Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine

The Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine enters the novel through the examination and documentation of Victoria Bergman’s abuse. Its report supplies a formal basis for protecting her personal details, showing how forensic records can both make harm legible to institutions and restrict access to a vulnerable person’s identity.

Institutional Role in the Case

The evidence identifies Hasse as a doctor at the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine in Solna. He examines Victoria in the course of a forensic assessment; this is her second examination, following one at Nacka Hospital a week earlier. The novel presents the Board through this specific casework rather than offering a broader account of its organization or general procedures.

Examination and Documentation

During the examination, Hasse records his observations with a small tape recorder. The account emphasizes the clinical process of documenting the evidence, while Victoria’s experience of being examined contrasts with the factual manner in which her body is described. The Board’s role in the narrative is therefore both practical and documentary: its doctor conducts an examination, and the findings become part of a formal record.

Report and Confidentiality

In September 1988, the National Board of Forensic Medicine reported that Victoria had suffered serious sexual abuse before reaching full physical maturity. On the basis of that report, Nacka District Court agreed to grant confidentiality for her personal details. The report thus has a concrete legal consequence: it helps establish grounds for protecting Victoria’s identity. Later, Jeanette Kihlberg receives the report among a large batch of faxed papers and reacts with disgust at its impersonal language, a response that underscores the tension between the record’s administrative precision and the person whose suffering it documents.