The Flame | In the tracks of the Comanche
In 2021, “Nytorgsmannen” Fredrik Lundgren, formerly Andreas Holm, will be sentenced to five years in prison for seven rapes and a long series of other abuses. Less than three years later, he is out again, and after barely six months, he is arrested on new suspicions of rape.
– Today there are no consequences, tax crimes have higher penalties than raping 15 girls. It doesn’t feel like it’s being taken seriously. But if you screw up the state, you can get 30 years.
Cissi Nilsson, the company Cilia’s 26-year-old CEO, takes a sip of water. We are sitting opposite each other in a glass-enclosed meeting room in one of Convendum’s office hotels, near Stureplan.
– There is more talk about gang crime, even though more women die from violence in close relationships. It pisses me off. At first I thought about becoming politically active and trying to change the legislation, but realized that I won’t be able to do that in my lifetime. This is the fastest way to make a difference.
Getting drugged during a night out six years ago was the starting point for the app Cilia, “an alarm app with Rescuers” – volunteers, who are called to one’s GPS position when the alarm is activated. The threat image is a classic attack, but more features are on the way, adapted to situations where other tools may be needed.
Confident. Cissi Nilsson, 26, has previously been on the TV program Robinson and released pop music. Photo: Press photo.
– All have been based on my fears, what happened to me, and various cases of violence. In close relationships, assault rape, in a club environment, says Cissi Nilsson.
The case where a rapist received SEK 840,000 in damages inspired the app’s recording function, which saves sound encrypted in the cloud when the alarm is triggered.
– In Sweden, 5 out of 100 rapes have resulted in a conviction in the last five years, which is insane. It is often word for word, and in a Swedish court it must be beyond all reasonable doubt for the person to be convicted. If you don’t have a recording, there is almost nothing you can do.
Registering as a rescuer is free and only requires BankID identification, but those who want to use all the app’s functions have to shell out SEK 699 a year. Even higher is the price tag for Cilia’s flagship, which is still in the prototype stage: fashionable jewelry with a built-in alarm, for 800 to 2,000 kroner.
– You wonder why this costs money?
Cissi Nilsson interrupts a wrapped-up question about “operating expenses”, and gets straight to the point.
– If I hadn’t developed and produced an attractive business model, we would never have received an investment, and then I wouldn’t have helped anyone. That being said, I wish we lived in a world where burglar alarms weren’t needed at all, or that it was something the government covered. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and I see the alternative as doing nothing.
Amy Hasinoff (pictured) is an associate professor of communication at the University of Denver in Colorado. With colleague Rena Bivens, she released a study in 2017 with the provocative name “Rape: is there an app for it?”, where 215 different apps against sexual violence were reviewed.
– They focused on cases with unknown perpetrators, which according to the data is the least common type. Despite that, they get the most attention.
The researchers were not convinced that the most common feature – the alarm button – would be particularly effective even in preventing that type of assault.
– Often a button was offered to call 112, which the phone can already do. At the same time, the apps were marketed as a holistic solution to sexual violence as a societal problem. We were quite skeptical, Amy Hasinoff tells Flamman.
The concept of volunteer rescuers makes her both curious and doubtful.
– I didn’t come across it in any of the apps we looked at. I think it takes a lot of training to be able to step in and handle a situation like this in a good way, especially a violent one. The thought of strangers with no training or preparation showing up during an ongoing assault worries me.
Hasinoff explains the term “secondary victimization” – trauma that does not come from the abuse itself, but from the response or actions of others in connection with it, for example victim blaming.
– In theory, I think that this kind of citizen response has potential, but I see risks with a private company being behind it. I worry that people pay for something they think will make them safer, and what actually happens is that a savior shows up and escalates the situation, or makes the trauma worse.
Cissi Nilsson believes that Cilia always encourages you to call the police, if there is the slightest risk that you could end up in danger yourself.
– Then we can never hold it over someone’s head that they have to call 112, but as a suggestion. I also wouldn’t say any trauma is worse than complete abuse.
With an assault rape, “the whole purpose is that they don’t want to be found out”, and “usually it’s enough for you to get there and scream and make noise”, she claims. Requirements for education would not work either, she believes, as it risks slowing down the rapid growth you see ahead. The vision is based on a large, collective response.
– Together we are strong. A lot of people are discouraging, and that’s why we released the app first: to get enough people. Our goal is to have 20,000 users when we launch the bracelets.
The goal is ambitious, but according to Cissi Nilsson, they have already recruited 4,000 users since the app was released in August. She herself describes Cilia as a “reactive” solution, and highlights more proactive projects she collaborates with and finances on the side – the foundation Herhouse, which helps abused women find housing, and the organization Locker Room Talk, which works with young teenage boys’ views of women in schools and sports environment.
In theory, I think this kind of citizen response has potential, but I see risks with a private company behind it.
– Few apps are aimed at passers-by, even fewer at potential perpetrators. You download an app because you are afraid. My general view of such solutions is that they can be good as small parts of larger projects, but we had a hard time imagining an app that could tackle the problem by itself, says Amy Hasinoff.
To illustrate the scope of the problem, she, like Cissi, mentions that only 0.5 to 2 percent of rape cases lead to a conviction in the United States.
– I think perpetrators know that they will not be caught or punished. We have a culture where close to a third of young men state that they could have committed abuse, as long as they know that they will not be punished and the word “rape” is not mentioned in the study, she says, referring to a study of students from 2014.
– It is a deep, fundamental error in our social norms.
Cissi Nilsson agrees that it should not be women’s responsibility to defend themselves.
– At the same time, reality looks the way it does, so do you want the tools to protect yourself even if it is wrong to need it? I can still separate the two feelings, and feel the same about it costing money.
In the same neighborhood as Cilia, there are more people who have come up with similar ideas.
– Anyone who works towards the same goal as us – increased safety – cannot possibly be competitors. I understand that it sounds cliché when you are still a profit-making company, but if more people feel safe, there are no disadvantages, says Lina Blomster to Flamman.
She is 29 years old, a former Securitas guard, and develops the app Safepal together with her mother, veteran consultant Angela Rossi. Many of the functions are similar, with both alarms and recording. Users can also look up whether the Tinder date is in the criminal record via “Trygghetskollen”, and ask them to verify with BankID in advance to reduce the risk of being “catfished” (deceived by someone with a false identity).
The app costs SEK 49 a month, and relies more on existing social contacts than strangers moving in. Rather, the idea has been to collect and facilitate tactics people already use to feel safer: calling a friend, or asking their child to send a text message when they get home. Despite that, the ethical considerations are rarely easy, says Lina Blomster.
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– When it comes to rhetoric such as “crime prevention” or “prevention”, I think you should be careful. At best, the apps are on enough phones for there to be a deterrent effect. But before then, it is difficult to describe it that way, says the CEO and continues:
– It is also important to distinguish between safety and security. Saying this guarantees something can create a false illusion that you are safe, when you are not. It is the sense of security we are trying to convey.
