Tone Hee Åker will defend her thesis "Victims with disabilities in the Norwegian criminal justice system. Addressing and understanding the judicial process in cases involving physical and sexual abuse" for the PhD in Health Sciences.
Trial lecture title: Estimating the numbers of victims with intellectual disabilities who have been physically or sexually abused – Methodological developments and pitfalls.
Ordinary opponents
Leader of the public defense is Professor Magne Flaten, Department of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet.
The main supervisor is Associate Professor Miriam Sinkerud Johnson, Department of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet.
The co-supervisors are Associate Professor Børge Strømgren, Department of Behavioural Science, OsloMet, and Senior Research Fellow Tonje Gundersen, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), OsloMet.
Crime against people with disabilities is under-researched. More knowledge is therefore needed to develop guidelines and procedures to secure the rule of law for this vulnerable group. This thesis illuminates how people with disabilities who are alleged victims of physical and sexual abuse, proceed through the criminal justice system in Norway. The main issues discussed include the characteristics of the criminal cases and of the investigative interviews conducted with alleged victims with a disability, and their need for health services after the investigative interview.
Three studies were conducted. The research papers that report these are included as separate chapters in the thesis. The first study is based on register data from the criminal justice system. This is one of few studies in the world that has been given access to such data to analyze and describe case characteristics.
The results show that sexual offenses against young females are the most common crime investigated by the police in Norway for victims with a disability, and that the number of cases investigated that involve children under the age of 16 and involve violence were few. The second study analyzed question types and how best-practice recommendations for interviewing vulnerable witnesses were mirrored in practice. The analysis revealed a considerable variation.
The main conclusion shows that interviewers need to increase the use of the recommended open-ended questions and cease using suggestive questions. Our final study aimed to address the meeting of victim health care needs at the interface between the criminal justice system and the health care sector. The small data set analyzed raises questions around the lack of guidelines and practices for securing the required health care services by the criminal justice and health care collaboration. The study shed light on a phenomenon which needs much more research.
This thesis is one of the very few that addresses critical issues in how the criminal justice system in Norway meets people with disabilities as alleged victims of physical and sexual abuse. The topics discussed add new and essential information to this field. This enables us to move our knowledge forwards and to secure the rule of law and the human rights of victims with disabilities.