Förstärkt skydd, för vem? En rättssociologisk studie om lagen om kontakt med barn i sexuellt syfte

In July of 2009 punitive measures were taken by the Swedish government in order to deal with the somewhat new phenomenon known as grooming. The law, called “contact with children for sexual purposes” requires that the adult perpetrator contacts a child, with the purpose of committing sexual offences at a future meeting with the child. Although the law was received with gratitude from many parts of society, it has also been criticized at large for being ineffective and not living up to its claim of protecting children from these types of offences. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the argumentation in the law’s preparatory work, and from a sociology of law and power perspective, study the law’s manifest and latent functions. An argumentation analysis of the documents has been conducted in order to answer these questions. The overall conclusion points towards the existence of a latent function of the law; the law was passed despite its already known flaws, in way of ensuring the public that the problem has been solved. This, seen from a foucauldian approach, points towards the existence of complex power relations, and questions of in whose best interest the law was passed