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In Norway, Gender Equality Does Not Extend to the Bedroom

A must-read piece about intimate partner violence and rape.

Sexual violence against women in Scandinavia shares characteristics seen in more unequal societies: It is all too common and rarely reported, and those who commit it are even more rarely convicted. Ancient prejudices about male prerogative and modern assumptions about female emancipation conspire to create a thick wall of silence, shame and legal ambiguity.

One in 10 Norwegian women over the age of 15 has been raped, according to the country’s largest shelter organization, the Secretariat of the Shelter Movement. But at least 80 percent of these cases are never brought to official attention and only 10 percent of those that are end in a conviction, the Justice Ministry says.

Nowhere is this taboo more stubborn than in the family home, long considered off-limits for law enforcement and the state.

“The statistics tell us that the safest place for women is outside, on the street — most rapes happen at home,” said Tove Smaadahl, general manager of the Shelter Movement. In a 2005 survey by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, 9 percent of female respondents in a relationship reported experiencing sexual assault.

“No, we don’t have equality between men and women,” Ms. Smaadahl said, “not until we have addressed the issue of relationship rape.”


56 thoughts on In Norway, Gender Equality Does Not Extend to the Bedroom

  1. I often thought that countries like Norway were the most progressive in terms of issues like rape, and the way society talks about rape. This article points to the fact that Norway still has a long way to go. It sickens me that rapes in the home go “under the radar” of the Norwegian authorities, but I suppose it’s much the same (probably worse) in a larger country like the USA.

  2. Pet peeve:

    “The statistics tell us that the safest place for women is outside, on the street — most rapes happen at home,”

    That’s just a complete butchery of statistics.

  3. What is the source for this statistic? I can not find anything beyond the NYT article. Specifically I found nothing directly from the Norwegian organization.

  4. This kind of surprises me too. As far as law enforcement not butting into the home, doesn’t at least one of the Scandinavian countries, I think maybe Sweden, ban corporal punishment entirely, even by parents in the home? So, children are deserving of that protection but women are not?

  5. I’m too busy/lazy to look this up, but at first glance, those numbers look in line with comparable stats for the U.S. Same shit, different country.

  6. matlun: Probablynot.RAINNsays“In2007,therewere248,300victimsofrape,attemptedrape,orsexualassault.”.

    Thisfigurewillgivemuchlessthan1in6beingavictim(overtheirlifetime),eventhoughitisafarwidercategoryofcrimethanjustrape.

    But RAINN itself uses the 1 in 6 number as well. Are you sure the math doesn’t add up?

  7. @Tim: There is in many ways very good gender equality in Scandinavia. Sadly this is not strongly reflected in statistics on rape and sexual crimes. (In victim studies, the levels are on a comparable level with other western countries)

    There are different interpretations of this. My $0.02: Bastards will be bastards.

  8. From the article:

    Contrary to conventional wisdom, rapists tend to be well known to victims . . .

    Is it still conventional wisdom that rapists tend to be strangers to the victims? Good Gord, how many million more times does it need to be repeated that rapists tend to know their victims before the stranger rapist jumping out of the bushes loses its conventional wisdom status?

    Why is sexual violence still so prevalent in countries where gender equality has made such gigantic strides? Some experts, like Ms. Kelly, argue that as a society moves to redistribute power between genders, there might be a transitional period where violence rises as the last expression of male domination.

    I didn’t see anything in the article that said that the level of sexual violence had risen in Norway. That should be confirmed before anyone starts theorizing about why violence is rising.
    And it’s a very different question from why sexual violence is still so prevalent in Norway. There doesn’t have to be an increase in violence to ask that question; it could be a matter of stagnant levels of violence, or of levels of violence not decreasing to our expectations given the status of women in the country. So we can be concerned about the prevalence of sexual violence in Norway even if Norway has the lowest rape rate in the world, even if Norway has the best rape laws in the world, even if Norway has the most encouraging rape reporting policies in the world, and even if Norwegian men have the most progressive attitudes in the world.

