Döden inför folkets ögon - En rättshistorisk studie av dödsstraffets offentliga verkställighet under 1800-talet fram till 1877 års reform
(2026) JURM02 20261Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- Through the reform of 1877, the public execution of the death penalty was abolished in Sweden. Until then, execution had long constituted a public penal practice in which the death sentence was carried out before a present audience. Publicity was not merely an external form of execution, but part of the way in which punishment was justified, communicated, and expected to take effect. This thesis aims to examine how the public execution of the death penalty was justified, questioned, and ultimately abolished in relation to changing conceptions of the function and legitimacy of punishment.
The study shows that public execution long formed an integral part of the older Swedish penal system. Public execution was a public, communicative, and... (More) - Through the reform of 1877, the public execution of the death penalty was abolished in Sweden. Until then, execution had long constituted a public penal practice in which the death sentence was carried out before a present audience. Publicity was not merely an external form of execution, but part of the way in which punishment was justified, communicated, and expected to take effect. This thesis aims to examine how the public execution of the death penalty was justified, questioned, and ultimately abolished in relation to changing conceptions of the function and legitimacy of punishment.
The study shows that public execution long formed an integral part of the older Swedish penal system. Public execution was a public, communicative, and legitimacy-bearing penal practice, in which the effect of punishment was assumed to depend on its visibility. Publicity was long justified through ideas of deterrence, moral instruction, religious preparation, and state authority. During the nineteenth century, however, this understanding gradually came to be reconsidered. The same publicity that had previously been regarded as necessary for the effect of punishment instead began to be perceived as something that could undermine it. Through its public character, the execution risked arousing sympathy for the condemned, provoking curiosity and moral hardening among the audience, giving rise to martyr-like conceptions, superstition, and distrust of the administration of justice. As public execution was placed in relation to new social, penal-theoretical, and humanitarian ideas, its function began to appear increasingly uncertain. This gave rise to a shift from publicity as a precondition for the effect of punishment to publicity as a threat to the function and legitimacy of punishment.
The study also shows that the question of abolishing public execution was long subordinated to the broader question of the continued existence of the death penalty. Since the death penalty was repeatedly presented as a form of punishment in decline, the forms of its execution were not always considered to require independent examination. At the same time, when the question of publicity was eventually treated more independently, it still continued to be assessed to a large extent in relation to the death penalty as such. The question of publicity was therefore never fully detached from the question of the death penalty’s legitimacy, but came to function as part of the broader reconsideration of that form of punishment.
Finally, the study shows that the reform of 1877 should be understood as more than a change in the external form of execution. The reform marked a final stage in a longer process of legal-cultural change, in which public exposure and bodily suffering were increasingly perceived as difficult to reconcile with a modern and legitimate penal system. The abolition of public execution thereby expressed a deeper shift in understandings of the function of punishment, the penal power of the state, and the forms of suffering that could be justified in the name of punishment. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Genom 1877 års reform avskaffades den offentliga verkställigheten av dödsstraffet i Sverige. Fram till dess hade avrättningen länge utgjort en offentlig straffpraktik, där dödsdomen fullbordades inför en närvarande publik. Offentligheten var inte endast en yttre form för verkställigheten, utan en del av det sätt på vilket straffet motiverades, kommunicerades och förväntades få verkan. Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur den offentliga verkställigheten av dödsstraffet rättfärdigades, ifrågasattes och slutligen avskaffades i relation till förändrade föreställningar om straffets funktion och legitimitet.
Undersökningen visar att den offentliga verkställigheten länge utgjorde en integrerad del av det äldre svenska straffsystemet.... (More) - Genom 1877 års reform avskaffades den offentliga verkställigheten av dödsstraffet i Sverige. Fram till dess hade avrättningen länge utgjort en offentlig straffpraktik, där dödsdomen fullbordades inför en närvarande publik. Offentligheten var inte endast en yttre form för verkställigheten, utan en del av det sätt på vilket straffet motiverades, kommunicerades och förväntades få verkan. Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur den offentliga verkställigheten av dödsstraffet rättfärdigades, ifrågasattes och slutligen avskaffades i relation till förändrade föreställningar om straffets funktion och legitimitet.
