"SiS is not a good place for children" is a qualitative study aimed at investigating institutional care and the treatment work that takes place with criminal and convicted youth in Sweden. The study is focused on investigating the importance of the treatment work at the institutions and what impact it has for the target group. The study also examines how the target group is being prepared to return to society with the aim of minimizing recidivism in crime. The empirical material is based on three semi-structured interviews with previously institutionalized youth and three support workers. The study is based on Goffman's research on total institutions and Travis Hirschi's theory on social bonds. The study's general results and conclusions show that there is a rough jargon, destructive adaptation behaviors and a specific social culture at the institution, that can make treatment difficult. Strong external factors in the youth’s environment may be a reason why the youth has developed a social disruptive behavior and these factors are not taken into account in the treatment, which indicates the difficulties in dealing with the complex problem of juvenile delinquency. / “SiS är inte en bra plats för barn att vara på”, är en kvalitativ studie som har i syfte att undersöka SiS behandlingsarbete med LVU-placerade och LSU-dömda ungdomar. Studien fokuserar på att undersöka betydelsen av behandlingsarbetet på institutionen och vilken förändring arbetet har för målgruppen. I studien undersöks även hur målgruppen förbereds för en återgång till samhället, med syfte att minimera återfall i brott. Det empiriska materialet bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre tidigare placerade ungdomar och tre behandlingsassistenter. Studien utgår från Goffmans forskning om totala institutioner, samt Travis Hirschis teori om sociala band. Studiens generella resultat och slutsatser visar på att det existerar en hård jargong, destruktiva anpassningsbeteenden och en egen social kultur på institutionen som i sig försvårar behandlingsarbetet. De starka yttre faktorerna i ungdomens miljö, som kan vara orsak till att ungdomen utvecklat ett socialt nedbrytande beteende, visar sig inte beaktas i behandlingsarbetet, vilket indikerar på svårigheterna att hantera den komplexa problematiken kring ungdomsbrottslighet.

Socialtjänsten har ett stort ansvar när det kommer till barn och unga och ska verka för att de växer upp under goda och trygga förhållande. Att arbeta med barn och unga inom ramen för socialarbete beskrivs som utmanande och många socialarbetare som arbetar med denna målgrupp tenderar att drabbas av sekundär traumatisering och utbrändhet. Hur socialarbetare hanterar och upplever olika känslor som uppstår i deras professionella möte med barn och unga är dock ett område som är relativt outforskat trots att det är något som kan få betydelse för alla involverade. Syftet med denna studie har varit att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut och påverkas i mötet med barn och unga som begått allvarligare brott, för att belysa och tydliggöra socialarbetarnas behov. I denna studie har intervjuer genomförts med sex socionomer som på olika sätt arbetar inom ramen för socialtjänsten i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att socialarbetare aktivt använder sig av känsloarbete för att upprätthålla professionalism och försöka göra skillnad. Samtidigt upplever de svårigheter att förankra teoretisk kunskap i det praktiska arbetet. Studien indikerar att det kan vara värdefullt att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut för att bidra med kunskap relevant för professionell utveckling och det relationskapande arbetet. / Social services have a great responsibility when it comes to children and young people work to ensure that they grow up in good and safe conditions. Working with children and young people within the framework of social work is described as challenging and many social workers who work with this group tend to suffer from secondary traumatization and burnout. However, how social workers handle and experience different emotions that arise in their professional encounter with children and young people is an area that is relatively unexplored, even though it is something that can be important for everyone involved. The purpose of this thesis has been to understand how social workers emotional labour looks like and is affected in the meeting with children and young people who have committed serious crimes, to highlight and clarify the social workers needs. In this study, interviews have been conducted with six social workers who work within social services in Sweden. The results indicate that social workers actively use emotional labour to maintain professionalism and to try to create change. At the same time, the social workers experience difficulties in anchoring the theoretical knowledge in the practical work. The study indicates that it is valuable to understand social workers emotional labour to contribute knowledge relevant to professional development and the relationship-building work.

Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att få mer kunskap kring varför kriminalitet har blivit ett alternativ för unga pojkar i vårt samhälle. Vi har valt att använda oss av självbiografier och teorierna strain och anomi för att förstå vilka sociala riskfaktorer som kan leda till ett kriminellt beteende. Genom att få en förståelse för riskfaktorer som inkluderar familj, vänner och miljö kan vi också nå en ökad förståelse varför kriminalitet blir ett alternativ. Det vi funnit är att det inte är enskilda riskfaktorer som bidrar till att unga pojkar väljer kriminalitet som ett alternativ. Det är först när flera riskfaktorer i kombination med varandra som unga människor når en ökad risk att bli involverade i ungdomskriminalitet och kriminellt beteende. De riskfaktorer som självbiografierna hade gemensamt var att samtliga växte upp i socioekonomiskt utsatta bostadsområden, med ensamstående mammor, låg inkomst och svaga skolresultat. Vad gäller riskfaktorerna så fann vi även att många av dessa pojkar hade vänt sig till droganvändning eller försäljning av droger som ett led in i kriminalitet. Vissa unga människor som utsätts för samma riskfaktorer kan likt huvudkaraktärerna i självbiografierna vända sig till kriminalitet. Det gäller dock inte alla eftersom de flesta människor som utsätts för liknande riskfaktorer inte vänder sig till kriminalitet som ett alternativ. Trots att vi inte fokuserade på individuella faktorer såsom karaktärsdrag fick vi en förståelse för att impulsivitet, risktagande och låg självkänsla kunde agera som riskfaktorer för att yngre pojkar rättfärdigar kriminella beteenden. Vår slutsats är att man behöver arbeta med riskfaktorerna för att ha en chans att förebygga att unga pojkar blir involverade i kriminella aktivitet och kriminellt beteende. / The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about why crime has become an option for young boys in our society. We have chosen to use autobiographies and the theories of strain and anomi to understand which social risk factors can lead to a criminal behavior. By understanding these risk factors that include family, friends, and environment, we also gain an increased understanding of why crime becomes an alternative. What we found is that it is not individual risk factors that contribute to young boys choosing crime as an alternative. It is only when several risk factors are combined with each other that there is an increased risk for young people to be involved in juvenile delinquency or criminal behavior. The risk factors that the autobiographies had in common was that they grew up in a socio-economically vulnerable residential area, with single mothers, low income and with poor school results. As for the risk factors, we also found that many of these boys had turned to drug use or selling drugs as a way into crime. Some young people who are exposed to the same risk factors can, like the main characters in the autobiographies, turn to crime. However, this is not the case for everyone as most people exposed to similar risk factors do not turn to crime as an alternative. Although we did not focus on individual factors such as character traits, we gained an understanding that impulsivity, risk-taking and low self-esteem could act as risk factors for younger boys justifying criminal behavior. Our conclusion is that you need to work with the risk factors to have a chance of preventing young boys from becoming involved in criminal activity and criminal behavior.

