Behind Closed Doors. A Study on Swedish Authorities' Perceptions on Gender of Offenders and Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence is a global issue that occur in both opposite and same-sex relationships, with both male and female offenders, but also with male and female victims. The police and social services are the two main authorities in Sweden to evaluate the situation of intimate partner violence, identify the offender, examine the probability of future violence, and to provide victim support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Swedish authorities' perceptions regarding intimate partner violence from a gender perspective, using an experimental vignette technique. The study examines the perception of stereotypical and non-stereotyped gender and gender roles through various constructs and aims to explore how offenders and victims of intimate partner violence is perceived by police employees and social workers. The participants age, gender, education background, and work experience of intimate partner violence is also analysed in combination with variances of perception regarding offender and victim culpability, offender risk and the severity of the incident. The result of the study follows previous literature where male-to-female intimate partner violence is perceived as more severe, and male offenders as more culpable, though the differences are minor. Further does this study indicate only small differences between perceptions of gender between police employees and social workers