Undersökningen visar att den offentliga verkställigheten länge utgjorde en integrerad del av det äldre svenska straffsystemet. Den offentliga avrättningen var en offentlig, kommunikativ och legitimitetsbärande straffpraktik, där straffets verkan förutsattes vara beroende av dess synlighet. Offentligheten motiverades länge genom föreställningar om avskräckning, moralisk undervisning, religiös förberedelse och statlig auktoritet. Under 1800-talet kom denna förståelse emellertid gradvis att omprövas. Samma offentlighet som tidigare hade ansetts nödvändig för straffets verkan började i stället uppfattas som något som kunde undergräva den. Avrättningen riskerade genom sin offentlighet att väcka sympati för den dödsdömde, locka fram nyfikenhet och förhärdelse hos publiken, samt ge upphov till martyrliknande föreställningar, vidskepelse och misstro mot rättskipningen. När den offentliga avrättningen sattes i relation till nya samhälleliga, straffteoretiska och humanitära föreställningar började dess funktion således framstå som alltmer osäker. Därigenom skedde en förskjutning – från offentlighet som en förutsättning för straffets verkan – till offentlighet som ett hot mot straffets funktion och legitimitet.
Undersökningen visar även att frågan om den offentliga verkställighetens avskaffande länge underordnades den större frågan om dödsstraffets fortsatta existens. Eftersom dödsstraffet återkommande framställdes som en strafform på tillbakagång ansågs formerna för dess verkställighet inte alltid behöva prövas självständigt. Samtidigt kom offentlighetsfrågan, när den väl behandlades mer självständigt, fortfarande i stor utsträckning att bedömas i relation till dödsstraffet som sådant. Offentlighetsfrågan frigjordes således aldrig helt från frågan om dödsstraffets legitimitet, utan kom att fungera som en del av den bredare omprövningen av strafformen.
Slutligen visar undersökningen att 1877 års reform bör förstås som mer än en förändring av avrättningens yttre form. Reformen markerade ett slutsteg i en längre rättskulturell förändringsprocess, där offentlig exponering och kroppsligt lidande i allt större utsträckning började uppfattas som svårförenliga med ett modernt och legitimt straffsystem. Avskaffandet av den offentliga verkställigheten uttryckte därmed en djupare förskjutning i synen på straffets funktion, statens straffmakt och vilka former av lidande som kunde rättfärdigas i straffets namn. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9226983
- author
- Hall, Emmy Karin Linnea LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Death Before the Public Eye - A Legal-Historical Study of the Public Execution of the Death Penalty in Nineteenth-Century Sweden up to the Reform of 1877
- course
- JURM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- rättshistoria, dödsstraff, offentlighet
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9226983
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-10 09:40:22
- date last changed
- 2026-06-10 09:40:22
@misc{9226983,
abstract = {{Through the reform of 1877, the public execution of the death penalty was abolished in Sweden. Until then, execution had long constituted a public penal practice in which the death sentence was carried out before a present audience. Publicity was not merely an external form of execution, but part of the way in which punishment was justified, communicated, and expected to take effect. This thesis aims to examine how the public execution of the death penalty was justified, questioned, and ultimately abolished in relation to changing conceptions of the function and legitimacy of punishment.
The study shows that public execution long formed an integral part of the older Swedish penal system. Public execution was a public, communicative, and legitimacy-bearing penal practice, in which the effect of punishment was assumed to depend on its visibility. Publicity was long justified through ideas of deterrence, moral instruction, religious preparation, and state authority. During the nineteenth century, however, this understanding gradually came to be reconsidered. The same publicity that had previously been regarded as necessary for the effect of punishment instead began to be perceived as something that could undermine it. Through its public character, the execution risked arousing sympathy for the condemned, provoking curiosity and moral hardening among the audience, giving rise to martyr-like conceptions, superstition, and distrust of the administration of justice. As public execution was placed in relation to new social, penal-theoretical, and humanitarian ideas, its function began to appear increasingly uncertain. This gave rise to a shift from publicity as a precondition for the effect of punishment to publicity as a threat to the function and legitimacy of punishment.
The study also shows that the question of abolishing public execution was long subordinated to the broader question of the continued existence of the death penalty. Since the death penalty was repeatedly presented as a form of punishment in decline, the forms of its execution were not always considered to require independent examination. At the same time, when the question of publicity was eventually treated more independently, it still continued to be assessed to a large extent in relation to the death penalty as such. The question of publicity was therefore never fully detached from the question of the death penalty’s legitimacy, but came to function as part of the broader reconsideration of that form of punishment.
Finally, the study shows that the reform of 1877 should be understood as more than a change in the external form of execution. The reform marked a final stage in a longer process of legal-cultural change, in which public exposure and bodily suffering were increasingly perceived as difficult to reconcile with a modern and legitimate penal system. The abolition of public execution thereby expressed a deeper shift in understandings of the function of punishment, the penal power of the state, and the forms of suffering that could be justified in the name of punishment.}},
author = {{Hall, Emmy Karin Linnea}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Döden inför folkets ögon - En rättshistorisk studie av dödsstraffets offentliga verkställighet under 1800-talet fram till 1877 års reform}},
year = {{2026}},
}