Gränser mellan frivillighet och ofrivillighet : Språkvetenskapliga diskursanalyser av sexualbrottsdomar från svensk tingsrätt

This thesis examines how the use of language in written judgements on sexual offences shapes perceptions of sexualised violence. In particular, it aims to show what kinds of discourses about victims and perpetrators emerge in such judgements when social actors make truth claims about which actions, behaviours and emotional responses constitute signs of voluntariness or involuntariness. From a poststructuralist perspective, language can be seen as either maintaining or challenging discourses. Consequently, specific linguistic resources in sexual offence judgements influence our understanding of victims and perpetrators of sexualised violence. The thesis comprises four studies. The first study examines genre conventions in criminal judgements concerning offences against the person to show how genre regulates the possibilities of social actors to act and to be heard. In the second study, statements by parties in judgements on rape and sexual molestation are analysed, in order to highlight the importance and function of detailed descriptions of women's bodies and elaborate portrayals of sexualised violence. The third study explores the courts’ reasoning in support of the verdict to show how the courts engage with and assess the parties’ truth claims. Finally, the fourth study investigates the labelling of alleged criminal acts in rape judgements, both in the statements from the parties and in the courts’ reasoning, showing how words denoting mutuality and consent, such as intercourse, are used to describe both voluntary and involuntary acts. Together, the four studies demonstrate how boundaries between voluntary and involuntary acts are established linguistically, how genre regulates possible boundaries between voluntariness and involuntariness, and how boundaries both position social actors and are related to rape myths. In addition, the studies show how boundaries between voluntariness and involuntariness reproduce discourses about victims and perpetrators that relate