    And that’s why I find the placement of that quote under “Gender Equality and Backlash” to be ironic. Yes, that Norway still doesn’t explicitly criminalize rape within marriage is a problem, and it’s something that needs to be brought up and talked about. But so many of these articles are written in such a way as to imply that Nordic countries, which are at the top of gender equality rankings, are actually worse than other countries when it comes to the number of rapes occurring, or dealing with rape. When it’s written this way, the article itself becomes part of the backlash.

  9. @LC: You were correct, this statistics could indeed be found at RAINN (here). This is for “attempted or completed rape”.

    Strange. If we have the figure of roughly 250000 a year we first need to remove the sexual assaults counted in that figure that are not rape or attempted rape. What is a reasonable assumption? Half? That would give 125000 a year remaining. If we then make the improbable assumption of absolutely no overlap (no woman is assaulted in multiple years) and a life time of 80 years we get a rough estimate of about 10 million women that are assaulted in their lifetime. Note that this would be a higher figure than the number of women who have been assaulted in their lifetime so far

    I do not get the figures to add up. Perhaps the rape statistics were much worse a few decades ago?

  10. So, the annual number of “rape, attempted rape or sexual assaults” number, AFAICT, comes from this question on the National Crimes Victim Survey (as an aside, the only darned questions asked on a 13pg document).

    “Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual acts are often difficult to talk about. (Other than any incidents already mentioned,) have you been forced or coerced to engage in unwanted sexual activity by –
    43a.
    (a) Someone you didn’t know before –
    (c) Someone you know well?
    (b) A casual acquaintance –
    Did any incidents of this type happen to you?
    ASK only if necessary
    43b. How many times?
    Briefly describe incident(s)”

    http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/ncvs107.pdf

    My thoughts are: That 248,300 number has a 2007 denominator of ~153.2 million women (US pop all ages). If we don’t bother to seperate out age categories, that translates to a 0.2% annual rate, which, over an 80yr lifespan is about 13% or 1 in 7.7 women lifetime. That’s pretty darn close to 1 in 6 (16.7%), in terms of real life experience and risk. I’m sure that if we adjust our assumptions of A) what the denominator really is/should be B) constancy of rate and C) likelihood of under-reporting, we’re really talking distinctions without material diffference here.

  11. @IrishUp: Alternatively this is just a statistic that is very hard to measure and these different studies simply gave different results. I guess there is no big reason to be that surprised about the mismatch.

    I am not sure it matters that much since no matter what the number is we should fight to decrease it anyway.

  12. rain: Is it still conventional wisdom that rapists tend to be strangers to the victims? Good Gord, how many million more times does it need to be repeated that rapists tend to know their victims before the stranger rapist jumping out of the bushes loses its conventional wisdom status?

    Replace ‘conventional wisdom’ with ‘television and movies’, which unfortunately frequently get mistaken for one another.

    1. Fat Steve:

      rain: Is it still conventional wisdom that rapists tend to be strangers to the victims? Good Gord, how many million more times does it need to be repeated that rapists tend to know their victims before the stranger rapist jumping out of the bushes loses its conventional wisdom status?

      Replace ‘conventional wisdom’ with ‘television and movies’, which unfortunately frequently get mistaken for one another.

      Can we please not forget that rape-by-a-stranger is still approximately 1-in-5/1-in-10 (figures vary) of the rapes that do occur? I know people who have been raped by strangers, and while the stereotype that erases known-to-the-victim-rapists and especially intimate-relationship-rapists is definitely worth countering, we should take care to not erase those victims who were in fact raped by strangers in order to do so.

  13. Is it still conventional wisdom that rapists tend to be strangers to the victims? Good Gord, how many million more times does it need to be repeated that rapists tend to know their victims before the stranger rapist jumping out of the bushes loses its conventional wisdom status?

  14. Is it still conventional wisdom that rapists tend to be strangers to the victims? Good Gord, how many million more times does it need to be repeated that rapists tend to know their victims before the stranger rapist jumping out of the bushes loses its conventional wisdom status?

    Let’s see….Well we’ve already said it five gazillion times…so…infinity minus five gazillion…

  15. This is from the news from the largest television company in Norway (NRK): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1DiIhg3kwc

    The texsting is correctly translated.

