Those who have been a victim of crime once are highly likely to be targeted a second time around, reported DN on Monday. Up to half the crime committed in Sweden affects as little as 5 per cent of the population, reported BRÅ (the department for prevention of crime).
“A relatively small group of people are victims of a large number of crimes,” said Marlene Carlstedt at BRÅ.
It appears that violence against women is the most common act of crime where the victim is affected twice, reported DN. But every tenth person who has been the victim of abuse by an unknown person returns to the police with more reports of crime.
Sources: Dagens Nyheter
When Sweden's appeals court threw out a guilty verdict in a child rape case over the meaning of 'snippa', a child's word for a vagina, it caused a scandal in Sweden. Now, the Swedish Supreme Court wants to hear from the Court of Appeals about its decision.
Attorney General Petra Lundh criticised the appeals court for “a number of serious miscarriages of justice” in the way it dealt with the case.
The man had been sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2021 after the district court heard how he, in the prosecutor’s words, had “by sticking his hand inside the plaintiff’s shorts and underwear, holding his hand on the the girl’s ‘snippa’ and having a finger inside her ‘snippa’, performed a sexual act” on her.
The girl’s testimony was found to be credible, in part because she had told her mother about the incident on their way home.
But in February this year, the appeals court threw out the conviction, arguing that it was unclear what the girl means by the word snippa, a word taught to Swedish children to refer to female genitalia.
Despite agreeing with the district court that the man had touched the girl between her legs and inserted his finger into her snippa, the court found that it could not be determined whether the girl was referring to her vulva or to her vagina.
If the man had inserted his finger into her vagina, that would have met the standard to be classified as rape. Because the girl said that his finger was “far in”, but could not state exactly how far, the appeals court found that it could not establish beyond doubt that the man had inserted his finger in her vagina and not her the vulva.
Because no lower-grade charges, such as sexual abuse or molestation, had been filed against the man, the appeals court could not consider other offences.
This week, the Attorney General lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court against the appeal court’s decision. Now the Swedish Supreme Court has given the appeals court until April 12 to explain its decision-making in the case.
The Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear an appeal against the decision to clear the man of rape charges.
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