Response to interpellation 2024/25:38 on gender as a new basis for increased sentencing in hate crimes

Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Madam Speaker! Märta Stenevi has asked me when the government will proceed with the proposals in the report A stronger criminal law protection - against sexual violations, fraud in certain cases and crimes with a hate motive regarding gender (SOU 2023:80) and introduce gender as a basis for increased penalties in Chapter 29, Section 2 of the Penal Code.

Let me refer to the debate we have just had, where unfortunately we did not receive investigation proposals that were possible to proceed with because they did not do the job, in short. In this case, it is exactly the opposite. Here we have received an investigation basis that does the job. It may be worth mentioning that the investigator who worked on that investigation is the same investigator who is working on the broad Consequences Investigation that is to be presented in the spring. In that light, we have good hope that we will get good basis on the table in our [case] as well.

The government is firmly determined to combat hate, threats, and violence against women with the same force as we combat the gangs. As Märta Stenevi reports, I received last November the aforementioned report on a stronger criminal law protection in the cases we are now discussing. The investigation argues that there is reason to view crimes particularly seriously where a motive has been to violate a person, a group of people, or another such group of people because of gender. The increased occurrence of sexualized hate speech to which women in particular are exposed is a threat to democratic discourse and society as a whole. Therefore, the investigation proposes that gender should be added as a new ground in the Penal Code's provision on increased penalties for hate crime motives.

I welcome the committee's proposals. They constitute an important step in the work to strengthen the criminal law protection for vulnerable women. The report has been subject to consultation, and work is now underway to prepare a referral to the Council on Legislation. The report has also been well received by the consulting bodies, which makes the upcoming work even easier.

Let me in this context mention other important measures that the government has taken and plans to take to combat men's violence against women and children as well as violence in other close relationships.

An important part of this is to reform the legislation on restraining orders. Currently, proposals are being prepared in the Government Offices aimed at ensuring that more restraining orders can be issued and that the crime-preventive function of the orders shall be strengthened. Among other things, we are working on proposals which mean that restraining orders shall be able to cover larger geographical areas and that a presumption for a restraining order shall be introduced when the restrained person—the one who is the subject of the restraining order—has been convicted of a certain type of crime.

In addition to this, the government is also carrying out a historic reorganization of the entire criminal policy, where the focus is shifted from the perpetrator to the crime victim. In the summer of 2023, the government gave an investigator a mandate to review the sentencing scales for, among other things, serious violent and sexual crimes, as well as to reform the system for the penalties (dir. 2023:115 and 2023:181). The investigation shall also propose changes which mean that those convicted of very serious cases of repeated violent and sexual crimes shall be able to be sentenced to life imprisonment, even if none of the individual crimes has life imprisonment in the sentencing scale.

To this, the government has also referred the report A Purposeful Society's Protection - Certain Reforms of the Penal and Penal Execution Legislation (SOU 2024:48). Behind the intricate heading lies a large number of proposals which, especially regarding serious and repeated crime, strengthen community protection, reduce the risk of recidivism, increase safety for crime victims, and sharpen the view on recidivism. The proposals are judged, not least, to be able to provide increased protection for those subjected to violence in a close relationship or honor-related violence and oppression.

In this context, I want to say that this summer, legal changes also entered into force which mean strengthened tenancy law protection for women subject to violence - it is the violent man who shall move, not the woman subject to violence. In June, the government decided on an action program to prevent and combat men's violence against women, violence in close relationships and honor-related violence and oppression, as well as prostitution and human trafficking. The program contains, among other things, several measures within the framework of a program to leave destructive relationships. Here, a mandate to Kriminalvården, Polismyndigheten, Socialstyrelsen, and Åklagarmyndigheten can be mentioned to strengthen cooperation to prevent and combat men's violence against women, violence in close relationships and honor-related violence and oppression, including cases where children are involved. And during the autumn, the government intends to appoint an inquiry which, among other things, aims at economic violence occurring in connection with property divisions.

In summary, the government is attacking violence against women from several different angles. The work is being carried out purposefully and persistently, and we will neither lower the level of ambition nor slow down the pace. As I mentioned initially, violence against women shall be combated with the same force as organized crime. That is exactly what we are doing.

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Märta Stenevi (MP)

Madam Speaker! I shall again begin by thanking the Minister very much for the answer.

This report contains a number of important proposals - hate crimes but also a strengthening of the legal protection for children between 15 and 17 years of age. I note, however, that the investigation unfortunately saw no need to tighten the criminal liability for sexual crimes against children in this age range.

That one has not proceeded with either a strict criminal liability or a puberty requirement means that, in practice, we still have a situation where children's criminal law protection is dependent on their physical development and not their legal age. A 12-year-old who is fully pubertally developed thus has a weaker protection in the legislation than a peer who has not yet entered puberty.

I would like to take the opportunity, now that we are discussing the report, to ask whether the Minister considers this to be a reasonable order. Will the Minister proceed with such a tightening, or will pubertally developed children continue to be legal prey for perpetrators?

