| 1. |
- Heber, Anita, 1977-
(author)
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Damsels, monsters, and superheroes : Exploring the metanarrative of sex trafficking
- 2024
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In: International Review of Victimology. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 30:1, s. 89-108
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sex trafficking narratives tend to follow the same storyline: a young, female victim is lured into sexual slavery by a foreign offender, and in the end, she is rescued by a Western hero. This article examines the sex trafficking narrative, and its accompanying characters in popular media, with a specific focus on the victim. It combines sex trafficking research with theories about folk tales and concepts of purity and the sacred. Empirically, the article explores the narratives of sex trafficking in six internationally influential films and books. The analysis creates an understanding of why one particular victim, and one metanarrative of sex trafficking, continue to dominate contemporary popular media. It traces the moralistic narrative continuities of sex trafficking, and creates an understanding of why we keep repeating this particular narrative, and why we seem to need it.
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| 2. |
- Skillmark, Mikael, et al.
(author)
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The significance of context and victim-offender relationship for Swedish social workers' understandings of young men's violent victimization
- 2020
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 26:3, s. 295-313
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article investigates how social workers' interpretations of contextual factors and the relationship between victim and offender affect their understanding and assessment of male violent victimization. The study was designed as a multiple case study with a qualitative comparative approach. Focus group interviews supported by vignettes were used to collect data. Interviews were carried out with professional Swedish social workers working with victimized men and women at support units for young crime victims in Sweden. The results show that the social workers consider the violence that the young men are subjected to in cases of street violence and interpersonal violence to be unavoidable or even 'natural'. The violence was in some cases considered to be dependent on the men's own agency and in others on their lack of agency, when displaying traits of both more traditional and less traditional forms of masculinity respectively. The social workers' talk about young male crime victims is interpreted as contributing to making the men appear as less legitimate victims. Even though the social workers argued that the victims' own behaviour should not lead to any special considerations concerning help efforts, the possibility of upholding such a demarcation between explanations ascribed to the violent incident and help measures offered is problematized in the article.
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| 3. |
- Thunberg, Sara, 1990-
(author)
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Victimization and school : Young people’s experiences of receiving support to keep up with their schoolwork
- 2023
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 29:3, s. 406-419
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Victimization early in life can have several serious consequences, one of which concerns young people’s schoolwork. The present study therefore aims to investigate what support young people need to keep up with their schoolwork, based on their needs following victimization. The material consists of narrative interviews with 19 young people who were the plaintiffs at trials when they were 15–19 years old. The results show that several of the young victims did not want to go to school due to the risk of meeting their perpetrator, and because of that their grades declined when they were not physically present in school, they lost their motivation to study. There is also variation between the young victims about whether they perceive that the schools supported them and/or made adaptations to make sure they could continue with their schoolwork. The schools have a responsibility to make some adaptations, but it is not clear how far this responsibility stretches or to what extent the young victims themselves have been a part of the process. For this reason, they might not have perceived the potential adaptations and support they received from their schools as supportive. Suggestions are given concerning what the schools and other authorities need to think about when working with young victims of crime to make sure they continue with their schoolwork as much as possible.
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| 4. |
- Thunberg, Sara, 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Young victims’ positioning : Narrations of victimhood and support
- 2020
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 26:2, s. 196-211
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study aims to analyze how young people narratively negotiate their position as victims, how their social surroundings react to their victim positioning and what types of support they are offered. It is argued that those who position themselves as innocent victims receive support, while those who do not position themselves as such are left to fend for themselves. It is concluded that receiving support functions as a way for young victims to keep intact their narratives of who they are; while young people who did not receive support and acceptance for their positioning needed to re-negotiate their narrative to make sense of who they are after the victimization. Thereby, the victimizing event was incorporated into their narrative identity.
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| 5. |
- Törnqvist, Nina
(author)
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Drizzling sympathy : Ideal victims and flows of sympathy in Swedish courts
- 2022
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 28:3, s. 263-285
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- By connecting sociological perspectives on sympathy with the concept of ‘ideal victims’, this article examines how sympathy forms and informs legal thought and practices in relation to victim status in Swedish courts. In its broadest sense, sympathy can be understood as an understanding and care for someone else’s suffering and in many contexts victimization and sympathy are densely entangled. However, since ideals of objectivity and neutrality prevail in court, emotional norms are narrow and sympathy is met with suspicion. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Swedish courts, I argue that while sympathetic feelings are mostly backgrounded, they are still a central part of court proceedings and deliberations. The main findings suggest that prosecutors and victims’ counsel use ‘sympathy cues’ to evoke the judges’ concern for the complainants and to facilitate their empathic imagination of the complainant’s situation. In relation to this finding, judges engage in emotion work in order to not be affected by these sympathy cues. The study also shows that in encounters with ‘ideal victims’ who perform a playful resistance to their victimization, legal actors show sympathy more freely and accept moments of temporary relief from the normal interaction order in court.
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| 6. |
- Wallengren, Simon
(author)
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An insider looking in or an outsider wannabee? : Studying vulnerable hard-to-reach populations in the field of victimology - the example of the Roma communities in Sweden
- 2021
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 27:3, s. 328-343
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reviews methodological barriers to victimological research on vulnerable hard-to-reach populations and presents a reflexive discussion of insider and outsider positions in a study researching Roma communities' victimization in Sweden. As a Roma (Traveler/resande) academic, I found that some aspects of my identity were linked to an insider position, while other aspects of my identity were often perceived by study participants as outsider attributes. Within the framework of critical reflexivity, this article considers the impact of my insider/outsider position at each stage of the research process. The article rearticulates the importance of researcher reflexivity, mainly when both researchers and participants exhibit multiculturality, which has become more common in the globalized world.
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| 7. |
- Wallengren, Simon, et al.
(author)
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Visibility and vulnerability : A mixed methodology approach to studying Roma individuals’ victimization experiences
- 2020
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 26:3, s. 276-294
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study examines the prevalence and impact of victimization among a sample of Roma individuals in Malmö and Gothenburg (Sweden). The aim of the study was to examine the link between visibility and victimization, and whether the Roma community employs behavioural strategies to reduce visibility, and, finally, to analyse how such strategies affect the group. The study design combines survey data (n1⁄4610) with interviews (n1⁄430). The findings suggest that visibility is an important risk factor for victimization and that the study participants’ attempt to conceal their ethnicity affects them negatively both at an individual and a community level. The discussion concludes by presenting a number of policy implications.
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| 8. |
- Würtz Jensen, Julie Mathilde, et al.
(author)
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Navigating professionals’ conditions for co-production of victim support : A conceptual article
- 2024
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In: International Review of Victimology. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-7580 .- 2047-9433. ; 30:2, s. 401-416
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- From previous research it is well known that victimization can have various short- and long-term consequences resulting in a need for support to cope with the victimization. Research also shows, however, that not all victims of crime seek or receive support. One cause of this might be the conditions and constraints that affect professionals’ matching of support services with individual victims’ needs. The purpose of the present conceptual paper is to discuss how professionals can co-produce support services with the individual victim and if needed engage suitable external organizations for the purpose of adapting support services to the individual victim’s needs, while also considering the complex field of constraints that professionals need to navigate during this process. The paper makes two main contributions. First, it conceptualizes the complex field of constraints as consisting of five sets of conditions (mandatory, local, professional, support-user, and inter-organizational conditions), which professionals must navigate during the co-production of victim support services. Second, the paper suggests a seven-step process of how professionals can navigate this complex field during co-production of victim support services’ activities with the individual victim, and potentially those of external organizations as well.
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