    What happens inside the house is of course hard to know, but it’s a lot of new immigrants that have problems understanding Norwegian culture. Men have been fired for refusing to take orders from a female boss, and some walk around telling women to dress up when they think the women wears to little.

    There is a cultural clash that may increase statistics. Also the statistics when it comes to relationship rape. Norway have to work to change the attitude of some of the immigrants, and include them properly into the society.

    It’s also very important that the women dear to tell the truth. So that statistics are more reliable and so that people can know if there is a problem. In private homes, it’s impossible to know unless the woman say something, and that will not change. If there is a problem you always need statistics and proof to back it up. You cannot try to deal with a problem you’re not sure exists.

    That they had one survey back in 2005 is not good enough. If as high as 9 percent said they had been raped at home, then they obviously need to investigate it closer. It’s six years ago. Is this really the newest statistics on the issue? Don’t they follow up when the results surprise?

  16. Tove Smaadahl is great, she is a veteran in the womens movement in Norway and her passion for fighting violence against women seems to never tire.

    I think there might be different ways to read these statistics, one of the more obvious ones is that Norway is a really small country and keeping track of nubers and doing in dept studies might be easier than in countries with a bigger population.

    Another way of looking at it, and I’m hesitating because I know I’ll come across as patronising to some, is that women living in a country with more gender equality might be quicker to realise that a relationship is unhealthy and have less tolerance for abuse.

    Then again Norway is a small country with few cities, most people live somewhere where everybody knows everybody. If you press charges against your husband or partner you run the risk of being ailenated from the comunity around you. If you want to move to start fresh somewhere else you usually have to move far and that isn’t always a good or realistic option.

    Then againg we are a small country which allso means that people like Tove Smaadahl is a public figure, that gets time in national media and where grasroot movements need less bulk to be heard by the people. And these things are talked about and slowly but surely they are being taken seriously by the government. And slowly but surely through actions and initiatives work is being done to enlighten people about their rights, choises and responsibilites.

    Between 2000 and 2007 73 women were killed by their partners in Norway, one of them went to school one year above me at college.
    http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/kvinnedrapene/

  17. As I said in the Sweden thread, the more rights women gain, the more men hate them. If a woman advances in her career faster than her husband does, he’ll hate her more and more, and will eventually commit violence against her. This holds true in the US too.

  18. Politicalguineapig: As I said in the Sweden thread, the more rights women gain, the more men hate them. If a woman advances in her career faster than her husband does, he’ll hate her more and more, and will eventually commit violence against her. This holds true in the US too.

    I know you have well-established issues with men, but you need to stop saying things like this. It is absurd and offensive to insist that all men hate women and will eventually commit violence against them. Which is exactly what you are saying when you make statements like that.

    Yes, male violence against women is a real and pervasive problem. But most men do not commit violence against their wives. And as a woman, I am really, truly offended when you pretend that men are a raping, beating monolith.

    (Sorry for the derail, all. I’m not trying to concern troll about men’s feelings getting hurt on a topic about violence against women, but politicalguineapig says shit like this all. the. time. and there’s never a really appropriate place to call it out.)

  19. Yes, that Norway still doesn’t explicitly criminalize rape within marriage is a problem.

    Norway do criminalize rape within marriage as there is no exception for marriage in the penal code regarding rape. There are several cases mentioned in media (usually only cases where the accused or victim is somewhat high profile) where a husband has been convicted for raping his wife.

    Norway removed the spousal excemption from the rape penal code in 1971 in contrast to Germany who removed it in 1997 and North Carolina which was the last US state to remove it in 1993. In 1999 33 US States considered marital rape to be a lesser crime than other rape.

    So, contrary to what for instance this blogger (http://mommyish.com/stuff/women-abuse-norway-marital-rape-study-563/) believes spousal rape is not a legal recognized right for men in Norway.

    The statistics for the Women’s shelter’s reveal that the 50 for women’s shelter’s in Norway had 2075 person who stayed at least one night (37 of them were men, up from 9 the previous year). In 2010 a new law regarding shelters which among otherthings mandated a service for men as well were introduced – a mandate which Tove Smaadahl’s umbrella organization lobbied against.