The investigation has also not proposed a change to the criminal designation of child pornography crimes but has, however, investigated a proposal so that the government can take it further if a need is identified.

It has been and for a long time has been offensive that gross abuses against children are documented and then called pornography, because words matter. Even if the Minister thinks that rhetoric is not so important, words matter, because they still shape our world. And when a child is not protected by the law as a child because she has received breasts too early, or when the dissemination of gross abuses on toddlers can be called pornography, yes, then it is not strange that we have not succeeded in stopping men's violence against women or, for that matter, adults' violence against children.

I would therefore also like to ask the Minister whether, in the preparation of the referral to the Council of Legislation, a change of the offense designation from child pornography crime to the more adequate sexual exploitation of children in images or even, in cases where it would be applicable, documented abuse of children will now be proposed, since that is often what it is about.

I would like to specifically ask about these two important parts of the investigation, because in addition to the hate crime against women, they are the long-awaited proposals that are necessary.

This has resulted in many questions. I am fully aware of that, Madam Speaker, so to summarize, I wonder: Will the Minister submit a consolidated proposition on all the investigation's proposals in addition to the new hate crime? Will the Minister also include a change of the crime designation child pornography so that the crime designation reflects the gravity of the crime? Will the Minister in this proposition also strengthen the protection for children who have undergone puberty development and let children be children even in Swedish criminal law?

Given that it is also not possible to see this Council on Legislation referral or the bill in the planning, I also want to ask the Minister: Will this be presented during the upcoming parliamentary year, or what does the timeline look like?

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Märta Stenevi, for the opportunity to discuss these important issues today!

Let me start with the end. Our intention is to present this during the spring. We do this partly because it is a basis that is extremely well-elaborated with a fundamentally positive response from the various actors who will work with these issues, and partly because we believe that the social problems that these proposals address are so serious and, in several cases, also acute that it is important for us to come forward as soon as possible. We assess that it can happen during the spring.

Let me say that what this proposal does, which I think is extremely significant, is that it adequately addresses both principled issues and practically significant issues in this area. The question of introducing gender as a basis for increased sentencing is an expression of an insight that in a certain type of crime directed at vulnerable women, in addition to the violence, which is serious in itself, there can be motives and drivers that can be simplified as a kind of hatred towards women. We and I believe that it is extremely important to target and make visible that type of motive and also to ensure that it has consequences when one is eventually to assess the severity of the crime and determine a sentence that reflects the gravity of that criminality. That is about it.

When it comes to how we concretely proceed with the commission's proposals, I do not want to anticipate that. I want us to be able to present the whole when we are finished with that work, and the work is ongoing here and now. But that it is a collective approach it is about, there is no doubt about that.

Regarding the concrete issue of child pornography, one can say that the obvious starting point must be that, even from a criminal law perspective, the full consequences of children's vulnerability must be seen, not least when it concerns abuse occurring in the digital environment. I completely agree with the rhetoric. It is empty rhetoric that I am skeptical of, but what we are talking about now is not empty at all. It is of extraordinarily important significance. The question is only how to best capture it in the criminal law regulation so that it does the job that we agree must be done here.

The same applies, of course, to children and their pubertal development. It is quite clear, I mean, that criminal law must ensure that children are allowed to be children and that they are treated in that way when it comes to the concrete application of our criminal law rules. What that will then mean in how we design these proposals is something that we are working on right now and which I ask to be able to return to when the entirety of that work is complete.

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Märta Stenevi (MP)

Madam Speaker! I will begin by saying that I am pleased that the Minister thinks the views of the referral bodies are important. We think so too. They are an important part of the preparatory process and will be an important part to look at as well ahead of upcoming investigations and Council of State referrals and the criticism that may emerge in different types of referrals.

I thank you again for the answer. This is a very important investigation, and it came into being because five women were killed during just three weeks in the spring of 2021 by men they had or had had a relationship with. They were horrific tragedies, as they are every time, and it rightly caused an outcry in Sweden. It also meant a political opening for change. It is tragic and a very great sorrow for me and many with me that it required five dead women in three weeks to achieve that momentum.

It is a great sorrow that little Esmeralda had to die for the Lex Lilla hjärtat to be implemented and that Tintin had to die for society to listen to his mother Sanam and all the other women who for years have cried for help to stop contact with violent parents. I have appreciated the cooperation with the government regarding that legislation, and I want to repeat my thanks that it is now becoming a reality.

The original directives for the investigation we are discussing in this interpellation debate were negotiated between the Socialdemokraterna and Miljöpartiet in government during the autumn of 2021. They could then be presented by the Socialdemokratiska government in the beginning of 2022. The questions I have raised now were incredibly important for me as a minister and as a spokesperson to get into the directives. We know that the opposition to making these changes has been great for a long time, but it is high time to move forward. I am therefore pleased that the report is being prepared at the Government Offices.

I can have understanding for, but I also note that the Minister does not want to promise what will be included in the bill. I would therefore like to ask a question to the Minister. You will have the Green Party's support in strengthening the protection for women and girls in accordance with this investigation. Are the Sweden Democrats and the government parties in agreement on the direction of the upcoming bill, and will the report in its entirety receive a green light from the Sweden Democrats at the Government Offices?

