Social worker motivations and organisational prerequisites for care of children who commit crimes – the best interests of the child or the protection of society?

ABSTRACT

The Swedish juvenile justice system’s placing of children aged 15–17 under one roof in Secure Youth Care institutions presents a dilemma for social work officers attempting to resolve delinquency cases in the best interests of the child. Retrospective interviews were conducted in 2015 and mainly in Stockholm County with six professional social services officers (SSOs). The data were processed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), social science theory, relevant law, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and material from the National Board of Health and Welfare. Main results show that SSOs were concerned about the risk of faulty assessments, the inadequacy of methods and insufficient attention being paid to relevant scientific knowledge. All in all, the task of protecting the child vis-à-vis protecting society becomes a major challenge in an institution where there is no clear line of demarcation between punishment and care and rehabilitation efforts. Sweden’s ambition to incorporate the CRC into Swedish law requires more focused education of personnel and national guidelines concerning the best interests of the child, as well as the allocation of more adequate resources to allow for more time with each client.

ABSTRAKT

Det svenska påföljdssystemets användning av straff och behandling för barn mellan 15 och 17 år på särskilda ungdomshem kan medföra dilemman för socialtjänstemän i deras försök att tillgodose barnets bästa i sina vårdbehovsbedömningar när unga genomgår sluten ungdomsvård som ersätts med vård enligt LVU. I den aktuella studien genomfördes retrospektiva intervjuer med sex professionella socialtjänstemän i Stockholms län eller en närliggande stad 2015, alla med erfarenhet av att avgöra barnets bästa i sådana fall. Intervjuerna analyserades genom tolkningsfenomenologisk analys (IPA) och samhällsvetenskapsteori, lag och lagförarbeten, FN: s konvention om barnets rättigheter, CRC och Socialstyrelsens Allmänna råd. Huvudresultaten visar att socialsekreterarna oroade sig över felaktiga bedömningar, genomförandet av adekvata metoder och vetenskaplig kunskap framstår som problematiskt, och de verkar också underordnade institutionernas överordnade makt, allt som allt, framstå skyddet av barnet vis-à-vis skydd av samhället bli ett verkligt dilemma vid sådan blandning av straff och vård. Vi drar slutsatsen att Sveriges ambition att införliva barnkonventionen i svensk lag kräver mer fokuserad personalutbildning och mer tid i klientarbetet liksom nationella riktlinjer för bedömning av barnets bästa, tillsammans med mer adekvata resurser för socialtjänsten.

KEYWORDS:

• Juvenile delinquency
• social care
• criminal justice
• UN child convention
• rehabilitation
• compulsory care
• punishment

NYCKELORD:

• barn och ungdomsbrottslingar
• socialt arbete
• straffrätt
• barnkonvention
• behandling
• tvångsvård
• straff

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For a detailed description and discussion of the laws – see Leviner (2014), and Lappi-Seppälä (2011).

2 If the child has committed the crime before 18 but is prosecuted after his/her 18th birthday, the sentence may also be Secure Youth Care.

3 The person may have been a child at the time of the criminal sentence but over 18 when the transition to compulsory care started.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Statens institutionsstyrelse, The National Board of Institutional Care [grant number 41-205-2012].

Notes on contributors

Michael Tärnfalk

Michael Tärnfalk, PhD, is a senior lecturer in social work dealing with criminal law, social work law and investigative methods in applied social work. His research focuses on how juvenile delinquents are handled by the social services and the criminal justice system, latent and manifest legal conflicts between social care measures and criminal justice sanctions, and the manner of cooperation between the social authorities and the justice system . He also leads a Nordic interdisciplinary network of researchers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on criminology, criminal justice and social work, with focus on how the Nordic countries deal with juvenile delinquents.

Charlotte Alm

Associate Professor Charlotte Alm is senior lecturer in social psychology at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. Her research is mainly on applied social psychology, including social psychological aspects of forensic interviews, and alongside quantitative methods she uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.