    63% is of immigration background. 6% of these were at the shelter for reasons related to human traficking (mostly referred by the police). Another 6% gave being the subject of forced marriage (usually pressure from parents) as a reason for contacting the shelter.

    97% reported a male abuser while 10% reported a female abuser. The sum is larger than 100% because some reported more than one abuser.

    62% reported physical violence as the reason for contacting the shelter, 82% reported pshycological violence and 67% reported threats as the reason for contacting the shelter.

    39% of the cases reported physical injuried as a result of the abuse while 68% of the cases reported psychlogical injuries as a result of the abuse. 7% no injuries and 22% don’t know.

    Suprisingly it turns out that the abuser is not typically the husband/boyfriend. The three largest categories break down like this:
    36% Other family members
    31% Parents
    29% Husband/live-in partner

    The report includes a summary in English: http://www.krisesenter.com/statistikk/PDFdocs/rapportering_krisesentrene2010.pdf

  20. Esti: I probably should have edited that. I think there are a few men, or maybe more than a few, that might be okay with their partner advancing faster in their career than they do. But, most aren’t and men, when stressed, tend to become violent. There are also a lot of men who are uncomfortable with women gaining rights, because sooner or later, there will be a shortage of rights.
    I simply stay wary because there’s no way of distinguishing between men who aren’t violent and men who are at a glance. And, even if someone married a non-violent man, men can change quickly and frighteningly, or suddenly shut out stuff like the word ‘no.’ So marriage is a really frightening gamble.
    I like the men I know; but I don’t want to interact with men I don’t know. I know that as the economy gets worse around the world that there’ll be more violence and a huge uptick in domestic violence. I’d rather not be a statistic, thanks.

  21. Politicalguineapig:
    AsIsaidintheSwedenthread,themorerightswomengain,themoremenhatethem.Ifawomanadvancesinhercareerfasterthanherhusbanddoes,he’llhatehermoreandmore,andwilleventuallycommitviolenceagainsther.ThisholdstrueintheUStoo.

    I don’t hate my wife for making more than me, I love her more for it. Some men love having a strong, successful wife that they can help support.

    Men who don’t like this are probably just as common as women who wouldn’t want a man that made less than her. Not all women are feminists.

    The only way we are ever going to overcome these culture expectations is if both men and women accept the different roles. Eventually men will stop feeling less like men just because they don’t make as men as the woman.

  22. Tamen @24

    Norway do criminalize rape within marriage as there is no exception for marriage in the penal code regarding rape.

    Explicitly. The word means something. You need to read the article. It acknowledged there is no exemption for husbands. And still said, “But Norway is still one of 127 countries in the world — including 12 members of the European Union — that do not explicitly criminalize rape within marriage”. It’s right there on page one under “Sex, Marriage, and the Law”.

  23. tigtog @ 21:
    I didn’t see that as erasing, and here’s why. Having people think of rape as only stranger rape, and then going on to think that means that if the rapist is known to the victim then it’s not rape, is a real thing that happens. But the reverse would not happen. If we ever were to live in a world where the first thing people thought of when they heard “rape” was an intimate partner assault, I don’t think anyone would then think that stranger rapes didn’t happen or weren’t really rapes. Instead, they would think that rapes could be both kinds of situations, because there really isn’t any stranger-rape corollary to “a husband can’t rape his wife” or “well, you went to his apartment so what did you expect”. “It wasn’t rape because they didn’t know each other” isn’t going to catch on. So having known-to-the-victim rapes as conventional wisdom expands how we see rape; it doesn’t just replace one kind of rape with another as the only kind of rape.

    1. @rain,
      I didn’t see that as erasing, and here’s why. [snip]

      I know at least two women IRL who have been raped by strangers who do find lazy language used to confront the all-rape-is-stranger-rape stereotype (no-it’s-not-it’s-by -people-we-know) as erasing of their own rape experiences. I’m fairly sure that they are not alone.

      Of course it’s OK (and important!) to confront the stereotype of stranger-rapists as randomly lurking in bushes, because stranger rape is usually much more calculatedly predatory than that, and the standard rape-avoidance myths painting rapists as impulsive opportunists don’t take the premeditated stalking aspect of most sexual violence into account. But one should be able to do this without ignoring the fact that in any discussion of rape ~ 10-20% of the rape survivors who are reading it will have in fact been raped by a stranger.

