".......................In this New Sweden we have more reported rapes than any other country in the European Union, according to a study by professor Liz Kelly from England. More than 5 000 rapes or attempted rapes were reported in 2008 (last year it was more than 6 000). In 2010 another study reported that just one country in the world has more rapes than Sweden, and that is Lesotho in South Africa. For every 100 000 inhabitants Lesotho has 92 reported rapes, Sweden has 53, The United States 29, Norway 20 and Denmark 7.
In 1990 the authorities counted to 3 exclusion areas in Sweden, suburbs where mostly immigrants live, where very few have a job to go to, almost all of them live by welfare and the children don’t pass their exams. In 2002 they counted to 128 exclusion areas. In 2006 we had 156 and then they stopped counting. In some cities, like Malmö where I live, a third of all inhabitants live in an exclusion area."..............
Data collection in the European Union is legendary. On agriculture, labor, industry and crime, amongst other things, there is a wealth of information that enables European institutions to legislate and regulate for their 27 sovereign members — members that have their own issues, culture and complexities.
But information on rape and domestic violence, notoriously difficult to collect and compare in any meaningful, accurate way, is a hole in this framework.
Most individual E.U. member states do collect data, but collection is often spotty and definitions of rape and violence are widely different in different justice systems. Meanwhile, good data collection, combined with a system that enables victims to report attacks, pushes up reporting rates, meaning that the countries that are working hardest to improve conditions can come off the worst in attempts to compare figures.
Good point R, it is really hard to compare crime stats between nations. If you know the police aren't very competent, why bother filling out a report? And sometimes the police themselves like to play with the numbers to make themselves look better or push for more funding.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
