Sweden's rape rate under the spotlight

[ismnotwasm]

Kilsileya comment on the rate of rape in Sweden really got me wondering why. I can't tell you how many pages of disgusting Islamaphobia I found.

Anyway this BBC's article is at least, readable. The kidnapping comparison is weird bullshit, as the article notes without using that particular word.

The Julian Assange extradition case has put Sweden's relatively high incidence of rape under the spotlight. But can such statistics be reliably compared from one country to another?

Which two countries are the kidnapping capitals of the world?

Australia and Canada.

Official figures from the United Nations show that there were 17 kidnaps per 100,000 people in Australia in 2010 and 12.7 in Canada.

That compares with only 0.6 in Colombia and 1.1 in Mexico.

So why haven't we heard any of these horror stories? Are people being grabbed off the street in Sydney and Toronto, while the world turns a blind eye?

No, the high numbers of kidnapping cases in these two countries are explained by the fact that parental disputes over child custody are included in the figures.

If one parent takes a child for the weekend, and the other parent objects and calls the police, the incident will be recorded as a kidnapping, according to Enrico Bisogno, a statistician with the United Nations.

Comparing crime rates across countries is fraught with difficulties - this is well known among criminologists and statisticians, less so among journalists and commentators.

Sweden has the highest rape rate in Europe, author Naomi Wolf said on the BBC's Newsnight programme recently. She was commenting on the case of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder who is fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden over rape and sexual assault allegations that he denies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19592372

[intaglio]

1. There is also the problem that, generally, women are more likely to trust the Swedish Authorities

So reporting rates tend to be higher

[ismnotwasm]

2. Coincidently there is a GD thread on a Swedish rape

I'm not involving myself in it-- it's a very strange case.

[BainsBane]

3. The rate of REPORTED rapes is not the rate of rapes

Sweden takes combating rape seriously, much to their credit. Bravo to them.

[ismnotwasm]

4. That was my take

Woman aren't afraid to report rape