Likgiltig våldtäkt: en rättssociologisk studie om likgiltighetsuppsåtets användning vid våldtäksdomar

Swedish criminal law recognizes three different types of intent: knowledgeable, purposeful and indifferent. The last one, and the one examined in this thesis, means that the perpetrator was indifferent towards the effects his/her actions would have, meaning that the person would have acted the same way regardless of the outcome. The purpose of this essay is to examine how indifferent intent is used by the Swedish courts in rape cases and what the discussion regarding it looks like. The current applied theory is that gender is a social construction. This is the ground for the scientific basis that sex can be used as a power tool, the views on masculinity and femininity, male and female sexuality and Nils Christie’s theory of the ideal victim. The method used is the qualitative method and an interpretation of the articles written on the subject was done with the scientific basis as grounds for the deduction. The conclusion of the thesis is that the indifferent intent is mostly used when the courts examined the physical damage the actions caused. The courts mostly focused on how the perpetrator acted when he/she discovered that the victim had been wounded. The discussions concerning the use of the indifferent intent covers a variety of areas connected to the legal aspects. These areas included that the required standard of the evidence is very high that the accused and the accuser might have misunderstood each other, and that sexual crimes differ from other types of crimes because they are essentially an expression for the power men have over female sexuality