Anja Emilie Kruse

• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Skilbrei, May-Len (2024). The monster and the self: Taking on the monstrosity of sexual violations. Punishment & Society. ISSN 1462-4745. doi: 10.1177/14624745231221933. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The contemporary normative climate regarding sexual violence affects how perpetrators of such violence relate to their harmful acts. In this article, we analyze how men convicted of sex offences are affected by how perpetrators of such offences are often represented as monsters and ask what this tells us about what characterizes the Monster as a figure. While people convicted of sexual offences are likened to monsters in many contexts, there is little research that unpacks the characteristics of this figure and how it is contingent on ideas about and the regulation of sex offending. By analyzing data from qualitative interviews with 17 men convicted of sexual offences in Norway, we found that, although they presented themselves and the acts they were convicted of committing differently, they had a common fear of being identified as a monster. In these narratives, a monster was characterized by (1) intentionality—having intentionally harmed others, (2) preference—having a sexual preference for harmful, nonconsensual sex, and (3) authenticity—being authentically violent. We conceive of the narrative processes that the participants engage in as forms of social abjection and discuss the consequences that abjection may have for accountability, rehabilitation, and justice.

• Kruse, Anja Emilie; Helseth, Hannah & Korkmaz, Sibel (2023). Callous Lovers and Frightening Victims: How emotional contradictions affect young people’s navigation of sexually abusive relationships. Nordic Journal of Criminology. ISSN 2578-983X. 24(1), p. 1–20. doi: 10.18261/njc.24.1.6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we analyze how young people with sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization experiences describe, interpret and attempt to understand their abusive partners. Building on a qualitative interview study with 27 young participants (ages 17–24) from Norway and Sweden, our analysis demonstrates how young people’s victimization experiences in abusive relationships are characterized by confusing, contradictory and conflicting emotions about their abusive partners. We developed two ‘ideal types’ of relationship dynamics with abusive partners from our empirical material – being in a relationship with a ‘Callous Lover’ or a ‘Frightening Victim’, respectively. These ideal types illustrate how emotional contradictions take different forms, are managed differently and bring different consequences for the young, victimized participants. We argue that their efforts to manage their contradictory feelings towards their abusive partners can be understood as ‘emotion work’. The demand for such work is shaped by social expectations and norms of what constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘normal’ relationship, and of what can or should be expected of romantic or sexual partners in adolescent and young adult relationships. Managing and trying to live up to these expectations has consequences for young people’s opportunities to disentangle themselves from harmful relationships.

• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2022). Beginnings matter: Why sexual violence perpetration should not remain on the dark side of the moon. Nordisk Tidsskrift for Kriminalvidenskab. ISSN 0029-1528. 109(1), p. 175–182. doi: 10.7146/ntfk.v109i1.130303.

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• Bitsch, Anne & Kruse, Anja Emilie (2012). Bak lukkede dører : en bok om voldtekt. Cappelen Damm AS. ISBN 9788202365813. 382 p.

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• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Øverlien, Carolina (2023). Conference Symposium: Drawing the line? Emerging findings from a mixed-methods study on young people’s experiences of exposure to and perpetration of sexual intimate partner violence.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie; Helseth, Hannah & Korkmaz, Sibel (2023). Callous Lovers and Frightening Victims: How emotional contradictions affect young people’s navigation of sexually abusive relationships. Show summary

  From research on adult intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, we know that IPV victims often have contradictory and ambivalent ways of relating to their abusive partner, both during the relationship and after it has ended. The ambivalent and shifting quality of abusive relationships can be experienced as binding, thus making it more difficult for the victim to leave. However, young people’s experiences of IPV is still an under-researched topic, and it is unclear if and how youth IPV differs from adult IPV. This paper explores how young victims of sexual IPV in Sweden and Norway describe and understand their abusive partners and their relationships to them. Drawing on an ideal-type analysis of interviews with 27 young people who had experienced IPV during their teenage years, we want to develop our understanding of the emotional dissonance and contradictions often experienced by victims in abusive relationships, especially among young people, and to explore the gendered dynamics of such dissonance. We find that the young people understand and interpret their abusive partners in two discrete ways. We have developed two figures or types, representing differing interpretations by the young people of their partners, their interactions with them, and the emotional contradictions arising from these dynamics. These types will be presented in the paper, alongside our analysis of both the differing consequences that such dynamics may have for young people’s experienced opportunities to leave harmful or abusive relationships, and how these dynamics may be better understood in the light of a sociology of emotions.

