Violent crime and crime victims

Pontus Andersson Garpvall (SD)

Madam Speaker! Today we are debating the report Violence Crimes and Crime Victims. The committee proposes that the Riksdag reject all motions, among other things with reference to ongoing work.

For all too long, the focus in criminal policy has lain on the perpetrator's well-being, on how the perpetrator can be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community in the most effective way. That is not wrong in itself. The question is not black or white. But it is obvious that the focus on the crime victim's redress has been sidelined when the focus has been on the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent offenders into society.

There are actually as many examples as one can count, since a long time ago, that society should have acted with full force but time and again, for various reasons, has ignored the situation of the crime victims.

The reason I may be perceived as categorical is that the policy has actively chosen not to act despite having realized that mistakes were made and that one could have protected people from being subjected to the same thing in the future. There are numerous examples from the last decades of girls who have been raped by boys under the age of 15 who went free because they were not of legal age for criminal responsibility.

Now the Sweden Democrats are involved in the legislative process. Therefore, the age of criminal responsibility is lowered to 14 years and to 13 years for serious crimes.

There are examples of individuals who committed a rape before they reached the age of criminal responsibility and therefore went free, but who were convicted of rape at an age of criminal responsibility. Society could have prevented that future rape if it had acted immediately and with full force.

There are also many examples of girls and women who have been forced to meet their perpetrator on the street less than a year after being subjected to a violent rape, because the sentence was far too short and the focus from the side of society was on reintegrating the perpetrator into society.

Now the Sweden Democrats are involved in the legislative process. The youth discount is being completely abolished. At the same time, courts shall use the full range of penalties, and the maximum sentence for rape is being raised to twelve years. Repeated rapes shall result in life imprisonment.

Previously, the rule has been that the crime victim must themselves pursue damages from their perpetrator, for example a rapist. Either he has had to pay in himself, or one has had to demand that the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) act.

Instead, the state will now directly pay out the compensation to the crime victim. It will then be the state's task to collect the money from the perpetrator. This means that, for example, a rape victim will not have to come into contact with their perpetrator again and can move on with their life faster without having that process hanging over them. It is a direct consequence of the changes by Sverigedemokraterna and the government that will now be implemented.

Something else that changes with the new legislation on compensation to crime victims concerns compensation to persons who have been deprived of their liberty. Previously, large compensation amounts have been paid out to persons who were acquitted of crimes despite it having been clarified that they committed acts which in themselves are punishable and which could have justified the deprivation of liberty. Over the last ten years, around 800 million kronor have been paid out. Sometimes it has been justified. But it has also occurred in cases such as the now well-known example of a guy who committed two aggravated rapes and was sentenced to prison but received 840,000 kronor in compensation because he had been deprived of liberty for too long when it was discovered that he was actually under 18 at the time of the crime. He received many times more than what the rape victims received in damages combined. That type of payment is ending now with the Sverigedemokraternas and the government's new legislation.

I can be categorical when I say it, but without the Sverigedemokraternas political influence, we would not have reached the point where we are changing these parts of the legislation. Let me be clear: These problems have been known for decades. During this period, Sweden has had both blue and, above all, red governments. No one has addressed this until now. What the Sverigedemokraterna and the government have done in the criminal policy area in not even four years, the measures we have implemented to both combat crime and provide redress for crime victims, no government has ever before been anywhere near. It is a paradigm shift we are seeing in Swedish justice policy. I am immensely proud to be part of this journey, which we are undertaking together with our coalition partners within the Tidöavtalet. Step by step, we are making Sweden a safer and freer country.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Sanna Backeskog (S)

Madam Speaker! Men's violence against women is a life-threatening epidemic and the ultimate proof that society is unequal. The violence causes great suffering and has lifelong consequences. The most dangerous place for a woman today is the home. There, women are controlled, tortured, raped, and murdered year-round. The violence can take many forms and includes physical, psychological, economic, material, digital, and sexual violence. A man is often most dangerous just when the woman has gathered the support and strength to leave the relationship. Stopping men's violence against women is a matter of safety, freedom, respect, and justice.

