Since July 1 this year, anyone who repeatedly offends or harms someone through threats, coercion or surveillance can be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
To be covered by the law, the acts must be deemed capable of seriously harming a person's self-esteem.
It is a construct where you combine individual acts that in themselves do not need to be criminalised, says Magnus Ulväng.
No time limit
The law is not limited to violence in close relationships but applies in all contexts, including, for example, military service and the workplace.
It can include bullying and gaslighting if this is deemed to be part of repeated violations intended to damage a person's self-esteem, says Magnus Ulväng.
There is no time frame for how long or short the psychological violence should have lasted, but more than two occasions within a certain period of time can be defined as repeated.
But the time between the individual violations must be neither too short nor too long, he says.
Requires no evidence
There has previously been a possibility of sentencing for assault that consisted of mental suffering, but the harassment must have led to demonstrable physical illness.
According to the new law, tangible evidence is not even required that someone has been broken down by the psychological violence, only that it is usually "enough" to have seriously damaged the person's self-esteem.
Isn't there a risk that subjective experiences and even slights may form the basis for convictions?
The law poses great difficulties in assessment, where the courts must decide what is "enough" to seriously damage a person's self-esteem. It will be up to the prosecutor in question to define the norm for where the line is drawn, says Magnus Ulväng, who does not want to say whether he thinks the law is much needed or mostly causes problems.
It is completely understandable that attention is being paid to the problem of psychological violence. But one must be careful when assessing what is sufficiently reprehensible to lead to punishment, he says.
Psychological violence can consist of various actions that together break down a person's self-esteem and freedom of action. For example, it can involve someone:
repeatedly humiliating or insulting a person
repeatedly threatening or forcing someone to do things against their will
controlling or supervising another person
restricting a person's finances, for example by controlling bank accounts, preventing the person from working or taking out loans in the person's name.
For an act to be criminal, it must occur repeatedly and be part of a pattern of behaviour. The penalty for psychological violence is imprisonment for a maximum of four years.
Source: Police
