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Excluding Power from a Narrative: Sexual Harassment in a Criminal Law Reform

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Rape Narratives in Motion

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture ((PSCMC))

Abstract

In discourses on sexual harassment, an abuse of power is usually present. Often the perpetrators are in positions of power and, if not, they benefit from a culture that protects the harassers against women and others in less powerful positions. However, these power relations are not always acknowledged. This chapter presents a law reform to criminalise sexual harassment that was presented and debated in the Finnish Parliament without discussion of the power relations inherent in harassment. The chapter discusses the consequences of this dismissal of the power dimension in the formulation of the new law, which is limited to touching, and in the implementation of the new law, in which more serious sexual violations are processed as sexual harassment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Turku, Finland

    Johanna Niemi

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  1. Johanna Niemi
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Correspondence to Johanna Niemi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Ulrika Andersson

  2. Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Monika Edgren

  3. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lena Karlsson

  4. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Gabriella Nilsson

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Niemi, J. (2019). Excluding Power from a Narrative: Sexual Harassment in a Criminal Law Reform. In: Andersson, U., Edgren, M., Karlsson, L., Nilsson, G. (eds) Rape Narratives in Motion. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13852-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13852-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13851-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13852-3

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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