An influential child of its time: Victim Support Sweden and the changing discourse on violence against women

ABSTRACT

This article aims to describe and analyse the policy work by Sweden’s largest victim support organization – the Swedish Association for Victim Support (BOJ) – in the area of violence against women. The article is based on a study of BOJ’s national archive and interviews with key figures in the organization. We analysed the material within the context of contemporary governing political ideas in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, particularly concerning violence against women. We argue that BOJ is both a creation and a creator of its time. BOJ gained a position in a changing welfare state and has adhered to contemporary governing ideas over time. At the same time, BOJ has helped silence structural discourses around violence against women in relation to both class and gender by supporting the notion that considered abused women to be crime victims, and not as women first and foremost. Going forward, it is essential to ask whether defining abused women principally as ‘victims of crime’ is helpful or harmful. If we adjust how violence against women is perceived, the solutions will change.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society
• welfare state
• victim support
• violence against women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In 2015, the organization changed its name to Victim Support Sweden (Brottsofferjouren Sverige).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Crime Victim Fund [grant number 08392/2012].