Madam Speaker! This is the final committee report debate on crime victims of this parliamentary term. It is good that we in the committee have been able to agree on some important issues. Neither women who are tormented in the home, children growing up under honor oppression, nor children who are subjected to sexual abuse benefit from political pie-throwing or political profiteering at the expense of the vulnerable.

During this parliamentary term, we have, among other things, agreed to ban the purchase of sexual acts at a distance, to strengthen the criminal protection for children between 15 and 17 years old who are subjected to rape or sexual assault, to strengthen and improve the legislation on restraining orders, and to criminalize virginity checks, virginity certificates, and virginity procedures. In all cases, the Social Democratic government commissioned an inquiry which formed the basis for a government bill that the current government has placed before the Riksdag. That is good.

We have jointly in the Committee on Justice submitted a committee initiative to the government regarding a targeted assignment to the police to update the work with the so-called blocking pages to ensure that all internet traffic to sites where trade with actual abuse material, drawings, or so-called pedophile dolls is conducted is blocked. Soon we will also criminalize psychological violence and strengthen the criminal law protection for certain honor crimes.

But women and children continue to be subjected to [abuse], and the missions and investigations are not sufficient. Society and the law must stand on the side of the victim. We must therefore continue, because it is obvious that today's regulatory framework is not sufficient.

We Social Democrats want that economic violence and post-violence are investigated and criminalized. In order to better detect the ruthless violence in the home and collect evidence that holds up for prosecution without all the responsibility lying on the victim, we want the police to use secret coercive measures to a greater extent. We also want to see a reversed restraining order, a so-called area arrest. It shall be the perpetrator's given area that is specified and restricted. The protection for the person subjected to violence must always weigh heavier than the freedom of the perpetrator.

Madam Speaker! Violence breeds violence. No child in Sweden should have to be subjected to violence. But when it does occur, the collective resources of society must be there to monitor children's rights and ensure protection, support, and redress. The consequences for children subjected to violence are extremely serious. The violence can mean lifelong serious emotional and psychological damage.

A problem that is often raised regarding suspected crimes against children is the long investigation times. Rädda Barnen has conducted reviews that show major deficiencies and inequality across the country. Sveriges Radio reviewed 200 cases of crimes against children in January and found that only half of the investigations were completed within the prescribed time.

We Social Democrats want to see a national strategy to prevent, detect, and stop violence against children. We know that children's homes can be an incredibly good operation for children exposed to violence. But equal access across the country is needed. We want a special certification for the children's homes to be introduced to guarantee the quality of the operation and increase the equality between the country's children's homes.

Madam Speaker! The feeling of being left alone after having been subjected to a crime is all too common. Crime victims' rights must be strengthened. We Social Democrats want to see a crime victims' act that gathers and strengthens crime victims' rights but also clarifies who is responsible for what and when in the process.

When we talk about support for crime victims, we must also mention civil society. There is a special strength in and a special place for our women's shelters and crime victim shelters. They are needed as a complement to the activities of the state, the region, and the municipality. They are needed for support for the individual but also for their opinion-forming and public education efforts. The support for our women's shelters and crime victim shelters must be long-term. We Social Democrats also want that the municipality's procurement of protected housing shall be reserved for non-profit organizations.

Madam Speaker! When society is hit by serious crime, indirect crime victims are also created. In the wake of the horrific gang crime, which claims lives, threatens democracy, and destroys the lives of young people through ruthless recruitment, entire residential areas and everyone living there are affected by insecurity, anxiety, and frustration.

In Gävle and my district Andersberg, we take our share of the responsibility. We do everything in our power to keep crime and new recruitment in check. We do this through family centers, field workers, social intervention groups, parental education, meeting places, and investments in the school and in the incredibly important community life, for example Rädda Barnen, Scouterna, and Helges IF, which are a natural part of Andersberg and contribute to much good here. Of course, we also have a solid cooperation with the police.

To curb segregation and the feeling of exclusion and of being deprioritized, we are also investing heavily in the physical and social environments in Andersberg. Through Stadsdelslyftet, we are equipping stairwells, making green areas safer and more pleasant, building meeting places, building safer traffic solutions, investing in a total renovation of the school and sports hall, and building a new activity area.

