is primarily three factors that distinguish the violence in the group of women up to 25 years old compared with women who have turned 26. It has been found that lethal partner violence against young women is motivated by separation. It is more common that girls are killed by strangulation, and it is more common that it involves drug use.
Madam Speaker! Before I became a minister and worked as a prosecutor, I worked for a period specifically with youth cases. It became very clear to me, when I during that time saw all the sexual violence and controlling behavior that exists in young relationships, that there is a large knowledge gap between today's adult world and today's youth world.
Our youth live their lives on social media. They have free access to online pornography, where they receive their primary sex education. In my work as a prosecutor, I was appalled by how normalized elements of violence were in the youth's sex lives and how online pornography influenced the view on consent and how one should interpret those types of signals. I was also appalled by how today's technology enables control when one can constantly, all the time, see where one's partner is located and how long one stays at a certain place.
Madam Speaker! We must see that we have a new current situation regarding our youth's relationships. We must think anew. We must adapt our measures to the reality that our young people live in. This is one of the most important measures we can take both to reduce violence in young people's romantic relationships and to be able to have preventive measures before violence in adult relationships. If our youth learn that controlling behavior is a normal part of a relationship and that violence is normalized, there is a great risk that it continues even into adulthood.
Madam Speaker! In the measures that the government is taking, including in the investigation that we have commissioned to develop a new national strategy, we have a particular focus precisely on the young relations. We see that it is the absolute most important thing we can do to ensure that violence never takes place at all. We cannot just manage the symptoms; we must work preventatively. And there we must work with our youth.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! I myself have been in a destructive relationship that started when I was in my teens. It extended far into adulthood, and I know exactly what it is like to be unable to leave a relationship. I also know how it feels to want to leave but not be able to.
If one has never lived a life in a destructive and oppressive relationship, one also has no idea what it is like and what it means. Most often it is good at the beginning, but as time passes it changes and becomes worse. In my case, it became punches. Over time, it also easily happens that the whole thing becomes normalized, as the Minister says.
Unfortunately, I am not the only one who has experienced this. In fact, every fifth young person in Sweden has been subjected to crime in their relationship – this according to a survey conducted by the Swedish Crime Prevention Council. Nearly one in four young girls has been subjected to violence in a relationship. But the dark figure is large because a large proportion of those subjected to violence never report the abuses they are subjected to in the close relationship.
Few young people turn to the adult world to get help. In order for them to dare to seek help, and for crimes to be discovered and prosecuted, the support for them must be improved. A young person who experiences violence of any kind in a relationship may not have a safety net in their home, which means that the person may not want to or have the opportunity to ask for help and support from any adult. It can be due to shame or out of fear - something that makes it difficult to tell their parents or any other adult.
Madam Speaker! It is often decisive for young people how adults react and provide support. In order for violence to be prevented and detected, it is important to have the right knowledge about what the violence can look like. Youth clinics and school health services must have better knowledge, but there must also be a greater commitment among parents. We who are adults must pay more attention to our children's lives. Violence in close relationships often occurs in places that parents and other adults have access to, which means they often have the opportunity to see and intervene. This is a major problem that is escalating more and more, and we must push hard to put a stop to it.
Madam Speaker! I would like to ask the Minister how she and the government intend to help parents and other adults to better see and notice young people who are subjected to violence in close relationships.
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! I fully share the view that a key in the work is a present adult world - an adult world that also understands the world that our youth are in.
A problem we have had for far too long is that we have seen the everyday lives of young people on the internet as something that doesn't quite belong to the real world, but something that happens alongside it. When we talk about these issues, I mean that it is on the internet that we need to place the absolute greatest focus. It is there that our young people are exposed to sexual violations, it is there that we see different forms of harassment, threats and hate, and it is there that controlling behavior occurs.
In the work the government is now doing to develop a new national strategy and with the action program, we see this need to address digital violence and how it manifests in many different forms.
We must, of course, also look at the physical violence. I want to thank the interpellor for sharing her story, because I believe it is important to show that this is widespread. This is something that the interpellor, unfortunately, is not alone in having experienced, but an experience that she shares with far too many girls and women in Sweden.
These are the questions that we need to focus on. We need to find the right evidence-based measures that can actually make a difference. That is what the government focuses on now as we find both long-term strategies and concrete measures so that we can reduce violence.
Whether it is physical violence, sexual violence, digital violence, psychological violence or, for that matter, economic violence, we must find the right measures so that we can prevent violence. Then we can make our youth safer in their relationships and achieve relationships free from violence. But we can also have it as a vaccine against violence in adults' relationships.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! It is very good that we now have a government that seems to understand the seriousness of this, and I truly hope that we will see all the investment yield results. We need to become better at preventing violence in close relationships but also at helping those who are already living a life together with a violent partner. We also need to become better at helping and supporting those who manage to get away from a destructive relationship.
As I mentioned earlier, I myself lived in a destructive relationship that began in my teens but extended into adulthood. To be slowly broken down more and more while the outside world sees nothing is terrifying. One is utterly helpless.
Something I have noticed from my own experiences is that, in addition to it being difficult to leave a violent relationship, it is often also a period of anxiety afterwards. Succeeding in leaving the relationship does not always mean that one is free. One often lives with a fear that the perpetrator will come after them, which makes it harder to report. There, society also needs to become better at helping, not just by preventing and rescuing but also by helping the person to survive and become strong.
We need more knowledge in schools so that they can see what is happening, but also so that women can feel that there is someone they can talk to and get support from, something that can result in them actually perhaps breaking free.
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for a good debate but also take the opportunity to ask one final question: How is the Minister going to help those who actually manage to break free but who live with a fear that the perpetrator will catch them?
Statsrådet Paulina Brandberg (L)
Madam Speaker! There are many measures we need to take. We need, as I mentioned initially, to work with norms and values among our youth so that this violence never arises.
We must also, as the interpellor points out here, see how difficult it is for many who live in violent relationships to leave those relationships. We must find the keys so that we can help those exposed to violence to become free from the shackles of violence. We must also see that when the separation finally occurs, the risk of the most dangerous violence is greatest. There we must also take measures.
We must, of course, review the repressive measures. That is where this government proceeds with full force. We must see how we can work with those who are already perpetrators and change their behavior.
But we also need to highlight the crime victims. We must highlight their perspective in our policy. We need to do this in many different ways. A concrete measure that this government is taking, and which I am very happy about, is that we are reviewing the legislation on restraining orders. We have an investigation examining whether more restraining orders can be combined with electronic ankle bracelets and whether restraining orders can also cover larger geographical areas. We are also considering stay-away orders near the victims' homes and workplaces and that consideration should be taken of the victims' situation when deciding on permissions from prison sentences. One can summarize our policy in this area as that we simply think it is more reasonable for the perpetrators to move than for the crime victims to do so.
I am convinced that these are measures that will make a difference for many victims of violence, primarily girls and women, who deserve a life in safety rather than a life hidden in great insecurity.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.