Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Djävulen sitter i detaljerna. En undersökning av detaljerade utsagors tillförlitlighet i sexualmål

Hemby, Hanna LU (2021) LAGF03 20211
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
Summary
Sexual offence differ from other crimes. The injured party’s evidence in sexual offence tends to consist of solely oral evidence, and partially corroborating evidence. Based on relatively weak evidence, the role of the Swedish Supreme court is to determine whether the defendant’s guilt is beyond reasonable doubt, the legal standard of proof required to validate criminal convictions.
A statement made by the injured party that contains many details tends to be given substantial evidential value by the Swedish Supreme Court. A detailed statement is consequently considered reliable. Contrary, statements with few or no details tend to be considered non-reliable. The primary objective is to examine whether the Swedish Supreme Court’s... (More)
Summary
Sexual offence differ from other crimes. The injured party’s evidence in sexual offence tends to consist of solely oral evidence, and partially corroborating evidence. Based on relatively weak evidence, the role of the Swedish Supreme court is to determine whether the defendant’s guilt is beyond reasonable doubt, the legal standard of proof required to validate criminal convictions.
A statement made by the injured party that contains many details tends to be given substantial evidential value by the Swedish Supreme Court. A detailed statement is consequently considered reliable. Contrary, statements with few or no details tend to be considered non-reliable. The primary objective is to examine whether the Swedish Supreme Court’s valuation of a detailed statement is compatible with the reliability in accordance with psychological research. This is examined based on psychological research of details in a statement and how the human memory functions. Thus, to answer the research question, this thesis primarily applies an interdisciplinary methodology, while a legal dogmatic methodology also is apparent.
This thesis uncovers that many variables determine the reliability of a detailed statement. Subjective factors, such as the injured party’s personality but also objective factors, such as the lightning where the sexual offence took place, affects the possibility to report the incident in a detailed manner. A victim who is intoxicated, drugged, suffers from sleep disorder or from post-traumatic stress disorder, has reduced ability to register details. Research shows that an injured party who has been a victim of a continuing sexual offence tends to more easily forget details, as the sexual offence are perceived as “familiar”. Yet, research also shows that details from traumatic events have a tendency to rarely be forgotten.
In conclusion, it is established that the Swedish Supreme Court’s detail criteria are not quality assured against psychological research. Furthermore, the criteria is not as nuanced as psychology research demands to validate the statements’ reliability. In my opinion, it is deemed necessary that the Swedish Supreme Court, to a greater extent, quality assures the evidence validation by using special advisors as psychologists in main hearings to assess the statement of the injured party. Alternatively, it is recommended to use a specific method for evaluation of evidence that is supported by extensive and validated psychology research. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Sammanfattning
Ur bevishänseende är sexualmål ett särskilt typ av brott. Bevisningen består inte sällan enbart av målsägandes utsaga och till viss del av stödbevisning som styrker målsägandes berättelse. Högsta domstolen ska mot bakgrund av relativt svag bevisning avgöra om det är ställt utom rimligt tvivel att den tilltalade gjort sig skyldig till brott. Högsta domstolen tenderar att bedöma målsägandes utsaga som tillförlitlig mot bakgrund av utsagans många detaljer. På samma sätt anser Högsta domstolen frekvent att en utsaga med få detaljer inte är tillförlitlig.
Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning målsägandes detaljerade utsaga i sexualmål är förenlig med utsagans tillförlitlighet. Undersökningen görs mot bakgrund... (More)
Sammanfattning
Ur bevishänseende är sexualmål ett särskilt typ av brott. Bevisningen består inte sällan enbart av målsägandes utsaga och till viss del av stödbevisning som styrker målsägandes berättelse. Högsta domstolen ska mot bakgrund av relativt svag bevisning avgöra om det är ställt utom rimligt tvivel att den tilltalade gjort sig skyldig till brott. Högsta domstolen tenderar att bedöma målsägandes utsaga som tillförlitlig mot bakgrund av utsagans många detaljer. På samma sätt anser Högsta domstolen frekvent att en utsaga med få detaljer inte är tillförlitlig.
Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning målsägandes detaljerade utsaga i sexualmål är förenlig med utsagans tillförlitlighet. Undersökningen görs mot bakgrund av psykologisk forskning om människans minne och målsägandes förmåga att utge detaljerade utsagor. Framställningen besvarar frågan om Högsta domstolens värdering av detaljerade utsagor är förenlig med tillförlitlighet enligt psykologisk forskning.
I hög grad tillämpas tvärdiciplinär metod, men även i viss utsträckning rättsdogmatisk metod.
I arbetet framkommer att det finns många faktorer som är centrala för att värdera en utsagas tillförlitlighet mot bakgrund av detaljer. Subjektiva faktorer, bland annat målsägandes personlighet, samt objektiva faktorer som t.ex ljuset på platsen för händelsen inverkar på möjligheten att detaljerat återberätta en händelse. Forskning visar att offer som är påverkad av alkohol, droger, sömnstörning, eller som lider av posttraumatiskt stressyndrom har en reducerad möjlighet att registrera detaljer vid händelsen. Därutöver tenderar ett offer som utsatts för perdurerande sexualbrott att glömma detaljer, då våldtäkterna känns som ”vardag”. Däremot visar forskning också att detaljer från traumatiska händelser, som sexualbrott ofta är, sällan försvinner helt ur minnet.
Avslutningsvis konstateras att Högsta domstolens detaljkriterium dels inte är tillräckligt kvalitetssäkrat mot psykologisk forskning på området och dels uppnår detaljkriteriet inte den nyansering som enligt forskning understödjer en tillförlitlig utsaga. Enligt min mening bör Högsta domstolen kvalitetssäkra bevisvärderingen genom att i högre utsträckning använda sakkunskap vid huvudförhandling i sexualmål, d.v.s rättspsykologer som utvärderar målsägandes utsaga. Alternativt bör en särskild bevisvärderingsmetod som stöds av väletablerad forskning tillämpas. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hemby, Hanna LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20211
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Processrätt, straffrätt, bevisvärdering
language
Swedish
id
9050960
date added to LUP
2021-09-23 08:45:43
date last changed
2021-09-23 08:45:43
@misc{9050960,
  abstract     = {{Summary
Sexual offence differ from other crimes. The injured party’s evidence in sexual offence tends to consist of solely oral evidence, and partially corroborating evidence. Based on relatively weak evidence, the role of the Swedish Supreme court is to determine whether the defendant’s guilt is beyond reasonable doubt, the legal standard of proof required to validate criminal convictions.
A statement made by the injured party that contains many details tends to be given substantial evidential value by the Swedish Supreme Court. A detailed statement is consequently considered reliable. Contrary, statements with few or no details tend to be considered non-reliable. The primary objective is to examine whether the Swedish Supreme Court’s valuation of a detailed statement is compatible with the reliability in accordance with psychological research. This is examined based on psychological research of details in a statement and how the human memory functions. Thus, to answer the research question, this thesis primarily applies an interdisciplinary methodology, while a legal dogmatic methodology also is apparent.
This thesis uncovers that many variables determine the reliability of a detailed statement. Subjective factors, such as the injured party’s personality but also objective factors, such as the lightning where the sexual offence took place, affects the possibility to report the incident in a detailed manner. A victim who is intoxicated, drugged, suffers from sleep disorder or from post-traumatic stress disorder, has reduced ability to register details. Research shows that an injured party who has been a victim of a continuing sexual offence tends to more easily forget details, as the sexual offence are perceived as “familiar”. Yet, research also shows that details from traumatic events have a tendency to rarely be forgotten.
In conclusion, it is established that the Swedish Supreme Court’s detail criteria are not quality assured against psychological research. Furthermore, the criteria is not as nuanced as psychology research demands to validate the statements’ reliability. In my opinion, it is deemed necessary that the Swedish Supreme Court, to a greater extent, quality assures the evidence validation by using special advisors as psychologists in main hearings to assess the statement of the injured party. Alternatively, it is recommended to use a specific method for evaluation of evidence that is supported by extensive and validated psychology research.}},
  author       = {{Hemby, Hanna}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Djävulen sitter i detaljerna. En undersökning av detaljerade utsagors tillförlitlighet i sexualmål}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}