But we in Gävle municipality feel alone in this work. Crime and segregation are a national problem, and the state must take its share of the responsibility. It is time for a new forfeiture fund. The forfeiture legislation gives the police the opportunity to seize criminal profits in the form of both money and assets such as luxury items and cars. We want these criminal profits to be funded so that they can then be used for civil society or for the upgrading of the physical environments in the residential areas where gang crime has struck fear into society. It is time to give back to those who are affected.

Madam Speaker! I also want to say a few words about the purchase of sexual acts. Sex buying is not a matter of voluntary agreements between equal parties. It is closely linked to human trafficking and is the exploitation and victimization of women and a sign of a rotten view of women. Sex buying is a brutal expression of inequality where power, money, and vulnerability meet.

We Social Democrats once pushed through the Swedish prostitution law. It has had great importance in reducing demand. It also marks, in a normative way, that girls' and women's bodies are not for sale.

Now we have also here together decided that it is punishable to purchase sexual acts online via sites such as Onlyfans, and that is good. But the law must be enforced so that we can ensure that the digital brothels are also shut down.

Madam Speaker! The Police Authority assesses that the extent of human trafficking for sexual purposes and prostitution in Sweden is still very alarming from both a law enforcement perspective and a crime victim perspective. The prostitutes are not only exploited by those who purchase sex but also by human traffickers and pimps who make an economic profit from the vulnerability, regardless of whether it occurs digitally or physically.

The legislation on human trafficking and human exploitation is difficult to interpret and apply. Uncertainties in the courts that are to interpret the laws mean that almost no one is convicted of human trafficking or human exploitation. The risks for the perpetrators are very low.

The legislation must be reviewed. The government needs to act to reach these ruthless individuals. At the same time, we need to ensure that those who are subjected to sex trafficking have their rights upheld. They are some of the most vulnerable members of society.

We cannot have an arrangement where it is decided on a case-by-case basis whether the sex purchase should be classified as a crime against the state or a crime against the person. Furthermore, we know that only one in ten people who were subjected to completed crimes and attempted crimes have been granted victim status. So we cannot have that.

The government must appoint an inquiry into the possibilities of granting persons who sell sexual acts victim status so that they are classified as crime victims during the preliminary investigation and the trial against sex buyers.

Madam Speaker! Consent can never be bought for money. I stand behind all our reservations. I move for approval of reservation 11 regarding the contact prohibition legislation.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Charlotte Nordström (M)

Madam Speaker! There are moments that change a life forever. Not gradually, not gently, but suddenly, violently and without warning. A woman who no longer dares to walk home alone in the evening. A retiree whose life savings were swindled from him by a fraudster. A child who lost their childhood to an abuse. These are not words and figures in a report. These are real people, with names and faces and with a legitimate demand that society should stand up for them.

A crime does not only affect the person who is subjected to the crime. It hits the family, the friends, and everyone who loves the person who has been affected. Nevertheless, Swedish crime policy has for all too long had the perpetrator in focus, rather than the safety and respect for the crime victims.

The penalties have been too low, and the compensation systems have been complicated. The one who has been affected by a crime has had to fight on alone – against the bureaucracy, against the Enforcement Authority, and against a system that was not built for her.

The violence and insecurity have restricted the freedom and everyday life for more and more people. It has been a major mistake. We are now correcting that mistake. When history is written about this mandate period, I want it to tell of a government that dared to do more than speak, a government that acted and that understood that behind every figure in the statistics there is a face, a human being.

The Moderate-led government's policy implies a shift in perspective. The victim's safety always comes first, and violence shall never be accepted. It is not a compromise. It is a conviction. A central part concerns the sentences. They have for a long time, far too long, proceeded from the perpetrator's perspective and not from the society's need for protection.

Dangerous criminals should be imprisoned, so that parents dare to let their children go home from practice and so that women do not have to fear for their lives on the way home in the evening or in their own homes. Honest people should simply be able to be out and be safe.

We have ensured that criminals with a high risk of recidivism are not released prematurely. We have decided on security detention. The most dangerous criminals, rapists and pedophiles with a high risk of recidivism, shall be able to be kept locked up for an indefinite period and never be released as long as they pose a danger.

