Introduction

This chapter gives a brief history of the emergence of victim support programs in Sweden and internationally. It shows that in Sweden, the conceptual identity of the “crime victim” is relatively new. The first generic non-profit crime victim assistance programs emerged in the early 1980s, and in 1988, five local victim support centers formed a national umbrella organization called the Swedish Association for Victim Support (BOJ; now Victim Support Sweden). Since then, the interest in victims of crime has amplified in conjunction with a shifting welfare state, where welfare policy has become more restrictive and penal policy, to some degree, more punitive. The chapter also introduces the objectives of the book and an overview of BOJ. Moreover, it includes a discussion of our theoretical and methodological approach as well as a roadmap of the book.