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Madam Speaker! Yes, that is what I assume, but I do not anticipate our processes in the legislative work. Märta Stenevi, who has also been part of a government with several parties, knows that everything follows a specific order. Now we are in the important work at the Ministry of Justice, and then this, as it is called, shall be prepared jointly in the Government Offices and thereafter be coordinated.

There is nothing in our starting points for the government cooperation that leads me to have any doubts that there is a strong common perception, which I also perceive to encompass a large majority in this chamber, that we are to move the positions significantly when it comes to tackling violence against women and seeking an order that, in a better way than today, provides redress for women subjected to violence and also strengthens the surrounding society's protection against this type of serious crime. I therefore look forward to the continued process and to coming to the Riksdag with legislation that I hope and believe will be able to win broad support here in the chamber.

I want to say something about the importance of referral bodies because we return to that question between the lines a few times. One should, of course, take note of what the referral bodies have to say. Then it does not mean that one always slavishly follows the referral bodies, which can also have different opinions.

Something that I myself look very closely at in the views of the referral bodies is what the practitioners who are to use the rules have to say. Will this work in practice? Will it be possible to use this in a good way? Will reforms achieve the intended effects? I think this is extraordinarily important.

In this, as well as in very many other areas of politics, there is of course a considerable amount of principles, morals, and views on society that are in themselves immensely significant. It is clear that we want the punishments and criminal law, not least in this area, to reflect how we view society – that we want to be a free and open society where everyone can be safe and secure and live their life in the way they wish without having to be afraid or be subjected to violence from either society at large or individual perpetrators of violence. We want those principles and that view – Märta Stenevi said that children should be allowed to be children, and that is absolutely self-evident – to be reflected when we design our criminal law rules in this area. At the same time, it is naturally, if we take the crime victims' starting point, immensely important that the rules are also designed in such a way that they, in practical life and practical impact, achieve the effects we demand.

I therefore think it is very important to know that we have the practitioners with us when it comes to this type of change. Then, practitioners can still, for all things, be against change, for other reasons. One works in a certain way. One might be cautious and restrained and think that the change involves greater risks than opportunities and so on. We should, therefore, not slavishly listen to what those who today use the rules have to say.

But nevertheless: We shall ensure that we obtain legislation in this area that, in both moral and justice terms, signals the redress we want to see for crime victims and which underscores, for example, that motives play a role in the severity of the crimes. Hate in itself is something that should have serious consequences when we measure the penalties, but then we shall also ensure that what we want to achieve gains traction in practical legal life. It is with these starting points that we now continue to work with this product.

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Märta Stenevi (MP)

Madam Speaker! I enjoy debating with Minister Strömmer, but I still cannot help but laugh a little at the fact that there may be one practitioner or another who has had one opinion or another on one thing or another regarding the Minister's area.

But I will conclude on a slightly more serious note. In 2021, five women died during three weeks, and that was what was required for this investigation to even come into being. It was negotiated by us, presented by the Socialdemokraterna, and handed over to the current government, and it contains incredibly important changes.

It is not about gangs. It has very little to do with weapons. It is about the vulnerability of girls and women, of all ages. It is about men's views on the right to women's bodies and our society's sick view on pornography.

I have heard the Minister and also the Prime Minister and others in the government talk about how violence against women is as highly prioritized as gang crime, so I expect that we will soon see a bill in the planning that deals with protecting puberty-developed children in the law, calling documented abuses by their proper names, and introducing gender as a new basis for increased sentencing in hate crimes.

Madam Speaker! If the government is serious about prioritizing violence against women, these proposals must be moved forward. You have had them served to you. Take them to completion – for our sake and for our children's sake.

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Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Märta Stenevi, for the opportunity to discuss these issues today! I truly welcome the initiative, driven by Miljöpartiet in the previous government, to carry out such an important investigation. I have said all along that if proposals come from other parties, either here in the chamber or in the form of investigation proposals, that are good, that strengthen the victim's position and provide redress to vulnerable women and, in that respect, also others in our society, and that can strengthen the surrounding society's protection against serious crime, then we will truly do everything we can to realize those proposals.

I think this investigation is a very good example of this, and it is in that spirit that we are now working further with these proposals. As I said, it is our ambition to be able to place this on the Riksdag's table during the spring, and I believe that we have good conditions to be able to live up to that ambition.

I also think it is important that in a time when we, on good grounds, are putting a lot of effort into countering organized crime, striking against gross violence, strangling the criminal economy, and breaking the recruitment of children and young people into criminal networks, we also have breadth in our attention so that we see other large, important ongoing failures and problems in our society. There is no doubt whatsoever that violence against women and everything it entails—the different forms it takes and all the consequences it has, both for individuals and for society as a whole—deserves a large place in the debate and in the legislative work taking place here in the chamber. This is an excellent basis for moving forward with this, and I look forward to continuing to work together on these issues.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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