An Influential Child of Its Time: Victim Support and a Changing Discourse on Violence Against Women

Background and Purpose

Even though Sweden is considered to be one of the most equal societies in the world, violence against women was for long an unacknowledged issue. At the end of the 1970s, the first women’s shelters were established. Soon, other organizations took up the call for a broader victim definition. In the early 1980s, the first generic non-governmental crime victim assistance programs emerged, and in 1988, five local victim support centers formed a national umbrella organization, Victim Support Sweden (VSS). As VSS became a strong organization, it focused mainly on groups that were already supported by other organizations, abused women in particular, but had another agenda than women’s shelters. 

While no studies have investigated VSS role, several Swedish studies have focused on women’s shelters. This paper aims to understand how an NGO influenced politics in the area of violence against women from the 1980s to the 2000s, through a study of VSS. How has VSS argued in issues concerning violence against women? How has VSS related to political developments and women’s shelters? How did this organization find its place in contemporary politics?

Methods

This paper is based on a qualitative document analysis of material from VSS’s national archive. This archive holds an extensive collection of documents such as annual reports, informational and educational material, member magazine articles, letters, and minutes from board meetings and working groups. In addition, we have done retrospective interviews with key people in the organization. We have also analyzed legislative documents and secondary sources about politics in the field of violence against women.

Findings

This paper shows that VSS played an important role and helped silence a structural discourse in the field of violence against women, by regarding women as crime victims, and not as women, primarily. The reconceptualization of violence against women from a structural problem related to male supremacy to an individual problem, also opened a space for VSS to become a strong voice in this area. In parallel processes, VSS created a space for their organization through a close relationship with politicians and made essential contributions to the changing politics. On the one hand, this transformation can be regarded a cooptation, where VSS was eager to do as the state, or welfare market, expected. On the other hand, VSS was influential in lobbying for their perspective and made achievements.

Conclusions and Implications

This paper gives an example of how an NGO interplays with the state. We argue that VSS is both a creator and creation of its time. VSS had a role also in changing the discourse on gender, by supporting a notion that claimed abused women as crime victims, and not as women primarily. Going forward, it is important to ask if it is helpful or harmful for abused women to be defined principally as “victims of crime." If we adjust how violence against women is perceived, the possible solutions will change.