This study researches the mass media description of women’s roles in criminal gangs as well as the contributing factors portrayed by the media for women and their involvement in the criminal gangs. We believe that this is an important subject to highlight, mainly due to the fact that the information available today is more often than not about the men whereas the women and their situation are portrayed and written about far less frequently. By using a qualitative text analysis we want to bring light to the image portrayed by the women and thereby contribute with an increase to understanding the specific terms these women face in the given contexts with the hope that the result will contribute to an increase in the knowledge of crime fighting and law enforcement. The empirical material consists of 20 articles from the following newspaper: Aftonbladet, Expressen, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, which have been analyzed through a content analysis. The results show that women in the gang have a far more active role than previously reported and that the activity in the gangs has increased as well. This falls in line with previous international research where women’s roles have been highlighted as predominantly active in organised crime. Furthermore, the women’s role in media is often mentioned as supportive or even being victims of the men in the gangs. A common explanation that is given is that the women join the gang due to societal factors such as the women feeling let down by their society. Social relations such as family and boyfriends that are part of criminal gangs and that might influence the women are also brought up as possible causes. More unusual factors that draw the women to gangs regard financial incentives such as the dream of making a great deal of money, longing for a feeling of safety or to simply experience excitement.

Sweden has faced many societal challenges, including gang criminality, which has raised much concern among the public and politicians. After the elections in October 2022, Moderaterna, Sverigedemokraterna, Kristdemokraterna, and Liberalerna presented an agreement. ‘Tidöavtalet’ consists of 7 collaborative projects to solve the biggest societal problems in Sweden. It introduced several reforms to the Swedish society, which led human- and children's rights organisations to react in concern; for instance, Amnesty International indicated that the agreement showed a will to separate and stigmatize certain groups of people and make non-citizens that reside in Sweden suspicious (Amnesty International, 2022). This critical idea analysis aims to investigate ideas and ideologies expressed in the agreement and to what extent they reproduce and/or legitimize discrimination in Sweden. The analysis uses Young's "five faces of oppression" and the concept of justice. The theory provides an understanding of how disabling constraints of domination and oppression lead to different forms of injustice that violate people's inherent human rights and freedoms. The analysis of ‘Tidöavtalet’ discovered certain prevalent ideas in the agreement and shows that several reforms attempt to solve specific societal problems in Sweden in ways that contradict the state's studies, lack a child’s rights perspective and risk reproducing and legitimizing different faces of oppression.

In this essay, the aim has been to investigate how the possibilities of leaving gang criminality are portrayed in the news media. It is of criminological interest to examine the extent to which news articles address the limitations and opportunities for individuals involved in gang criminality, as this could have long-term implications for criminal policy and crime prevention efforts. Currently, there is no previous research specifically focusing on the news media's portrayal of the possibilities of leavinggang criminality, hence this essay contributes additional insights. The theories utilized in the essay include labeling theory and social bond theory. A qualitative content analysis method was employed to study 103 Swedish news articles published between October 2022 and November 2023. The material was processed using a coding scheme with themes and categories. The analysis revealed that defection programs are the primary means for gang criminals to exit criminal networks. It highlighted the challenges faced by defectors with high threat levels and emphasized the significance of community and social relationships in successfully completing the defection process. The analysis identified significant shortcomings within authorities and defection programs responsible for the process. Overall, the results depict defection programs as deficient, and the process is portrayed as uncertain, all while lethal violence continues to rise. This may contribute to the public's perception that the preventive efforts of defection programs are not effective enough to handle the situation, potentially leading to a tougher political stance on combating gang criminality. It may also signal to gang members that their chances of leaving gang criminality are slim and that authorities are not reliable

Abstract The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis (C-uppsats) is to analyse the Swedish governments 34-point programme, which contains measures for preventing gang criminality, to see if the government has addressed the theoretical perspective of social capital. The analysis will be conducted using the previously mentioned theoretical perspective. To make the analysis, two different interpretations of the theoretical perspective was combined into a theoretical analysis framework. Which contained the codes used for analysing the text material. The theoretical analysis framework contains the four most central elements from both the interpretations of the theoretical perspective, regarding social capitals effects on criminality, and has been filtered out and used in the analysis.  This thesis is designed as a case study and to conduct it, a qualitative analysis method has been used. Choosing this method has led to a more deep going analysis of the material. It has made it possible to observe interesting information between the written lines thanks to the thorough reading of all material, which is a part of the qualitative text analysis. The deductions made from the thesis analysis are as follows. The government has considered three of the four central elements of social capital that affects criminality. Which means they have taken social capital into account. The measures proposed for preventing gang criminality are also believed to work since the government addresses the theoretical perspective. This is backed up by both the theoretical perspective and by earlier studies. However, the fourth central element that the government has not addressed in their programme is negative social capital, which is an important element. They have not addressed the fact that negative social capital could lead to all their proposed measures of preventing gang criminality having the opposite effect. The proposed measures could increase the criminality or make it harder integrating the gang members back into “normal” society, thanks to the negative social capital.  Therefore, the government receives criticism at the end of the thesis for not addressing this central element in their programme. It is proposed that the government should rework the 34-point programme to also include a consideration of the negative social capital and to have some form of risk analysis in the programme as well. Just in case the proposed measures do not work, or if they increase gang criminality. At the very end of the thesis, possible subjects for further studying in the future are presented.