We have tightened the legislation on restraining orders. We have tightened the penalties for fraud against the elderly. Swedish laws should protect decent people, not those who commit crimes. For us Moderates, it is a matter of course.

Madam Speaker! On March 5 this year, the government made a decision regarding the referral to the Council on Legislation, Compensation Rules with the Crime Victim in Focus. It is a fundamental change. Today, crime victims are forced to pursue their perpetrator to claim money. It is unreasonable.

When a judgment has gained legal force, the crime victim shall be able to receive crime victim compensation directly from the Crime Victim Authority. It is then the authority's task – not the crime victim's – to demand the money back from the perpetrator. The state takes the burden from the one who has already borne enough. It is not a technical rule change. It is a position: the victim shall not have to fight twice. Behind every unpaid compensation, there is a human being waiting for redress. We take that responsibility. The proposal is suggested to enter into force on 1 September 2026.

You surely remember the 45 million kronor? That is how much 73 pensioners were swindled in just six months, methodically, ruthlessly and manipulatively, via fake SMS messages and phone calls. Their life savings – the money they saved to live securely in their old age – were transferred to fraudsters.

The police arrested the perpetrators. They were convicted, and their assets were confiscated. What happened then? Then the money disappeared into the state treasury. The 73 pensioners had to continue struggling on their own. That injustice must be rectified.

Confiscated proceeds of crime should not disappear without a trace into the state's accounts. A forfeiture fund should be able to strengthen justice and create a clear connection between crime fighting and restitution for those who have been affected.

The report of the forfeiture investigation, which was presented in February, proposes that 30 percent of the proceeds from forfeited property shall be allocated to the Crime Victim Fund to be used for the benefit of crime victims. The report is now out for consultation until June 3. The direction is set: crime profits shall become crime victims' restitution, not the state's revenue.

Madam Speaker! When a person is subjected to a crime, safety is shattered. In that moment, society must be at its strongest, not in words but in action and through a justice system that sees her, hears her, and stands up for her. That is why we take a holistic approach where all actors in the justice chain take their responsibility. We ensure that crime victims receive information, support, and a good reception throughout the entire legal process. For us, a strong crime victim perspective is non-negotiable. It is a matter of basic decency, a matter of respect for the one whose safety has been violated. We have turned our gaze from the perpetrator to the one who has been affected. That is where the focus should have always been.

We are dealing here with a number of motions and reservations. I understand the ambition, and I understand the words behind them. But in the most pressing requests, measures are sought that, happily enough, are already being addressed or are now being addressed by the government – ranging from decisions to ongoing investigation and preparatory work.

Madam Speaker! This government has implemented a shift in perspective in crime policy – not as a phrase on a campaign poster but as concrete legislation. But in the end, it is not formulations from the majority or the opposition in a report that determines whether we succeed. It is those who are subjected to violence who must feel that society stands on their side. It is our task, and it is our responsibility. We have acted, we are acting, and we continue to act. No task is, after all, more important than a safer and freer Sweden.

With reference to ongoing work and completed work, I move for approval of the committee's proposal – that the Riksdag rejects all motions in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Madam Speaker! The Tidö parties often boast about standing for perspective shifts. One such frequently highlighted shift is that crime victims should be prioritized. This often concerns the belief that harsher punishments benefit the crime victims. To prioritize reforms that strengthen crime victims in themselves and in their own rights is more rare. There is truly much left to do here.

The harvest of motions from the general motion period, which we are now discussing, shows this clearly. It is also a shift in perspective from the government's focus on gangs, which primarily concerns men's crimes against men, to more focus on men's abuse of women and children.

I stand behind all the reservations that Vänsterpartiet has, but I choose to move for approval only of reservation 2. That reservation feels the most serious. It concerns a very neglected area. It is about prostitution and human trafficking primarily for sexual purposes. It is one of the most serious crimes against women's human rights. It is a step below women's death, which unfortunately also occurs in connection with human trafficking and prostitution.