• Kruse, Anja Emilie; Helseth, Hannah; Todd-Kvam, Mari & Øverlien, Carolina (2023). The Monster’s Dilemma. Integration and Non-Integration of Sexual Violence Perpetration in Self-Narratives of Young Men in Norway. Show summary

  Narratively integrating one’s own harmful acts into a running self-narrative can be an especially difficult undertaking when the harmful act in question is a sexual violation. Sexual violations are a category of harmdoing that carries particular condemnation and stigma to its perpetrators. At the same time, making meaning of harmful acts one has committed often does entail an effort or imperative to consider such integration. This is perhaps particularly true when such processes are undertaken during imprisonment and (partly) as a response to the expectations of a rehabilitative prison regime. Hence, the question of narrative integration (or non-integration) of harmful acts into the running story of one’s life and biography is, we argue, central for people who have done sexual harm to others. On this background, our paper presents and discusses a self-narrative analysis of qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 17 young men (age 18-25) in Norway. Our participants had been convicted of a sex offense or otherwise self-identified as someone who had sexually violated another person. Our analysis highlights the narrative strategies the young men employ to figure out which place their sexually violating act(s) may have in their developing self-narrative. For our participants, this process started after they had been accused, reported or convicted for a sexual offense, or if they had otherwise concluded that they have sexually violated someone. In 2007, Maruna and Roy critically discussed the term ‘knifing-off’ as a conceptualization of the separating of harmful or criminal acts from narratives of self, and how this term might be useful or counterproductive to understand the relationship between self-narratives and desistance from future crime. We use the concept of ‘knifing-off’ as a point of departure for understanding the self-narratives of our participants, and how their various narrative strategies for non-/integration of harmdoing may be connected to desistance processes.

• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2023). Keynote-foredrag: Produktiv friksjon? Betydningen av responser fra andre i menns fortellinger om seksuelle krenkelser.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2023). Keynote Address: The Why, the Who and the Wherefore. Explanations, Self-Change and Social Friction in Men's Narratives of Sexual Violations. Show summary

  In this address, I ask and try to answer the question of what we can learn from the stories that men convicted of sex offenses tell about their sexually violent acts – and the stories they tell about themselves as a person who has committed such acts. From a narrative criminology approach, the stories told of past harmdoing by those responsible for doing harm may affect their future behavior. This is so because experience is simultaneously represented and (re-)constructed in the telling of narratives, the meaning-making it entails and how storytelling contributes to (dis-)integrate harmdoing into a broader narrative of self, identity and future. The first part of this address will zoom in on the explanations – the why stories – that the 17 men I interviewed for my PhD project (2015-2020) gave in response to questions about how they ended up committing sexual violence. Social responses to violence – and to stories of violence – may (re-)produce dominant understandings of violence and the harm resulting from it. However, social responses also carry subversive potential to redefine such understandings, potentially recognizing new forms of violence or harm and pushing narratives about selves and acts in new directions. In the second part of the address, I will discuss the meaning and impact of social responses in and on developing narratives of committing and being convicted for sexual violence. The interpersonal responses that the participants encountered after having committed and been convicted for sex offences turned out to be important factors in the processes they engaged in to make sense of, and come to terms with, their acts and experiences. Some responses were pushing the men to re-evaluate their concepts of violation, violence and consent. Other responses were reinforcing experiences of having been unfairly treated by a victim-centered, over-vigilant justice system, and yet other responses caused stigma, fear and social isolation. Examples of responses and their impact in and on the men’s stories will be discussed in relation to narrative criminological thinking, as well as theorization on what helps or hinders desistance, rehabilitation and reintegration.

