Citation

Sahlin I. J. Scan. Stud. Criminology Crime Prev. 2004; 5(1): 85-107.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/14043850410027696

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Contact prohibition orders (besöksförbud) are by now an institutionalized form of preventing violence and protecting the integrity of individuals from non-strangers' intrusion in their lives. On the basis of an analysis of, primarily, in-depth interviews with people intended to be protected by such orders, it is argued that this legal practice has unintended consequences for the parties' interaction and relationship. In order to obtain and maintain CPOs, the individuals have to regard and present the other party's acts as criminal cases and watch their own behaviour to preclude accusations of having provoked violations. They are also expected to evidence the other's crimes. In court they have to present themselves as credible witnesses and at the same time as suffering victims in order to retain the victim role. To make sense of the new situation, they tended to re-construct the other party as inherently criminal, and they accounted for their common past as based upon the other's deception. Hence, it is claimed that the encounters with the criminal justice system have a decisive impact on the individuals' understanding of themselves, the other party, their relations and interaction.