Johnsdotter, Sara https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7625-5873
Wendel, Lotta
Grönvall, Klara
Essén, Birgitta
Article History
Received: 7 March 2024
Accepted: 1 July 2025
First Online: 26 July 2025
Competing interests
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: Ethical approval for this research was obtained from the Ethical Review Board (EPN) in Lund on 15 January 2014 (Ref. 2013/678): ‘Legal and forensic handling in cases of suspected female genital mutilation’, and from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (EPM) on 28 April 2020 (Ref. 2020-01111): ‘Societal measures to check for suspected female genital mutilation in Sweden: an analysis of proportionality in the authorities’ handling of suspected cases’. All research was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines issued by the Swedish Research Council.
: All interviewees in this study received a written information sheet about the project prior to the interview and were formally asked to give their consent to participate. Informed consent was obtained during the period 1 May 2020 to 1 October 2023. For documents obtained from public authorities, such as police and social service investigations, much of the material was anonymised before access was granted for research purposes. Obtaining individual consent in these cases was both practically impossible and ethically unjustifiable—an assessment shared by the authorities that granted ethical approval.