This thesis employs a broad evaluative framework to examine the impact of the Youth Justice Service (YJS) on the post-intervention offending behaviour of young people on community-based court orders. The YJS is a Queensland government policy initiative that aims to monitor compliance with community-based court orders, and identify and address causes of criminal behaviour. The evaluative framework views policy, implementation and impact as distinct but related dimensions of intervention. Reflecting this framework, three primary research questions are addressed: (1) Does the YJS concept represent a goal-directed, theoretically-informed, executable and assessable juvenile crime prevention policy?, (2) Is the YJS concept realised through service delivery?, and (3) What is the effect of the YJS on future offending behaviour? Three studies, employing qualitative and quantitative methods, examined these questions. Study one examined the YJS concept, drawing on some key themes from literature on policy development and implementation, developmental and life-course criminology and developmental crime prevention. This study synthesised key policy and procedure documents around six themes, including (1) rationale, (2) goals, (3) theory, (4) service delivery model, (5) method of operation, and (6) key performance indicators. Findings indicated that the YJS concept represents only marginal adjustments from the traditional Area Office (AO) model of service delivery, and integrates few new preventative mechanisms that would foreseeably lead to change at the operational level. Moreover, it suffers from goal ambiguity, fails to incorporate some key components of best-practice crime prevention that have proven successful when working with at-risk young people, lacks sufficient process-level specificity to ensure treatment fidelity, and places heightened importance on measuring impacts that have political value rather than benefits for the clients. In the second study, an in-depth case study of the Logan Area Youth Justice Service (LAYJS) was conducted to explore how the YJS operated in reality, and as compared with the policy directive. Information was drawn from a variety of sources including interviews with staff and clients, policy and procedure documents, direct observation, case management files and staff-researcher interaction. Evidence suggested that the LAYJS was focused primarily on ensuring compliance with court orders. Several organisational factors, such as staff workloads, the statutory basis for monitoring compliance, and the capacities of staff, have meant that comparatively little attention has been directed at addressing offending behaviour. For the most part, the LAYJS employs an individualised case management process, as distinct from the collaborative, team-based model that is prescribed in the YJS concept. Caseworkers have little faith in their ability to bring about positive behavioural change in their clients, and subsequently transferred the responsibility for intervention outcomes to the client. While acknowledging the importance of families in preventing offending, caseworkers emphasised that a number of organisational tensions have prevented them from engaging families in the case management process. The final study examined the impact of the YJS on post-intervention offending, controlling for developmental risk factors and key features of the intervention process. A random sample (N=190) of clients from three YJS offices and three AOs was drawn from the population of clients who had active community-based court orders between June 1999 and December 2002. Information from Department of Communities' case management files and rearrest data from the Queensland Police Service were entered into a purpose-designed database, and analysed using bivariate and multivariate methods including logistic regression and survival analysis. High proportions of missing data on non-statutory variables suggested poor record management practices, or alternatively that operational staff do not understand the role of developmental risk and/or protective factors and social contexts in preventing offending behaviour. Results indicated that the YJS was no better than the AO at preventing recidivism, as measured at 18-months post-intervention, even after controlling for risk factors that were significantly related to recidivism. The analyses found that some unmeasured variation in service delivery, even within service types, did impact upon recidivism, supporting the hypotheses of the first study and the contention that variation in intervention practice can influence offending behaviour. The likelihood of recidivism was increased if the client was using drugs or was influenced by delinquent peers, and decreased if he stayed in school until years 11 or 12, or where caseworkers addressed familial problems. This provides some sense of programs that may be appropriate for young offenders in the context of a community-based program. It also highlights the critical importance of incorporating families into case management, not only for the purpose of providing information, but also as viable targets of intervention. Survival analyses indicated that the YJS might have had some temporary deterrent effect, although this effect had dissipated by 18-months post-intervention. This result may reflect the increased focus on ensuring compliance with court orders as found in the LAYJS case study. However, given the hypothesis that the lack of process direction will result in variable practices across offices, it cannot be assumed that all YJSs place equal importance on compliance. Overall, findings suggest that the promise that the YJS would provide an innovative model of service delivery and generate improved outcomes for young offenders has not been realised. This research has added further weight to the perspective that examines both the individual and combined impact of theory, policy and implementation for measuring client outcomes. Deficits in any of these components ultimately have a ripple effect, making it difficult to achieve the predetermined goals of the policy at the operational level.

