"Det är nästan som på savannen, lejonet som ger sig på den svagaste gasellen" : en kvalitativ studie av hur äldre beskrivs som offer för bedrägeribrott i domar och media

Abstract: In recent years the rate of fraudulent crime has increased in Sweden. Swedish media has flagged up this development in part by publishing articles focusing on such crimes particularly against the elderly. Elderly victims of fraud are often described as especially vulnerable, not only because of their physical weakness but also because of their gullibility. This description of elderly victims of fraud appeared contradictory to the author of this thesis; the depiction of these victims creates feelings of sympathy but also implies some element of responsibility or blame on their part. The aim of this study has been to qualitatively examine how societal and legal sources describe elderly victims of fraud. The author of this thesis studied examples of judgements from Swedish courts and articles from the Swedish media in order to find patterns in the description to elderly victim of fraud. The author also interviewed a Swedish judge in order to gain a deeper understanding of the patterns observed in these judgements and articles. Through an inductive analysis, the results were reviewed and discussed with the help of Nils Christie’s theory regarding the ideal victim. The result of this analysis indicate that elderly victims of fraud overall are described as ideal victims and therefore receive a high status in the role of victim of fraud, both in court and in society in general. Even though some results pointed towards the elderly as more questionable victims, the overall picture was much closer to that of the ideal victim, especially given the description of the elderly as vulnerable and the perpetrator(s) as malicious.