Human trafficking and exploitation occur more and more often in subtle ways. In the beginning, it may appear as a business arrangement, where the vulnerable person is lured into seemingly normal, real business agreements. But there are also – now perhaps some of you are having a flashback to the film Lilja 4-ever – what are called loverboys. These are men who, with talk of love and relationships in another country, lure women and young girls to, among other places, Sweden to let them be exploited in prostitution and human trafficking.

This generates large sums. But it is also the case that those who are subjected to it must pay back some overhead costs, as it is called. It can involve costs for the journey here and for housing and maintenance, which they are then to pay through so-called work, which is then to become a sex slave.

The methods generate large sums of money, often for organized crime. We may be used to seeing drugs as the major source of income in these groups. But drugs are sold once. Women and children can be sexually exploited time and again, not infrequently many times per day. I have met those who have had to provide sexual services more than ten times in a day. This then generates crime profits, and it naturally creates immense damage for the victims.

There is a lot of documentation on human trafficking and prostitution, but it is as if we still do not take it fully seriously. There are occasional initiatives where one tries to raise certain issues here, but there is rarely any total grip on this. It is not only about women. I believe I have also pointed out that there is also a great risk of sexual exploitation of children.

Here, one is generally far behind with the work. This does not only apply within the justice system. It also applies in the municipal work, where one tries to handle crime prevention measures. The number of convictions is vanishingly small, but alarms are raised that this is quite frequent here.

The National Coordination Against Prostitution and Human Trafficking issues annual reports. In its latest report, they show that children are coerced into committing crimes within criminal networks but that it is rarely linked to human trafficking, which one reasonably should do. They also state that knowledge of the links between recruitment to criminal networks and children's and young people's own vulnerabilities in different contexts, including within their own families, needs to be deepened.

We consider that the problems that arise need to be addressed and that one must unite to take decisive action against this exploitation.

This is also about the fact that we must broaden the perspectives. The Committee on Justice recently took the initiative for an investigation via RUFS, the Parliament's Evaluation and Research Secretariat, to shed light on human trafficking and prostitution in a sharper way. What has emerged, among other things, in a draft of a report concerns cooperation with social services, not least via the regional coordinators, who are present in our various county administrative boards.

Here we want the government to act in a sharper way and do more to combat human trafficking.

The question of victim status has already been addressed here in the speaker's chair. By victim, we mean legally that one receives a position as a legally recognized crime victim in the process. Here, the practice has long been, tragically, that the person who has been involved in prostitution and sold sexual acts is treated as a witness. It is an insult to that person. If the victim of the crime were to be granted victim status, the victim could be entitled to damages, crime compensation, and a victim's counsel during the process, as well as access to other support measures that are provided for several groups of crime victims.

Such measures can naturally become decisive for women who are involved in serious activities. It could increase their opportunities to pursue a life with other characteristics than prostitution.

I also want to mention the restraining orders. There have been some important changes quite recently, where the protection areas for the women who can receive a restraining order have been expanded. The question is still whether we are on the right track. Partially we are, but the question is whether we would not need to seriously shift perspectives. Here I would like to challenge the parties within the Tidö agreement.

The question is whose freedom we need to protect. A woman who has left a violent man or been subjected to serious abuse in other ways should be guaranteed her freedom of movement and be allowed that, while we should instead focus on the perpetrator who should be assigned a geographical zone. If he is to stay outside that zone, it should be reported so that the woman is made aware of the change. It is a task that we also think should be considered more.

There is one more point that I want to touch upon. There is an expression for the shift in perspective that I am calling for to focus more on crime victims, and that is the expression restorative justice. It would mean that we rethink how we launch the entire justice system and the legal process so that we make it possible for the person who is victimized to quickly gain access to both support resources and the rest of the welfare society's interventions, something that could lead to a faster emotional recovery and an experience of both justice and trust in the justice system.

Today, the crime victim's story in a process is primarily a piece of evidence, while the crime victim's need for support, redress, and recovery basically has no place in the process. Through acknowledgment, accountability, and measures that promote the rebuilding of trust and relationships, we could go very far in the justice system. It could also mean opportunities to limit the risks of recidivism. Rapid coordination and access to psychological, legal, and social support, and thus a real opportunity for healing and genuine redress, would be a true crime victim perspective.

(cont. § 14)

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