ABSTRACT
In 1994, the social democrats returned to power with the aim to reconstruct the welfare state. However, due to national debt from the recession and weak support in the Parliament, most reforms were symbolic, bringing little substantial change. Later in 1994, Sweden voted to join the European Union, which later came to influence BOJ through legally binding directives to member states. Despite the shift in government, the political focus on victims of crime increased steadily in the second part of the 1990s. The government and NPOs also initiated many new programs for victims of crime; many accelerated and supported by the newly established Swedish Crime Victim Fund. During the second part of the 1990s, BOJ continued to grow but at a slower pace. BOJ now started developing the practice by specializing its support. BOJ put in much effort to reach more victims, as well as to widen the notion of victims to include new groups. For example, in 1995, BOJ started the first Swedish witness support program. BOJ also increasingly conceptualized itself as an organization serving abused women, while simultaneously distancing itself from National Organization for Women’s Shelters (ROKS) and the gender-power theory.