Information about what it is that prevents young men from vulnerable areas from getting into a criminal way of life shines with their absence. This becomes a problem as these individuals’ risk being stigmatized and stamped. The main purpose of this essay is to find out why young adult men from the Järva area do not end up in a criminal way of life. By highlighting causes that exist, we have also chosen a sub-purpose, as we want to find out what the place Järva has meant to the young and adult men's lifes and upbringing. To achieve the study's purpose and answer to the questions, we have used a qualitative study where we interviewed five young adult men aged 22-26 and a youth leader with 10 years of experience working with youth in Järva. In the result, the young-adult men highlight how factors such as family, area, friends and long-term sustainability have had an impact on not committing criminal acts. This study aims to prove the opposite, when it comes to the negative stigma that occurs with coming from Järva. The study reveals a clear answer as to why young adults from Järva were prevented from getting into a criminal lifestyle and how the place Järva influenced their choices in life. / Information kring vad det är som gör att unga män från utsatta områden inte hamnar in i en kriminell livsstil lyser med sin frånvaro. Detta blir ett problem då dessa individer riskerar att stigmatiseras och stämplas. Huvudsyftet med denna uppsats är ta reda på vad som gör att ungavuxna män från Järvaområdet inte hamnar i en kriminell livsstil. Genom att lyfta fram orsaker som existerar har vi även valt ett delsyfte, då vi vill ta reda på vad platsen Järva har haft för betydelse för de unga-vuxna männens liv och uppväxt. För att uppnå studiens syfte och svar på frågeställningarna har vi använt oss av en kvalitativ studie där vi intervjuade fem unga-vuxna män i åldrarna mellan 22–26 år och en ungdomsledare med 10 års erfarenhet av arbete med ungdomar i Järva. I resultatet belyser de unga-vuxna männen hur faktorer som familj, område, vänner och långsiktig hållbarhet har haft en påverkan till att inte utföra kriminella handlingar. Den negativa stigmatiseringen som uppstår med att komma från Järva, hoppas vi med denna studie bevisa motsatsen. I studien framkommer det tydliga svar om vad som gör att unga-vuxna män från Järva hindrats hamna i en kriminell livsstil samt hur platsen Järva påverkat deras val i livet.

Juveniles serving adult sentences are separated from their families for extensive amounts of time. During incarceration, youths attempt to maintain close relationships with family members, but are faced with challenges. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore adult incarceration of youthful offenders and its effect on family relationships using Bowen's family systems theory as the theoretical foundation. Three Maryland families who have first-hand experience with the phenomenon were selected to share their stories. Through this study, to the family unit was given voice to assist understanding the experience from multiple perspectives. Interviews were conducted with each family member separately using semistructured protocols, triangulated, coded using open coding strategies, and summarized as case descriptions. Study results led to understanding that families experience different individual and collective adverse effects in relation to the experience. Families shared factors which contributed to breakdowns and resiliency of relationships between family members during and after the experience of incarceration of a youthful offender. Findings of this study support positive social change in human services and public policy. Outcomes of this inquiry support the efforts of advocates in promoting awareness and activism to encourage legislation and funding to serve the needs of this unique population. Findings inform policymakers of the need to promote policies and practices in correctional institutions that address concerns about unsafe and nontherapeutic prison environments, and the need to champion policies and practices that support families in maintaining healthy relationships with incarcerated individuals during and after long periods of incarceration.

