Sextortion: Linking sexual violence and corruption in a Nordic context
2023 (English)In: Re-Imagining Sexual Harassment: Perspectives from the Nordic Region / [ed] Maja Lundqvist, Angelica Simonsson, and Kajsa Widegren, Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press , 2023, p. 129-152Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
This chapter analyses two court cases in Sweden and Norway in which men with positions of entrusted power were convicted of making their services conditional on sexual favours. This is known as ‘sextortion’. The chapter shows how the verdicts from the District Courts in both countries took into consideration the perpetrators’ abuse of entrusted power and the victims’ positions of dependency, which enabled undue exploitation. However, the verdict from the Swedish Court of Appeal introduced a discussion of consent and applied a ‘reverse sextortion logic’, arguing that since the victims were dependent on the services of the perpetrator, they effectively ‘consented’ to the sexual acts. The chapter argues that an analytical framework of sextortion necessitates a shift in focus from the question of the consent of the victim to the perpetrator’s abuse of entrusted power and, through this, manages to recentre the perpetrator’s responsibility for the abuse. Furthermore, the chapter analyses how a Nordic self-image characterised by ‘exceptionalism’ – including aspects of gender equality, othering of sexual violence, and a non-corruption culture – prevents acknowledgement of the abuse of power. Such a self-image protects perpetrators that operate from the core of national belonging, contributing to the invisibility and impunity of their crimes.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press , 2023. p. 129-152
Keywords [en]
sextortion, sexual corruption, sexual abuse of power, sexual violence, sexual harassment, quid pro quo, exceptionalism, Norway, Sweden
Keywords [sv]
sextortion, sexuell korruption, sexuellt maktmissbruk, sexuellt våld, sexuella trakasserier, quid pro quo, exceptionalism, Norge, Sverige
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-193213DOI: 10.51952/9781447366546Libris ID: 8rbrs3fn6z989f8tISBN: 9781447366546 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-193213DiVA, id: diva2:1752252
2023-04-212023-04-212023-08-10Bibliographically approved