Psychological violence to be criminalised
Published:
The Riksdag has voted in favour of the Government’s proposal to criminalise psychological violence. The legislative proposal will make it possible to capture offensive patterns of behaviour that are used to control or break down a person and that currently fall outside the area of what is punishable under law.
The regulation will mean that it will become a criminal offence to repeatedly subject another person to violations in the form of accusations, demeaning comments, humiliating behaviour, unlawful threats, undue force or undue monitoring, if the violations have collectively been intended to cause serious damage to a person’s self-esteem.
The regulation also means that it will become a criminal offence to subject someone to undue monitoring of a long-term nature, if the action has been intended to seriously damage their self-esteem.
The penalty will be imprisonment of a maximum of four years and the amendments will come into force on 1 July 2026.