Norwegian police released a new statistical report on rape cases in the capital, and could tie many of them to both consumption of alcohol and a new, more liberal “sexual culture” that has confused the limits of what’s allowed and what’s not.
The reported, entitled “Rape in the global city,” revealed that 33 percent of all rape charges filed last year were “party-related,” meaning they occurred during or after parties, often where alcohol was consumed and where it blurred the limits set between men and women. “This can apply to men as well as women,” said Inspector Hanne Kristin Rohde, claiming that intoxication can “suddenly” make a man a rapist as easily as it can lower the defenses of a woman. She hopes the report will spur debate around intoxication and sexuality.
Oslo recently experienced a wave of spontaneous street assaults, but only 13 percent of last year’s reported rapes were characterized as such. In addition to the rapes deemed to be party-related, 25 percent involved cases between spouses or partners. The rest either couldn’t be characterized or involved victims in vulnerable situations, where they also could presumably be drunk.
Much of the police report was based on information given by rape victims to police after 189 reported rapes in Oslo in 2010.
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