Another Kind of Swedish Crime

Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell knows how to write compelling and sympathetic police procedural novels in a uniquely Swedish setting. He tells the Globe & Mail crime is a way of looking at the contradictions in society and that 'fiction is a very important instrument to tell us about our world.' So true, but sadly what Mankell says about the world misses an essential truth about his native country, Sweden.

Another Kind of Swedish Crime
by Frank Hilliard

Crime writer Henning Mankell

Since I am about to attack a Swedish crime writer for committing another kind of crime, I should at least give him the chance to defend his actions. Here he is, talking about his writing to the Globe & Mail in yesterday's edition.

We who live today are not that different from people a couple of thousand years ago. Go way back to ancient Greek drama. What did they write about? Take Medea. It’s a play about a woman who murders her two children because of jealousy. If that is not a crime story, I don’t know what it is. The difference is, Greek society had nothing called the police; they sorted things out in other ways. But if there had been police, I am certain there would have been police in the play. So the Greeks realized early on that to use the mirror of crime to look at contradictions within a society, between exterior man and interior man, between dream and reality, is one of the most efficient ways of telling a story.

OK, crime reflects reality; mirrors it as he says. So let's look at the opening of Chapter 2 of one of his Kurt Wallander mysteries, One Step Behind. The subject is crime in Sweden.

Did crime pay? That age-old question was still open to debate. Even those who felt that crime now had the upper hand were hard-pressed to pinpoint the historical moment when the tables had turned. Personally, he was convinced that the criminal element had a stronger hold on Sweden than ever before. Criminals engaged in sophisticated financial dealings lived as if in a safe haven. In dealing with them, the judicial system seemed to have capitulated completely.

So Mankell, speaking through his detective Wallander, says crime is rising and he pinpoints white collar crime specifically. Let's continue to the next paragraph.

Wallander often discussed these problems with his colleagues. He noticed that civilian fears about these developments were growing. . . Wallander knew their fears were justified. But he didn't see any signs of significant preventative measures being taken. On the contrary, the reduction of the police forces and the court personnel continued.

Now we have the suggestion that crime is rising because it isn't being prevented by police and the courts. Here's one more quote to close out the set.

During the last few years, vigilante groups had been on the rise in Sweden. The Civilian Guard. Wallander had long feared this development. Whenever the official justice system started breaking down, the lynching mentality of the mob started taking over. Taking justice into one's own hands became something normal.

If I can summarize, Mankel is saying that police resources are being reduced and white collar crime is increasing and that this has resulted in civilians fearing for their safety and the rise of vigilantism. Since this is supposed to be about real life, let's look at crime in Sweden. Wikipedia reports that:

The 9,000,000 inhabitants of Sweden reported 1,377,000 offences to the authorities in 2008 (149 offences/1000 inhabitants). The number of reported crimes have increased radically since a national statistics began in 1950. In 1950, 195,000 crimes were reported. In 1964, the number was 368,000. Between 1975 and 1990, the number of reported offences rose by 61 percent at a steady rate.

Immigrants are overrepresented in Sweden's crime statistics. During the period 1997-2001, 25% of the almost 1,520,000 offences were committed by people born overseas, while almost 20% were committed by Swedish-born people with a foreign background. Those from North Africa and the Middle East were overrepresented.

Mankell is correct, people are worried about rising crime in Sweden, but he is wrong in suggesting that financial crime is the specific reason. The hard truth is that as Sweden has accepted a wave of immigration since the War, it has seen these same immigrants nearly double the number of crimes.

A brief Google search for rape and Malmo, Sweden will reveal that the city—home to a large Muslim immigrant community—is in the midst of a crime epidemic involving robbery, assault and rape; especially the rape of native Swedish girls by gangs of Asian men. It's not a pretty picture, not one Sweden makes any mention of internationally, but it is violently true.

Does Mankell mention Muslim gangs in his novels? Not from the example I've quoted or in another Kurt Wallander Mystery I've read. It too mentioned vigilante gangs.

What he does is exactly the opposite. Instead of fingering foreigners for the rise in Swedish crime, he specifically debunks the idea. On page 229 of One Step Behind he has Wallander interview a retired banker, Sundelius. The banker has politically incorrect views on the murders being investigated.

"last time we spoke we were interrupted," Wallander said.
"The reason for that has become exceedingly clear, " Sundelius replied dryly: "What kind of epeople do we let into this country anyway?"
His comment perplexed Wallander.
"There's no evidence that this was the work of an immigrant," he said. "Why would you think that?"
"It seems self-evident to me," Sundelius said. "No Swede could have done anything like this."

Sundelius' comments clearly not only perplex Wallander the detective, but Henning Mankell the author. They should not, however, perplex us.

Which brings me to a final point. When the cultural and political elite in a country start to impose hundreds of thousands of foreigners with a different concept of morality; when the cultural elite abandons Christian and natural law concepts of decency and individual rights; when a country is badly led, the citizens will always turn to a greater moral value. They will always act in their own best interests to defend themselves.

Vigilantism in Sweden; let's call it for what it is: democracy in action.

But even here Mankell appears to be wrong. The only reference I could find to Swedish vigilantism is to a band that churns out hardcore punk music. There are no references to a 'Civilian Guard' in Sweden.

I agree absolutely with Mankell that novels, and especially crime novels, should reflect reality so that we can learn from them. I challenge him to actually do that with regards to crime in Sweden, and its causes, in his next book.