Men´s violence against women in intimate partner relationships : The character and the extent of the violence and Sweden’s responsibility to protect women’s human rights.

Men’s violence against women in intimate partner relationships is a comprehensive problem in society both in Sweden and in the world. Most of the violence occurs at home which makes it a well-hidden problem and the lack of knowledge about men´s violence against women in intimate partner relationships makes it difficult to tackle. The purpose of this essay was to study the character of the violence, how comprehensive the violence is and the actions that Sweden has taken to end men´s violence against women in intimate partner relationships. The result shows that violence in intimate partner relationships occurs in all ages, ethnicities and social classes. The violence can be psychological, physical, sexual, material or economic and the abuser successively takes control over the women and her life. Prejudice about who the abuser is are common and if the abuser doesn’t fit in to the stereotype we seem to look for explanations in the implication of alcohol, anger issues or cultural background. We also seem to mistrust the women and rather than focusing on the crime that has been committed against her we focus on questions such as; why didn’t she leave sooner? To fight this social problem the government has developed a national strategy. This strategy points out that the inequality between women and men is the biggest reason that the violence occurs. According to the strategy education within all levels of society is the key to change the image of femininity and masculinity that feeds inequality between women and men.