• Houge, Anette Bringedal & Kruse, Anja Emilie (2023). Èn gang overgriper - alltid overgriper? Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.). ISSN 0804-3116.
• Houge, Anette Bringedal & Kruse, Anja Emilie (2023). Workshop: Etisk ubehag.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Elnan, Thea Storøy (2021). Slik endrer dommen mot kulturprofilen synet på voldtekt og overgrepsutsatte. [Newspaper]. Morgenbladet.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Dybvig, Elise (2021). Særlig én kulturell forestilling gjør det vanskelig å erkjenne at man har begått et overgrep. [Newspaper]. Morgenbladet.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Ugelvik, Thomas (2021). 9 Anja Emilie Kruse: Seksuell vold, kriminalomsorg, galgenhumor. [Radio]. Podcasten Kriminologene. Show summary

  Anja Emilie Kruse jobber som forsker ved Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress (NKVTS). Doktorgradsavhandlingen hennes fra 2020 bygger på dybdeintervjuer med 17 menn som er dømt for voldtekt eller andre former for alvorlige seksuelle overgrep. Anja viser hvordan mennene sliter med å forene handlingene sine – altså overgrepene de er dømt for – med hvem de tenker at de er. Hun viser også at selvbildet kan endre seg over tid. Ettersom mennene reflekterer over spørsmål om skyld, ansvar og skam i relasjon til handlingene sine, ser de etter noe tid ofte annerledes både på det de har gjort, og på hvem de er.

• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2021). Keynote-foredrag: Produktiv friksjon? Betydningen av sosiale responser i (unge) menns fortellinger om seksuelle krenkelser de selv har begått. Show summary

  I dette foredraget vil kriminolog Anja Emilie Kruse presentere resultater fra sitt doktorgradsprosjekt, fullført i 2020, om hvordan menn som har krenket andre seksuelt forstår og forsøker å skape mening i sine egne handlinger. Gjennom analyser av deres fortellinger - deres narrativer - setter hun søkelys på hvordan responser fra andre former og omformer mennenes forståelser av handlingene sine og av seg selv. Hun viser at endringsprosesser er noe som ikke bare finner sted i terapirommet. Et annet viktig funn er hvordan andres kritiske, men samtidig respektfulle blikk bidrar til at mennene finner noen svar på et spørsmål som er sentralt for dem - nemlig hvorfor de gjorde som de gjorde.