  24. rain: Explicitly. The word means something. You need to read the article. It acknowledged there is no exemption for husbands. And still said, “But Norway is still one of 127 countries in the world — including 12 members of the European Union — that do not explicitly criminalize rape within marriage”. It’s right there on page one under “Sex, Marriage, and the Law”.

    What does that even mean? You might as well say that Norway does not explicitly criminalize rape outdoors.
    (I have not checked but would be surprised if that is explicitly mentioned in the law)

    The only meaningful discussion beyond if it is actually criminal is if it is socially accepted or if people are de facto convicted of these types of crimes. The whole “explicitly criminalize” part seems bizarre to me.

  25. As a norwegian woman, I can say that this matches the feel of the general attitude towards rape. Whenever rape comes up in the news, the victim-blamers come crawling out of the woodwork, even among people who are otherwise progressive and generally enlightened. The idea that rape is something done by a stranger, tempted by a miniskirt, lives strong. Even the police were recently in the paper, blaming the increasing sexual freedom.

    We may be doing well in other areas, but this is one were we have a long way to go.

  26. Politicalguineapig: There are also a lot of men who are uncomfortable with women gaining rights, because sooner or later, there will be a shortage of rights.

    I have no idea what you mean by “a shortage of rights”.

  27. matlun: I am not sure it matters that much since no matter what the number is we should fight to decrease it anyway.

    Agreed, but thanks to both you and Irish Up for wrestling with the numbers.

  28. matlun:
    My$0.02:Bastardswillbebastards.

    while I hate to disagree with this comment, I am concerned that framing it in this way makes it seem like a terrible act conducted by a few bad people… it hides the systemic way that it is happening by people that might otherwise be seen as decent people, because it is seen as so normal.

  29. LC: ButRAINNitselfusesthe1in6numberaswell.Areyousurethemathdoesn’taddup?

    I always thought the 1 in 6 stat was based on ‘1 in 6 women’ have been raped/sexually assaulted/molested in their lifetime.. since the rainn stat cited here is for one year, not for a lifetime, then yeah the numbers wouldn’t add up.

  30. LC: Well, for example, two minority groups cannot get the right to vote at the same time. And as GLBT groups get more rights (right to marry, civil unions, etc) women’s rights get more endangered every day. The majority hates to see minorities gain rights, so any progress made by one minority group ends up rebounding on the others. That’s what I mean by a shortage of rights.

  31. Why would the law need to explicitly criminalize marital rape? It seems that by removing the exception for marital rape, the legislature made it pretty explicit that marital rape was a crime. The legislative history is crystal clear here.

  32. @Laurel: I will explain my position.

    I do believe these are terrible acts done by a (not so) few bad apples. Even as the culture changes and the patriarchal structures are alleviated (though not gone), people change very slowly if at all.

    We have already reached the point where it is not socially accepted with rape (for example, the “a woman has a duty to submit to her husband” meme is very rare today). Those raping today are largely those willing to go against the culture for their own gratification, making it hard to improve sexual crime statistics by changing culture.

    I am kind of pessimistic and believe it may take generations before we can hope to see drastic changes in these figures. And that only if we keep moving in the right direction (which in not a given).

    I am speaking pretty much from my personal experiences in Sweden, and YMMV. (And yes, I am aware that I am going against much of rape culture theories)

    I would however like to repeat your point about “people that might otherwise be seen as decent people”. This is a very important truth. These are not some “other” type of people walking around with signs saying “I am evil”. These are seemingly normal people, and may very well include people you know.

  33. @andie: See my calculations above @12 where I tried to translate the 250000 a year figure into a lifetime statistic.

  34. matlun-well, but raping today isn’t really going against culture. sex is still something women are supposed to give to men, and something he’s supposed to push for. both before and after marriage. Yes, usually there’s lip service to “don’t take it to the extreme of rape” but. . . since so few people count what they do as rape, it’s not that hard to pretend you’re still following culture. and while “submit to your husbands” is only popular in some circles. “He’s got needs” is pretty common. as is “well, he only cheated because she wouldn’t have sex with him” Do you see the pattern, or do I need to continue?

