Sweden does not have a broader definition of rape – Assanges charges would probably have been the same in the US

December 7th, 2010

I’ve been following some threads on internationel websites concering the rape charges of WiliLeak’s Julian Assange the last month. I have some problems regardring the content of the threads.

In almost all of them I’ve found people claiming that the definition of rape in Sweden is broader than that of the US.  This is falsehood. I’m writing this post in english to explain the differences between Sweden and the states of the US. I’ve been comparing the state laws found on the website of the US government with the laws of Sweden and I can find no difference in definitions at all.

In sweden, you may not drug someone and have sex with them when they’re unconscious. You mat not use force to have sex with someone against their will. You may not use a weapon and threathen people to have sex with you. You may not rape your partner. You may not have sex with someone who is not of legal age to have sex if you yourself are older.

Which is exactly the same as the laws in the states of the US (maybe there’s some difference in some states, I haven’t gone trough every single one of them).

However, there is a difference when it comes to the punishment of the crime. In sweden, you may not get a higher sentence than 10 years, most criminals only sit half of their time or two thirds. If you combine the states of the US the average time for a rapist is more than 11 years. In some states, for instance that of Virgina, you can get up to 35 years. In Virginia, the least amount of time for a rapist in prison is 10 years, which is actually the double of the highest amount in Sweden (if you count the fact that our criminals don’t sit all their time).

Those people claiming that Sweden’s definition of rape is broader than that of the US are lying. Perhaps not by intention. They may actually believe this is the case. Most of the information presented to the Swedish people of the US are, what you could call, a bit backward. Sweden is as patriotic as the next country, and we love to believe that we’re better, more forward, more modern, but when it comes to all things concering sex this is usually not the case if you compare us to our neighbours.

And perhaps some of them are lying with the intention to spread an opinion about Assange. Perhaps some of them means to spread the view that the charges are minor. “They’re nothing, because Sweden regards everything as rape!”

In most of the cases, I’d say that the people responsbile for the lies are patriotic Swedes who regard their country as more forward than the US. In the rest of them, it’s people who won’t believe that the people they admire can’t be guilty of a crime such as rape.

In any case, I’m tired of seeing this lie. I don’t know if someone will find this post. Excuse me for my rusty english, it’s been a while and I’m not in shape. This blog is written in Swedish, this post might be pointless, but I’m hoping that someone will google it and find it.

I don’t know if he did it. Frankly, I don’t much care. But I do care about lies when it comes to sexual assault regarding my own country. I want longer sentences in Sweden. Sweden is a rape paradise. Something which the United Nations kindly noted just a while ago. It’s hard to get a conviction and if you do you don’t spend a lot of time in prison and the financial retribution is minor. The people claiming that the victims charged him because they wanted to make some money, that doesn’t make sence either.

A lot of people in the threads we’re actually claiming that the reason why Sweden has a lot of rape charges is because we have a broader definition of rape. This is a lie. All the Swedish people who claim this, please read the documents i linked above and see for yourself. You’re wrong, and it’s nothing but bad form to claim that such a big problem that is hurting so many people is just because that we have some bogus laws where everything counts as rape.

That makes me sick.

It just feels like people can’t accept that Sweden have a big problem when it comes to rape. Hey, we’re not forward, we’re backward. It’s not nice to realize that. I know people don’t want to realize that. But it’s a fact, and we have to deal with these problems, not create lies for ourselves and the rest of the world.

Filed under English, Politik och samhälle, Sexbrott | Comments (58)