Syftet med den här studien har varit att undersöka hur socialarbetare beskriver sitt arbete med barn och ungdomar som befinner sig i gängkriminella miljöer och hur de uppfattar gynnsamma faktorer och hinder i sitt arbete. Kvalitativa intervjuer med sex socialarbetare har gjorts. Handlingsutrymme, people-processing, people-changing, people-sustaining och social brottsprevention har använts i analysen. Resultatet visade att socialarbetarnas arbete med barn och ungdomar i gängkriminella miljöer innefattar arbete som faller innanför och ett som faller utanför uppdraget. Faktorer som ansågs gynnsamma var bland annat några utbildningar, handböcker, stöd från kollegor och chefer samt individuellt förvärvad kunskap. Hinder i arbetet innefattar bland annat ostrukturerade introduktioner, brist på utbildning, bristande insatser och en allmän kunskapsbrist samt bristen på kunskap och lämpliga insatser för målgruppen. De gynnsamma faktorerna kan även vara hinder såtillvida att även om de har kunskap om målgruppen är den inte tillräcklig, särskilt beträffande insatser vilket var studiens främsta fynd. / The aim of this study was to examine how social workers conduct their work with juveniles and young adults in gang-criminal environments based on their perception of favorable factors and obstacles. The applied method was qualitative interviews with six different social workers where the theoretical perspectives were discretion, people-processing, people-changing, people-sustaining and social crime prevention. The results revealed that their work includes both work within their professional duties, such as investigation and work outside of their duties, for instance supporting roles. In addition, the outcome shows favorable aspects that include training courses, manuals, independently gained knowledge and support from colleagues and supervisors. However, the obstacles were unstructured introductions, a lack of training, general lack of knowledge and efforts suitable for the target group. It became apparent that the success factors were also regarded as challenges and that the lack of knowledge, especially interventions, was the primary finding of the study.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka och analysera hur personer i gängkriminella miljöer konstrueras samt positioneras i den nyhetsmediala samhällsdebatten om gängkriminalitet i Sverige genom att studera publicerade debattartiklar från en specifik tidsperiod. Studien utgår från ett kritiskt diskursanalytiskt perspektiv som menar att verkligheten formas och tolkas genom språkliga diskurser, varför valda analysverktyg har ett lingvistiskt fokus där texternas lexikala aspekter undersöks, liksom deras anspråk på gängkriminalitetens orsaker och lösningar. Vidare analyseras debattartiklarnas innehåll genom ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv på de skildringar och identiteter som görs, samt utifrån teorier om stigmatiseringsprocesser och avvikarkarriärer Även själva fördelningen mellan debattörer samt presenterade perspektiv i debatten analyseras i relation till sociala makthierarkier. Uppsatsens resultat visar på att personer i gängkriminella miljöer främst tenderar att reduceras till deras kriminella egenskap i debatten, vilket konstruerar personerna som avvikare och förövare i samhället på sätt som stundtals får avhumaniserande effekter. I vissa fall nämns även personernas unga ålder samt icke-svenska etnicitet, vilket främst motiverar till förslag på ökade disciplinära åtgärder mot unga samt personer som saknar medborgarskap. Vidare präglas en stor del av debatten av ett fokus gentemot polisiära resurser och skärpta straff, vilket verkar osynliggörande för gängkriminalitetens bakomliggande sociala faktorer samt det sociala arbetets betydelse. Detta får även konsekvenser för personernas sörjbarhet samt ansedda rätt till sociala stödinsatser som fokuserar på förändring. I de fall sociala aspekter faktiskt diskuteras i debatten tenderar en sorts osynlig tröskel skapas mellan ”den unga som sörjbar” och ”den kriminella som straffbar” – vilket möjliggör till att vidmakthålla identiteterna "offer" och "förövare" i skildringarna på ett sätt som gör att problemets komplexitet undviks. / The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze how people within gang criminal environments is constructed and positioned in news media’s social debate about gang criminality in Sweden by studying published debate articles from a specific time period. The study is based on a critical discourse analytical perspective on reality as shaped and interpreted by linguistic discourses, why selected analysis tools has a linguistic aim that investigate the texts lexical aspects, as their claims on causes and solutions of gang crime. Furthermore the debate articles are analyzed through a social constructionist perspective on the descriptions and identities that is made, and also by theories about