Only the plaintiff’s story is not enough to make it true: A qualitative study of the Swedish judicial system’s assessments of rape cases

Abstract: This essay explores how trustworthiness is created, established, and constructed in regard to women subjected to sexual violence, analysing significant features which may be decisive in court’s assessment of rape. The construction of the plaintiff’s trustworthiness and its impact on the legal process will be analysed in ten Swedish court cases about rape and through interviews with four women working in different women’s shelters. The theoretical framework is based on the concepts of intersectionality and respectability. The results show that the assessment of the plaintiff’s trustworthiness is an essential part of the court’s judgement in rape trials. This assessment is influenced by perceptions and prejudices linked, among other things, to what is understood as the woman’s behaviour before, during and after the assault. A coherent image of how the plaintiff should appear and behave, able to have the highest possibility to appear as trustworthy in the court. Thus, this study identifies the construction of an ideal victim shaped through her capacity to narrate the event in a coherent and organised way.