Funding: Ministry of Education and Research
Project period: 2020–2024
Researchers: Jane Dullum (project manager) and Anja Bredal
Domestic violence can take different forms, and the violence can be based on different cultural logics. The project will investigate how this diversity is handled by the criminal justice system, with particular emphasis on honor-related violence (subproject 1) and forced marriages (subproject 2).
In subproject 1, we will examine how the courts deal with cases of violence in close relationships (the Penal Code 2005, section 282 and 283), with a particular focus on culture and honor. We will examine how the violence is interpreted by the courts, and how the courts mete out the sentences in these cases. Is the violence interpreted as something cultural, distinctive, or is the violence interpreted as violence in close relationships more generally?
A special question relates to how culture and honor are dealt with in terms of motive, and to what extent culture and honor are regarded as an aggravating or mitigating circumstance. Seeing culture and honor as a mitigating circumstance has so far not been applicable law in Norway.
Internationally, however, this is increasingly the case, and we will investigate whether we can also trace such tendencies in Norwegian judicial decisions. A particularly interesting question also concerns the courts’ use of experts/expert witnesses in the cases, and the project will investigate their role in the courts’ decision making.
The empirical material will consist of a selection of sentences from the courts, and qualitative interviews with expert witnesses, public prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges.
In subproject 2, the purpose is to examine Norwegian experiences with the criminalization of forced marriages and child marriages (respectively the Penal Code 2005 section 253 and 262). Norway was the first country in Europe with a separate provision in the Penal Code on forced marriages, and Nordic and European countries have followed suit. The project’s aim is also to gather and compare experiences from the Nordic and the European countries when it comes to the regulation of forced marriages, and case law.
The project will analyze all final judgements on forced marriage and child marriage in Norway. Data from other countries will be generated through contacts with lawyers and researchers who have specific knowledge on the regulation of forced marriage and case law in their respective countries. Access to court decisions will also be ensured through EU bodies and relevant European organizations. Relevant researchers will be invited to a European symposium in Oslo funded by The Domestic Violence Research Program.