• Helseth, Hannah; Kruse, Anja Emilie & Korkmaz, Sibel (2021). Narratives about sexual perpetrators – how do young victims of sexual violence in intimate relationships describe their offender?
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2021). Written Abstract: Social responses to narratives of sexual harmdoing.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2021). Stort doktorgradsprosjekt om voldtektsdømte i Norge: Intervjuet 17 voldtektsmenn bak murene. [TV]. TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Aarnes, Helle (2021). Voldtektsdømte "Per Inge" om å slippe ut: -Jeg må bli flink til å være ensom. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten A-Magasinet.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie & Sandnes, Heidi Elisabeth (2020). Voldtektsdømte menn har nytte av motstand i samtaler. [Internet]. forskning.no.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2020). “Nein, ich will verstehen”. Learning through (critical) engagement with men’s accounts of sexually violating behavior, and the dangers and benefits of (not) doing so.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2020). Social responses to/in narratives of sexual harmdoing.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2019). Hvordan forstår seksuallovbruddsdømte menn krenkelsene de har begått? Tre fortellinger om hvorfor.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2019). Selvforståelse og overgrepsforståelse hos menn som har begått seksuelle krenkelser: Tre fortellinger om hvorfor.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2018). Å jakte etter (kjønnet?) mening. Forsøk på å forstå menn som har begått voldtekt og andre grove, seksuelle krenkelser - og hvordan de forstår seg selv. Presentasjon i gruppesesjon: "Vold i nære relasjoner og kjønn".
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2018). Men as Victims, Women as Perpetrators. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2018). Domestic Violence. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Øverli, Ingvil Thallaug; Vorland, Norunn; Kruse, Anja Emilie; Hjorthol, Toril & Blix, Ines (2018). "Også disse barnas beste": Kommunalt barneverns arbeid med barn og unge med problematisk eller skadelig seksuell atferd.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2017). Overgriperperspektiver i forskningen på seksuelle overgrep og voldtekt.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2017). Peacetime Sexual/ized Violence. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2017). Domestic Violence. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2017). Researching sexual violence with a perspective on perpetration. Advantages, dilemmas and challenges in different approaches to 'The Man Question' in research on sexual violence perpetration. Part of Symposium: The “man question” in research on violence in close relationships. Studying and positioning men as research subjects, victims and perpetrators.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2017). What’s in a narrative? ‘Owning up’ to sexual violations – and the consequences of ‘doing the right thing’.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2016). Forskningsfronten: Hvor mange er for mange? Morgenbladet. ISSN 0805-3847.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2016). Domestic Violence. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2016). Peacetime Sexual/ized Violence. Guest Lecture - Criminological Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Violence (KRIM2953/4953).
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2016). "Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold..." Om mødres vold mot barn.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2016). "Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold..." Om mødres vold mot barn .
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2015). Menn som har begått voldtekt - en kunnskapsstatus.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2015). Mother’s violence towards their children – situations, contexts and meaning-making. Part of Symposium: Maternal violence and partner violence against heterosexual men.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2014). «Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold…» En forskningsoversikt og en intervjustudie om mødres vold mot barn.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2014). Menn som har begått voldtekt - en kunnskapsstatus.
• Kruse, Anja & Bergman, Solveig Helena (2014). Frokostseminar: Lansering av rapporten «Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold…». NKVTS-rapport nr. 4/2014.
• Kruse, Anja (2014). «Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold…». Et eksplorerende, kvalitativt forskningsprosjekt om mødres vold mot barn (2013-2014).
• Skjørten, Kristin; Kruse, Anja Emilie & Strandmoen, John-Filip (2013). Lansering av kunnskapsstatus om voldtekt.
• Hellevik, Per; Kruse, Anja Emilie; Dullum, Jane Vibeke; Frøyland, Lars Roar; Skar, Ane-Marthe Solheim & Andersen, Lotte Cathrin [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2023). Digitale seksuelle overgrep mot barn og unge – gjerningspersoner og fornærmede. Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. ISSN 978-82-8122-175-8. 2023(3).
• Neupane, Sudan Prasad; Fjelli, Nora; Bekkevold-Jernberg, Ina; Larsen, Kim Sverre; Kruse, Anja Emilie & Bergman, Solveig [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). Selvmordsproblematikk blant utsatte for og utøvere av vold og overgrep: En systematisk gjennomgang av oversiktsartikler. N/A.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2020). The Why, the Who and the Wherefore. Explanations, self-change and social friction in men's narratives of sexual violations. Universitetet i Oslo. Show summary

