In 2015, police in Sweden recorded 141 men aged 18 and over as having been raped, compared to 3,333 recorded female rape victims. However, the real figures are estimated to be much higher. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) believes that only 10-20 percent of all rapes are represented in police statistics. An ensuing problem is that only a fraction of all cases actually make it to court. Furthermore, research on male rape is very limited in Sweden, there have only been a few isolated studies published, Lindberg and Sjöström pointed out.
Historically, male rape has been associated with homosexuality, pedophilia, or overwhelmingly male institutional environments such as prisons and the army. Heterosexual adult men have rarely been considered potential rape victims, which is a stereotypical misconception, the Swedish scientists pointed out in their debate article, which was published by Swedish national broadcaster SVT.
Men were recognized as possible victims of rape only in 1984 in Sweden. Today, the misapprehension that "men cannot be raped" is still common, which is why many social institutions in welfare and justice are not necessarily sufficiently prepared to offer help male rape victims, Lindberg and Sjöström pointed out. According to them, many Swedish hospitals have no developed procedures to treat male rape victims, which may hamper the police's investigative abilities. At present, only 13 percent of all rape cases are solved.
In conclusion, Lindberg and Sjöström urged the public to take male rape more seriously and the competent bodies to develop well-thought-out approaches as to how to treat male rape victims and punish perpetrators. Last fall, Sweden opened its first emergency room for male rape victims in Stockholm.
The very issue of sexual violence against women and men alike is an extremely tender issue in Sweden right now, where a clandestine rape epidemic seems to be raging amid the ongoing migrant crisis. Despite vehement denials from Sweden's law enforcement agencies, the number of sexual assault cases has been rising in lockstep with the number of arriving migrants.