17. Sweden, the “rape capital” of Europe. Fake or not?
Year 2017 was marked in Sweden by one of the main narratives of anti-immigration is the high number of rapes in the country, which such news portals link to Sweden’s “open gate” immigration policy. Sweden accommodates the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, making it an easy target for the propaganda striving to depict the degradation of the liberal societies. Many blogs and news portals at the time posted news about migrants raping and women who have been in fear about their personal safety. The news portal Gates of Vienna explains in a long article why Swedish women are afraid of violent attacks and rape in the country. The writer emphasises that the number of rapes committed in Sweden is the highest in Europe. However, the reader does not get to know the full context of this statement. Moreover, the article treats the connection between refugees and rape as completely natural. The Hungarian portal Hidfő followed similar logic when it reported on the data published by the Swedish National Crime Prevention Council, the Hungarian site also connects migration with the increasing number of crimes. The Russian state-owned propaganda channel Sputnik International reported on the same phenomenon, also basing their argument on the “well-known” statistics.
“Pro-rata Sweden has taken more young, male migrants than any other country in Europe and there has been a dramatic rise in sexual crime in Sweden. So much so that Malmo is now the rape capital of Europe.” Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage made this claim on LBC radio on Monday 20 February 2017.
HOW CAN WE VERIFY THIS?
Swedish news portal The Local clearly says NO to all this: Evidence for the claim usually comes in the form of comparative international statistics suggesting for example that Sweden has 63.5 reported rape incidents per 100,000 citizens, compared to 27.3 per 100,000 in the US, or 27.9 per 100,000 in Belgium, the nearest European country based on those numbers. But comparing the number of reported rapes from one country to another is a process vulnerable to inaccuracies, several experts have told The Local. Enrico Bisogno is the chief of data development and dissemination at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He says that variations in how different countries record different crimes can play a “huge role” in influencing the results of these comparisons. In Sweden, each case of sexual violence is recorded as a separate incident. So, for example, if someone says they were raped by a partner every day for a fortnight, officers will record 14 potential crimes. In other countries the claim could be logged as a single incident.
What about Malmö, which has received particular attention from certain commentators who referred to its particularly high numbers of reported rapes? Are Malmö’s numbers highest in Sweden? The numbers of reported rapes per 100,000 people in Malmö for 2012-2016 as recorded by Brå per 100,000 people was 61. This compares to a national average during the same time period of 65. So, Malmö is definitively not the “rape capital”!
WHAT ARE OTHER SOURCES SAYING?
Sweden does have more registered sex offenses than other countries. But the willingness to report such crimes differs dramatically between countries. A culture where you talk openly about such crimes, and don’t blame the victims, will also have more cases reported. Sweden has made a conscious effort to get women to report any offense, whereas countries like Saudi Arabia and Mozambique do everything to stop women from reporting, explains John Norberg for Cato
Sweden differs from other countries in two more ways. The definition of rape has been extended to include sexual abuse not considered rape in other countries. In the year that change was made the number of rape offenses increased by 66 percent! And unlike in other countries, if a husband rapes his wife every day during the last year, this is filed as 365 separate cases in Sweden, not as one case, as in most countries to make the crime more visible in statistics and in the debate.
So basically, Sweden doesn’t have many more registered sex offenses because we are more criminal or have more Muslim immigrants. Sweden is just more feminist.
KEYWORD SEARCH
Sweden’s 2018 ‘consent law’ says that anything less than yes is rape! Under the new law, rape survivors no longer have to prove there was threat, force, or that they were taken advantage of in a vulnerable situation. The law states that consent can never be freely given by people who are intoxicated, incapacitated, under duress, or in a situation of unequal power dynamics or dependency, such as sex between a teacher and their student. After the law was implemented, Sweden saw rape conviction rates rise by 75% between 2019 and 2020.
FAKE OR NOT?
These news are fake, based on anti-migrant politics that has been gaining strength in Sweden in the past years. Sweden is indeed a safe country!