  How do men who have committed sexual violations navigate expectations to acknowledge and take responsibility for their offences, while at the same time trying to uphold an acceptable conception of self? This dissertation shows how seventeen men convicted of sexual violations explain their actions with reference to culture and norms, and how being convicted of sexual violations affect their identity and conception of self. This is partly uncharted territory in the Nordic countries, as there have been few academic studies of men’s own conception of their sexual violence here. Men’s conceptions of self and their conceptions of their own offences may change over time, according to the findings in this dissertation. New understandings of their own violations are developed in and through feedback from others. While serving their sentence, persons convicted of sexual offences are often expected to acknowledge and take responsibility for their crimes. All the men in this study had reflected on questions like guilt, responsibility and shame with regards to their actions. They had been through processes of attempting to understand what they had done, why they had done it, and the consequences their actions had had. The analyses clearly show that the men to a large degree developed their understanding in dialogue with other people, in social processes. The dissertation shows that the work involved in coping with a criminal conviction should be understood as a social process, rather than an individual process. Meaning-making, identity and social reintegration are critical for rehabilitation and the process of desistance, i.e., the enduring cessation of offending behavior. Taken together, these factors suggest that one important way for society to approach those convicted for sexual offences is by facilitating such social processes of change. Doing so has the potential to increase and expand offenders’ understanding of their actions and of the consequences they have had for their victims. The analyses also identifies which cultural explanations are available to these men when they explain their own violating behaviour. They actively negotiate with prevailing normative sexual ideals when evaluating their own actions, and when they explain how they previously perceived their violating behavior as somehow permissible. This shows how a more comprehensive knowledge of the experiences and attitudes of these men is important to prevent rape and sexual violations, and to inform how we address this social problem. Facts about the study: This qualitative interview study includes seventeen men aged 18-60, who have committed sexual violations against adult or peer victims. Most participants were imprisoned at the time of the interviews. All were convicted of sexual offences, including rape, attempted rape, or other forms of sexual assault. While she conducted this PhD project, Kruse was employed by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS). Her project was funded by the Research Programme on Violence in Close Relationships (2014-2019).

• Bergman, Solveig; Bjørnholt, Margunn; Helseth, Hannah; Kruse, Anja Emilie; Øverlien, Carolina & Vold, Mary (2020). Krisesentrene og covid-19 – resultat fra en kartlegging i april 2020 (notat). Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress/RVTS Øst.
• Askeland, Ingunn Rangul; Moen, Linda Holen; Nilsen, Lisa Govasli; Kruse, Anja Emilie; Hjemdal, Ole Kristian & Holt, Tonje (2016). Behandlingstilbudet til voksne som utøver vold: En nasjonal kartleggingsundersøkelse. Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. ISSN 978-82-8122-105-5.
• Kruse, Anja & Bergman, Solveig Helena (2014). «Jeg kan jo ikke kalle det noe annet enn vold…»: En forskningsoversikt og en intervjustudie om mødres vold mot barn. Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. ISSN 978-82-8122-078-2.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2013). Mellom forståelse og ansvar. Terapeuters perspektiver på voldtekt som kjønnet, sosial handling. Universitetet i Oslo.
• Kruse, Anja Emilie; Strandmoen, John-Filip & Skjørten, Kristin (2013). Menn som har begått voldtekt - en kunnskapsstatus. Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. ISSN 978-82-8122-063-8.
• Steen-Johnsen, Kari; Enjolras, Bernard & Kruse, Anja Emilie (2012). Nettverkssamfunn og frivillige organisasjoner. Senter for forskning på sivilsamfunn og frivillig sektor. ISSN 978-82-7763-380-0. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Denne rapporten undersøker konsekvensene av nettverkssamfunnet for frivillige organisasjoner. Basert på tre casestudier; av Amnesty International Norge, Natur og Ungdom og Hyperion – Norsk Forening for Fan-tastiske Fritidsinteresser, beskriver vi ulike strategier for bruk av digitale verktøy, samt potensielle konse-kvenser for organisasjonenes medlemskontakt og deres samfunnsrolle. Følgende problemstillinger blir belyst i rapporten: I hvilken grad og på hvilke måter tar de frivillige organisasjonene i bruk nettverksteknologi? Hvilke konsekvenser har fremveksten av digitale nettverksmedier for medlemsdemokrati og -innflytelse? Hvilke konsekvenser har fremveksten av digitale nettverksmedier for frivillige organisasjoners sam-funnsrolle? Hvilke organisatoriske konsekvenser og utfordringer stiller nettverkssamfunnet frivillige organisasjoner overfor?

• Kruse, Anja Emilie (2011). Unge som begår seksuelle overgrep. Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. ISSN 978-82-8122-055-3.

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