stigmatization processes and deviant careers. The division between debaters and represented perspectives is also analyzed in relation to social hierarchies of power. The result of the study shows that people in gang criminal environments mainly tend to be reduced to their criminal quality, which constructs them as deviants and perpetrators by ways that sometimes have dehumanizing effects. In some cases the persons young age and non-swedish ethnicity is mentioned, which mainly justifies proposals for increased disciplinary actions against youths and people without swedish citizenship. Further, the debate is characterized by a focus towards police resources and increased penalties which tend to overshadow the underlying social factors of gang crime and the importance of social work. This has consequences for their considered worth of sympathy and rights to social support that focuses on change. When social aspects is discussed it tends to create a invisible gap between ”the youth worthy of sympathy” and ”the punishable criminal” – which enable to maintain the identities of “victims” and “perpetrators” in a way that avoids the complexity of the problem.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka konstruktionen av gängkriminalitet och gängkriminella genom att analysera hur diskursen lyder på det svenska diskussionsforumet Flashback. Den metodologiska ansatsen har därmed varit konstruktivistisk. Studiens syfte är att öka förståelsen för detta sociala problem och bidra med insyn till det sociala arbetets praktik. Genom en tematisk analys av det empiriska materialet som har utgjorts av sex diskussionstrådar från Flashback har vi identifierat tre övergripande teman. Dessa har döpts till: Hur konstrueras orsakerna till gängkriminalitet, Hur konstrueras lösningarna till gängkriminalitet och The Spiral of Silence. Resultaten som varit mest framträdande visar att diskussionerna på Flashback kopplar starkt till främlingsfientlighet och invandringsfrågor. Invandringen diskuteras nästan uteslutande när det pratas om gängkriminalitet, och det finns en tydlig koppling mellan gängkriminalitet, gängkriminella och invandrare i diskussionstrådarna. Studien visar även att rasistiska strukturer spelar en betydande roll i konstruktionen av gängkriminalitet och gängkriminella. Resultaten visar också avhumanisering genom bland annat kränkande språk och föreställningar om “den andre”. Med den sammantagna empirin som grund vill vi i diskussionskapitlet betona att försiktighet bör iakttas när man talar om gängkriminalitet och att det inte kan reduceras till en specifik etnicitet eller ras, utan beror på individuella, sociala och ekonomiska faktorer. Vi diskuterar även vikten av att som blivande socionomer vara medvetna om de maktförhållanden som råder för att inte riskera att vidmakthålla och återskapa förtryck och ojämlikhet. Därtill är det ytterst viktigt att vi som socionomer är vaksamma för att inte förbise underliggande faktorer till gängkriminalitet, något som bättre kan åstadkommas genom ökad kunskap och medvetenhet. / The purpose of this essay is to examine the construction of gang crime and gang criminals by analyzing the discourse on the Swedish discussion forum Flashback. The methodological approach has thus been constructivist. The aim of the study is to increase the understanding of this social problem and contribute with transparency to the practice of social work. Through a thematic analysis of the empirical material consisting of six discussion threads from Flashback, we have identified three overarching themes. These have been named: How to Construct the Causes of Gang Crime, How to Construct the Solutions to Gang Crime and The Spiral of Silence. The results that have been the most prominent show that the discussions on Flashback strongly connect to xenophobia and immigration issues. Immigration is discussed almost exclusively when talking about gang crime, and there is a clear connection between gang crime, gang criminals and immigrants in the discussion threads. The study also shows that racist structures play a significant role in the construction of gang crime and gang criminals. The results also showdehumanization through, among other things, offensive language and ideas about “the other”. With the collected empirical evidence as a basis, we want to emphasize in the discussion chapter that caution should be exercised when talking about gang crime and that it cannot be reduced to a specific ethnicity or race, but depends on individual, social and economic factors. We also discuss the importance for future social workers to be aware of the power relations that prevail in order not to risk perpetuating and recreating oppression and inequality. In addition, it is extremely important that we as social workers are vigilant not to overlook underlying factors to gang crime, something that can be better achieved through increased knowledge and awareness.