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How Indonesia and Sweden differ on sexual violence
While Sweden and Indonesia are not very far apart in terms of incidences of sexual violence, the countries differ in our gendered societal and institutional attitudes toward the crime.
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People protest on Sept. 17, 2019 in front of the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta to demand that the House of Representatives pass the long-awaited bill on eliminating sexual violence against women. (JP/Anggie Angela)
Indonesia may have one thing in common with Sweden: a high incidence of sexual violence.
Although Sweden is among the most gender-equal and peaceful nations, respectively ranked 5th in the Gender Gap Index 2022 and 15th in the Gloal Peace Index 2021, Sweden has a surprisingly high incidence of sexual violence.
Sweden recorded 27,639 cases of sexual violence in 2021 according to its criminal statistics agency Brå, up 10 percent from 2020. Meanwhile, Indonesia recorded 25,210 cases of sexual violence in 2021, up 22 percent from the previous year.
This means reported cases of sexual violence in Sweden were 8.8 percent higher than Indonesia in 2021. The difference may seem insignificant, but considering their respective populations of around 10.42 million for Sweden and 273.8 million for Indonesia, Sweden has a proportionately much higher incidence of sexual violence.
But one factor that differentiates Indonesia from Sweden in terms of tackling sexual violence is that Sweden has low tolerance for the crime, as reflected in its institutions. In Indonesia, on the other hand, society’s high tolerance toward sexual violence and institutional ineffectiveness contribute to its high incidence of sexual violence.
Gender equality is the part of the identity of Nordic states, including Sweden. Eliminating sexual violence is an important policy issue for Sweden because it is connected to gender equality: Its existence reveals a lack of gender equality, and sexual violence is itself a barrier to achieving gender equality (Skilbrei, 2021).
According to Sweden's 1990 Government Bill on Gender Equality, sexual violence is defined as an expression “of the prevailing imbalance of power relations between the sexes”. It then established a commission on violence against women three years later to scrutinize violence targeting women.
