Keeping Sweden on top: Rape and legal innovation as nation-branding

Abstract

This chapter explores how rape legislation has been used as nation-branding to keep Sweden on top, and how the desire to remain a norm entrepreneur impacted on legal revisions. Sweden's legislation on gender and violence has been presented as an important political achievement, but it has also partly led to an increase of reported rapes. Sweden has prioritized bringing an end to men's violence against women, including sexual violence, for several decades, and the issue has been put at the top of the agenda by various white papers and, not least, a series of legislative changes. Having an established reputation as a nation that can protect its citizens from harm, including sexual harm, grants a degree of superiority in an international political climate that increasingly emphasizes protection of rights. Rape laws are difficult to prosecute in countries with and without consent-based laws.