Comparatively it's one of the safest cities in the world, as in, its less safe then maybe 4-5 cities in your list?
Sure it has a couple of dodgy areas, but I lived in Sodermalm and Kungsholmen and never felt unsafe around those, I moved from Brazil and my hometown gets as many robberies reports in a day as Stockholm gets a year.
I can understand some people might be targeted for these status items but I never had any issues moving around even with an expensive laptop, phone, headphones with me, taking the public transport every day.
When it comes to Stockholm, I can have an image. I've been there on vacation for a total of 2 months. I've made friends in Tensta, Södermalm and in Östermalm and slept in all places.
If someone tells me that Östermalm is now a place where people rob you more easily than 10 years ago, then I have enough of a feeling how the social landscape changed. In Stockholm, I've experienced a couple of crime-ish situations in those 2 months that I didn't experience to such a frequent or great extent in Amsterdam (where I live).
In short: it might be that things in Stockholm have gotten a bit more sour.
It’s an isolated anecdote of which there are tens of millions of others just like it in the cities you mentioned. Crime stats should be based on up to the minute evidence not anecdotes.
I dislike reading anecdotes as evidence as well. However, sometimes I personally simply feel free enough to express myself on HN and don't think any further than that. In most cases, this is fine, but in some cases I become part of the problem (posting anecdotes that are interpreted as "evidence").
So I'm happy you posted your reaction as I feel it's the reason why I've been downvoted a couple of times as well. Upon rereading my comment, I agree with your comment. I'll try to finetune my behavior accordingly.
It is. All these other kids saying otherwise are just spouting poppycock, and some of it frankly seems like thinly veiled racism. (It's the immigrants, you see!)
Look, if there are people there's gonna be crime. That's just the way it goes. But as far as moderately large cities go, Stockholm is far from dangerous. Like anywhere else some areas will be worse than others, but the parts being discussed in these comments – the inner city – are not the favelas these people seem to claim. Stockholm is a perfectly fine city, but haters gonna hate and all that I guess.
Thugs getting off too easy though, now that's a real thing.
I'm generally the person to be very critical of Sweden, but this is somewhat unfair as the definition of "Rape" in Sweden is incredibly broad, and includes people who can't give consent such as those experiencing fear.
Heck in 2018 they passed a law that says "Any sex act which does not have explicit consent is rape"[0] including those where there are no threats, coercion or violence of any kind.
I mockingly considered creating a "consent" app which could be signed with BankID.
Sweden is also unique in that it counts every offence as an occurrence of rape- meaning that if you're "raped by your husband 12 times a year" those are 12 separate cases of rape and not 1 (like it would be in the UK).
There is also speculation that in Sweden they take rape reports very seriously, which leads to more people coming forward with cases of rape.
This line of thinking has been discussed before, sadly by the extreme far right.[1]
> I'm generally the person to be very critical of Sweden, but this is somewhat unfair as the definition of "Rape" in Sweden is incredibly broad, and includes people who can't give consent such as those experiencing fear.
I'm unsure if I'm reading the way you worded this incorrectly or not.
Are you saying people who are too scared to say no are only included because the definition is "incredibly broad"?! Do you think people too scared to say no shouldn't be included?
If so, I'd argue you must have a very narrow personal definition, which worries me.
I'm critical of Sweden in that the people have blind trust of authority and are failing to integrate people (this includes me, as a British migrant), and will go to great lengths to avoid any mention of demographics when talking about crime. Talking about it _at all_ will get you branded a racist.
However I'm saying that the definition of rape in Sweden is broader than other countries and encompasses more things, so the same action in the UK could be classified as domestic violence or sexual harassment (thus, not rape) but in Sweden it would be rape.
For one (of many) example(s), in the UK it's impossible for a woman to rape a man, because legally the perpetrator needs to penetrate the victim. This is not the case in Sweden.
It looks like it has gotten much worse in recent years. There was a 60-minutes block from Australian TV on the topic. I couldn't find the whole video, but here's a fragment:
Sweden has taken in around 1-1.2 million people in the last 10 years or so, roughly 10% of the population. Mainly from countries that have vastly different values than swedes.
These huge numbers in combination with really poor integration has lead to a very segregated society. You now read about gang shootings, rapes, humiliation robberies (they rob the victims then piss them in the mouth or cut off an ear or so, just for fun). These things are happening daily now, it used to be maybe once a year you read about a shooting or particular nasty rape/robbery.
Less safe than say Oslo, Amsterdam, Edinburgh or Copenhagen.
Basically in the middle among major European cities.
Compared to the US it is much safer than Chicago, Detroit or Atlanta and less safe than for example Denver or Boston.