[jecIIny]

While Sweden is without doubt far to the left socially and politically of most Americans (myself included) I have to question some of his claims. Without fail the statistics I have read identify Sweden as having one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world. Drug overdoses are high, but not disproportionate compared to most of the rest of Europe. From the crime statistics in his article I have to wonder if the author has not perhaps confused Sweden with Mexico. What are his sources?

[hinckley buzzard]

I have to wonder if the author has not perhaps confused Sweden with Mexico.

The source of the statistics, as the author pointed out in the article, was a report by a Swedish journalist. I doubt he confused his homeland with Mexico.

[AdrianR]

Google reveals a lot of sources saying that property crime in Sweden is higher than in US (and has been higher for last 20 years). I can't find anything on violent crime, though.

[VOA]

I can't confirm/deny the author's claim on Sweden's crime rates.
But I did see in The Los Angeles Times that Sweden (especially Maalmo area?)
is in an economic/crime mess because now that USA has cleared out the Taliban...
cheap, good quality heroin is again flowing from the poppy fields of
Afghanistan to veins in Sweden (yeah, it IS Bush's fault!).
And the crime/rape wave of the Muslim imports are bad enough that we even
get threads (with documentary articles) here from time to time.

I don't know the current stats, but I do remember that maybe 30 years ago,
Sweden did lead the world in what some call "the crime against self" (suicide).
Cradle-to-grave security apparently ain't the best thing for the human psyche.

[iowamark]

the statistics I have read identify Sweden as having one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world.

American socialists like to portay Europe as the secular socialist paradise. This is nonsense, of course.

Violent crime rates in Europe are now significantly higher than in the US.

America the Safe: Why Europe's Crime Rates Have Surpassed Ours

Even Sweden, once the epitome of cosmopolitan socialist prosperity, now has a crime victimization rate 20 percent higher than that of the United States.