A recent case in Sweden could explain why politicians and human rights activists often claim there is no scientific evidence for higher criminality within immigrant communities in Western societies.
A recent case in Lund University is now serving as a clear-cut example of what happens when researchers try to gather scientific evidence regarding issues that may not support the officially sanctioned political narrative. It also demonstrates how funds are restricted for studying the impact of immigration, how research into the subject is not permitted by universities, and how scientists who disobey the restrictions face serious persecution.
This is what has happened to Prof. Kristina Sundquist from Sweden’s Lund University, who alongside two other colleagues conducted detailed research into the profile of those who commit sexual violence in Sweden. The research was not aimed at racially profiling the offenders, as the scientists themselves put it, but they nevertheless have discovered some facts about the ethnic profile of rapists by accident.
Sundquist, who is the most cited professor at her university regarding social research, is now being investigated for publishing an unauthorized research report, and may face prosecution for coming to the conclusion that the vast majority of rapes are committed by immigrants to the country.
But what does the research show? The published results show that immigrants are not only disproportionately over-represented in rape cases, but despite being a minority in Sweden, they commit the vast majority of sexual violence. This is despite the fact that the study only analyzed cases between the period of 2000 and 2015 — that is, before the enormous 2015 influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
They based their study on a sample of 3,000 convictions in rape cases. As mentioned above, the goal of the study was not to inquire into the perpetrators’ ethnic background, but to see if there were common denominators in health issues, social status, employment, etc. The revelations about the ethnic profile were only an ancillary finding, but they were impossible to ignore.
“Immigrants were just a variable, and it turned out to be quite a remarkable discovery as there were many immigrants and foreign-born people in this group,” said Kristina Sundquist.
The scientific research was conducted because, as the paper says in its introduction, “Sweden has witnessed an increase in the rates of sexual crimes including rape. Knowledge of who the offenders of these crimes are is therefore of importance for prevention.”
During the data analysis, information on substance use disorders, previous criminality and psychiatric disorders was retrieved from Swedish population-based registers. A total of 3,039 offenders were included in the analysis. A majority of them were immigrants (59.2 percent) of which a majority (47.7 percent) were born outside of Sweden. The study recommended that the finding that a majority of the offenders were immigrants warranted further investigation and more studies which take into account the contextual characteristics among these offenders.
The study also points out that types of sexual crimes are highly under-reported. According to data from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, there were 23,200 sexual crimes reported to the police in 2019, of which 8,820 (38 percent) were rapes and aggravated rapes. According to the annual Swedish Crime Survey for 2019, it was estimated that 5.6 percent of the total population between 16 and 84 years old had been a victim of sexual crimes.
Not surprisingly, more females (9.4 percent) than males (1.4 percent) stated that they were victims of sexual crimes. Rape, which is the most serious sexual crime, increased by 45.4 percent between 2008 and 2018. However, despite these apparent increases, the number of offenders found guilty of sexual offenses has been quite stable between 2008, as the rate of solved rapes by the police has significantly diminished since 2009 (31 percent). In fact, in 2016, the rate was as low as 11 percent.
Close to half of the offenders were born outside of Sweden (47.7 percent) followed by Swedish-born offenders with Swedish-born parents (40.8 percent). A part of the cohort was constituted of offenders being born in Sweden with at least one parent being born outside Sweden (11.5 percent).
Regarding Swedish-born offenders with no parent born in Sweden, a high proportion of the mothers and fathers were born in Western countries (40.7 percent and 33.9 percent) followed by the Middle East/North Africa (19.8 percent and 24 percent). The largest group of the study population was found among offenders born outside of Sweden; a significant part was from the Middle East/North Africa (34.5 percent) followed by Africa (19.1 percent). A not negligible part of the offenders (32.5 percent) received social welfare and over a third had low education (37.3 percent). IQ and school achievements were only available for part of the cohort and these variables showed low levels for each of these respectively.
The findings of the study actually align with the same trend found in other reports and studies conducted in the past in Sweden regarding sexual assault and gang rape. Even in other crime areas, such as murder, migrants are vastly over-represented. Such studies have been rare, but to date, nobody has been threatened with prosecution for conducting scientific research up until now.
The research report conducted by Sundquist and her colleagues was submitted to the Board of Appeal for ethical review — a body reporting to the Swedish Ministry of Education. They will investigate whether Sundquist and Prof. Ardavan Khoshnood, the co-author of the paper, were given an “ethical license” to handle “sensitive data.”
Prof. Khoshnood responded by saying to Swedish portal Samnytt:, “It’s a shame,” and added that they are accused of “conducting and publishing illegal research.”
“The purpose of the study was not to find out what immigration is like. Surprisingly, this variable turned out to be quite important, and we didn’t know in advance what the study would show. We wanted to create a profile of the perpetrator, to know who the typical perpetrator is,” he said.
However, the ethical authority appears to be gearing up to issue some form of punishment related to the case.
“I don’t see anywhere that ethical permission is sought to test the hypothesis if immigrants are over-represented in statistics on convicted rapists,” the body said. The scientists were also criticized for insufficient evaluation as they failed to indicate how their research should “reduce exclusion and improve integration.”
In terms of integration, it is unclear how concealing the social and ethnic background of rapists will “reduce exclusion and improve integration.” However, these scientists, one of whom is himself of an immigrant background, must now actively prove their innocence.
As it stands, the case against these scientists may be designed as an intimidation tactic on behalf of Swedish political and academic authorities to silence science-based evidence that severely harms the open society narrative championed by mainstream Swedish political parties. The increasingly uncontrollable violence, including sexual violence spreading through Swedish society is a direct result of policy decisions by a succession of pro-migration, and anti-law-and-order governments.