  35. @kb: Obviously your position here is the more established feminist one, and it also depends on which culture we are talking about.

    I think I would like to believe you, because if this is a structural problem in the culture, then the behavior can in theory be changed by changing the culture. Which would give me greater hope of seeing future improvements.

  36. What’s with the weird focus on migrant status in that report? Is there a perception in Norway that immigrants are more likely to be victims/perpetrators of domestic violence?

    Yes, it appears there is indeed a significant over representation among immigrants. There has been some debate about this in Norway (especially when it comes to rape statistics).

  37. Politicalguineapig: LC: Well, for example, two minority groups cannot get the right to vote at the same time. And as GLBT groups get more rights (right to marry, civil unions, etc) women’s rights get more endangered every day. The majority hates to see minorities gain rights, so any progress made by one minority group ends up rebounding on the others. That’s what I mean by a shortage of rights.

    I work in human rights on both women’s rights and LGTBI rights, and there is simply no evidence for what you’re arguing. Gains in one area of rights are not detrimental to other areas of rights; in fact there is a great deal of interdependence of rights in different spheres. For example, women’s right to freedom from violence, as it’s understood internationally, owes a great deal to anti-torture rights standards, which originally had nothing to do with gender.

    Fighting for rights simply isn’t a zero sum game. Progress in one field is most often complementary to others–particularly in the case of women’s rights and the rights of sexual minorities, since the same discriminatory policies (like sexual offense laws) and practices (like intolerance for gender nonconformity) often affect both groups.

    There are certainly valid arguments that rights advocates have screwed up with recognizing intersectionality, and that more powerful minority groups have ignored the needs of people facing multiple forms of discrimination. But there’s no support for your argument that society has some upper limit on rights such that we hurt each other by asking for them.

  38. matlun @ 29

    What does that even mean? You might as well say that Norway does not explicitly criminalize rape outdoors.

    What I took it to mean was that, while the spousal exemption was removed, the attitudes relating to a husband’s sexual entitlement persist, and that’s going to be reflected in how rape is prosecuted even if the exemption is removed. If we want to combat those deeply entrenched beliefs, it’s necessary to explicitly state in the legislation that the marriage contract doesn’t imply consent. Police and judges and lawyers need to be told, explicitly, that they cannot dismiss an allegation on the basis of the rapist being the spouse. If people thought you couldn’t rape someone outdoors in the same way that too many people still think a husband can’t rape his wife or is entitled to sex from her, then , yes we would need a law explicitly criminalizing rape outdoors.

    Then again, IANAL, so I might be completely off base. But that’s how I read that section of the article.

  39. tigtog @ 30

    But one should be able to do this without ignoring the fact that in any discussion of rape ~ 10-20% of the rape survivors who are reading it will have in fact been raped by a stranger.

    The paragraph following the sentence I quoted:

    According to a 2009 study of 11 European countries co-authored by Ms. Kelly, one of the rare international comparisons so far undertaken, 61 percent of rapes took place in a private space, most frequently the home of the victim or perpetrator. Two-thirds of suspects were known to the victim, and 25 percent were current or former partners.

    Not stating ” and one third of suspects were not known to the victim” does not mean ignoring or erasing stranger rapes.
    For me (and others) to discuss the falsity of conventional wisdom w/r/t rape and failing to jump in with “X per cent are stranger rapes” is not ignoring or erasing, any more than failing to jump in with “men are raped too” in every discussion of rape erases male rape victims. Or not giving a nod to the amount of housework and childcare men do in a discussion of gendered expectations around domestic labour erases stay-at-home-dads. It’s the same principle involved, and I’m finding it a bit offensive frankly that you would accuse me of ignoring the victims of a stranger rape because I make a comment about the persistence of a false belief about rape and don’t give them a shout-out.

  40. matlun @ 45:

    Yes, it appears there is indeed a significant over representation among immigrants. There has been some debate about this in Norway (especially when it comes to rape statistics).

