5th-July-2008
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 | Men's rights activist | | | |
Norway: Men ignored in domestic violence cases | |
This was published in Aftenposten in 2003: Norway: Men ignored in domestic violence cases Quote:
Several Norwegian defense attorneys claim that too much weight is put on the testimony of women in domestic violence cases. Men are often victims of miscarriage of justice because their stories are often not given credibility, newspaper Dagbladet reports.
"In the 80s one said that Norwegian prisons housed innocents convicted of incest. Today we can say that men convicted of violence against women are at risk of being unfairly tried," defense lawyer Marte Svarstad Brodtkorb told Dagbladet.
"When a woman says she has been hit there is almost always a one-sided investigation from the police. The man is left alone, not believed. We have to think about the man's legal protection too," Brodtkorb said.
Lawyer Heidi Ysen also questions the legal system's current handling of such cases.
"I have regularly handled such cases for 14 years and the development has been unfortunate. Earlier, it was very hard to get the woman believed, then we had a period when things were relatively neutral, Ysen said.
Now instructions have been given that such cases should be given high priority and I feel there such strong pressure to prosecute these cases, even when there is not necessarily any evidence. Then it is often word against word and one tends to believe the complainant all too often," Ysen said.
Ysen also saw a similarity between domestic violence cases and the way incest charges were treated before, where a neutral handling of charges only emerged after a period of reflex reaction.
"It is unfortunate that courts and authorities do not see that one has to demand the same level of evidence as in other types of crime. There is an attitude that the accused is lying and the complainant telling the truth, even without documentation. We lawyers must prove the defendant is telling the truth, and that is all wrong," Ysen said.
Lawyer Aase Karine Sigmond related similar experiences from her work with domestic cases. She said that once could often see motives for pressing domestic violence charges, such as getting child custody, extended residency or financial gain - though she stressed that many women are genuine victims of violence.
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