    Oh my gosh, try googling “rape statistics Norway” or some such thing and brace yourself for the onslaught of “Muslim rape epidemic” stories and the kind of crap that Odd linked to up in comment 19 (btw, here’s a debunking of that bit of “news”).
    Besides “all rapes in Oslo committed by non-Western men”, there’s also the one about two thirds or 65% of rapes in Norway being committed by non-Western men. I haven’t been able to find any credible analysis that there’s “significant over representation among immigrants”.

  41. rain: Oh my gosh, try googling “rape statistics Norway” or some such thing and brace yourself for the onslaught of “Muslim rape epidemic” stories and the kind of crap…

    I should perhaps have added a warning (TW?) about that.
    There were a couple of studies from the Norwegian police that gave these results. Predictably all the usual suspects did their own “analyses” and hyping up of the figures, so any googling will hit a lot of distasteful pages.

  42. rain: Why is sexual violence still so prevalent in countries where gender equality has made such gigantic strides?

    Some of it could be confounding: as awareness increases then more cases become reported and there is more scrutiny in general. Perhaps the rates are still improving over time but previously they where even more unreported than thought at the time.

  43. What’s with the weird focuson migrant statusin that report? Is the rea perception in Norway that immigrants are more likely to be victims/perpetrators of domestic violence?

    That report is a tally of information collected by the shelter’s themselves and it is compiled by the state (which funds the shelters – although with the new law the municipals are going to fund the shelters). Many of the immigrants are refugees (asylum seekers) from rural districts in countries (like Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on) which often have a stronger patriarchal family structure. They also often comes from war-torn areas and have traumas and pshycological problems caused by that all things that are plausible reasons to increase the risk of domestic violence. Knowing that they (immigrant women) are overrepresented in some DV statistics makes it easier to target them with for example information about shelters and Norwegian law and stance on DV for instance where they receive language training in Norwegian or other places (like child health stations) where women are likely to be met without their husbands.

    Also considering the pattern that a much lower rate of DV experienced by immigrants happened when the perpetrator were drunk or high than for native Norwegians allows one adjust one’s preventive measures accordingly.

    Unfortunately when it comes to the increase in assault rape (street rape) in Oslo it turns out that most (but certainly not all) are perpetrated by immigrants. Most of them paperless asylum seekers according to the police. The fact that this fact stokes racists is not good enough reason to supress the fact itself. Ignorance is not bliss.

  44. Norma: So, according to you, it’s just a coincidence that many states are cracking down on abortion rights at the same time that some other states are allowing lesbians and gay men to marry?
    I don’t buy it.

  45. I said “according to the police” about the claim about paperless asylum seekers since I haven’t seen explicitly how they (the police) substantiate the claim. When searching for the origin of that claim I found it coupled with the suggestion from a spokeperson for the police union that paperless asylum seekers should be confined in a asylum seeker’s camp. He refered to statistics but declined to specify which statistics. That suggests one should apply a large helping of salt to that.

    When it comes to the claim that the majority of the assault rapists are immigrants it is based on the reported fact that in 45 out of 48 cases the victim has described the rapist as dark-skinned.

    Last year in Oslo (a city of 600,000 – 900,000 people (city – suburbs) there were 24 assault rape cases filed to the police, so far this year there has been 48 (at least two of them with male victims). Hence the increase in public discourse around assault rape.

  46. Tove Smaadahl is by the way quoted in Norwegian media as saying that the specific criticism regarding spousal rape put forth in the NYT article is not justified. She goes on to say that the lack of focus on domestic/spousal rape is caused by the taboo surrounding the issue and that victims of spousal rape finds it harder to report the rape to the police than assault rape victims finds. She expands: Harder because it is experienced as a far more violating situation to report. It is more legitimized to talk about assault rapes.

    http://www.thelocal.no/page/view/new-york-times-spotlights-norway-rape (English secondary source)

    http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10015235 (Norwegian original source)

  47. Politicalguineapig:
    Norma:So,accordingtoyou,it’sjustacoincidencethatmanystatesarecrackingdownonabortionrightsatthesametimethatsomeotherstatesareallowinglesbiansandgaymentomarry?
    Idon’tbuyit.

    Which states are you referring to?

  48. Raja: Missisippi, South Dakota, Indiana, at least off the top of my head. There were some ridiculous regulations being suggested around my home state, but I think they got voted down.

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