<p>This dissertation consists of three chapters on economic topics related to crime and early childhood. In the first chapter, I explore the effect of a criminal justice policy on crime. The second chapter examines the relationship between gender nonconformity in childhood and life outcomes. In the third chapter, I study the relationship between access to local mental health care for children and juvenile crime.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>In my first chapter, I study the causal impact of post-release supervision on recidivism and new crime. Prior to 2011, inmates who committed lower-level offenses in North Carolina were not subject to post-release supervision. The North Carolina \textit{Justice Reinvestment Act} changed policy to require nine months of post-release supervision. Leveraging a discrete policy effective date in a regression discontinuity in time model and using administrative data from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, I explore the effects of this legislative change on criminal outcomes. Evidence indicates that post-release supervision decreases property and violent crimes, but these changes do not persist beyond the supervision period. Results suggest that supervision leads to more individuals returning to prison at a faster rate due to technical, not criminal, violations; however, requiring lower-level offenders to undergo post-release supervision is a cost-effective program.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>The second chapter of this dissertation is coauthored with Torsten Santavirta and Miguel Sarzosa. We study the role of childhood gender conformity in determining gender gaps. We present a conceptual framework that uses gender norms to explain why some women make less profitable choices than comparable men. Using unique longitudinal survey and register data, we show that gender-nonconforming girls have substantially better education and labor market outcomes than gender-conforming girls. In contrast, gender-nonconforming boys perform substantially worse at school, sort into lower-paying occupations, earn less, and have a greater incidence of mental health disorders and substance abuse during adulthood than gender-conforming boys. Our analyses suggest that such divergence develops from an early age. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In my last chapter, I explore the relationship between mental health care for children and juvenile crime. Using data with information on facilities that specifically treat children, I exploit the county-level variation in the number of mental health treatment facilities for minors in a two-way fixed-effects model to explore the relationship between access to mental health care in a given year and juvenile crime the following year. I find that outpatient and inpatient mental health facilities for children have heterogeneous effects on juvenile crime.</p>

The abolition of corporal punishment in S v Williams and Others 1995 (3) SA 632 (CC) provided the state with the impetus to consider alternative sentencing options. Unsystematic efforts by the government to reform the juvenile justice system have failed abysmally. The government was forced to review its policies on juvenile sentencing. An examination of international trends reveals the imposition of stricter measures of punishment for serious and violent juvenile offenders. Community-based sentencing options are used mainly for first-time offenders. The focus has also shifted from punishment and retribution to prevention and treatment. It is advocated that serious and violent juvenile offenders be incarcerated in secure-care facilities and/or juvenile prisons and that community-based sentencing options be utilised for first-time offenders. The government should also design programmes that deal with situations that lead to crime and delinquency / Criminal & Procedural Law / LL.M. (Law)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:30:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gabriela Gramkow.pdf: 4675678 bytes, checksum: 85a1f0d55aa3c1a1cea150cf8064f930 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-01 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This study clarifies and reorganizes the story of the Experimental Health Unit at São Paulo (UES), a public facility that assists offending young people diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). All the process with reference to the UES between 2002 and 2011 was investigated, since the project to its institutionalization. More specifically, we analyzed the relation among psycho and legal forces that undertake battles in a field of struggle. For this purpose, we use documentary research, mainly the legal processes of the young admitted to the UES and administrative process, constituted by the judiciary. This administrative process monitors and encourages the creation of some treatment for young infractors with mental health demands, arising in the configuration of this experimental unit. The analysis, guided by Foucault and Castel´s works, sought to identify the possibility of producing ASPD and UES. Psycho and justice utterances were systematized by a strategy for compulsory admission a CONTINUUM ADMISSION supported by the argument of dangerousness and social defense. The psycho-legal tactics of the protective measure of psycho treatment under restraint and civil interdiction combined with compulsory psychiatric hospitalization controls the admission circuit on behalf of social protection and guaranteeing the right to health. In questioning the materialization of the UES with the detention of offending young and trial psi-law continuum, we put focus in the analysis of the psycho-legal tactics for the regulation of juvenile crime by the biopolitics and its social control strategies through the pathological path. In this analysis, we understand the control that UES operates, showing two lines of argument: the line of social danger and the line of investiment in treatment. The network of knowledge-power in the political management of juvenile crime in Brazil is updated, set up a legal-political paradigm as a solution to an apparent new demand. From the assessment of human profiles, the control strategy of the deviant operates a risk management policy of the not teachable as the prevention of recurrence of the dangerous individual. In risk management, crime is a risk not eradicable. The UES highlights power relations that dialogue with the design field as a political model, forged in the logic of exception. Understanding the ASPD as incurable and untreatable , the management of juvenile crime isolates the perilous individual through modern and efficient technologies by the argument of the social order. The way UES deals with the ASPD is linked to the model of exile for purification of the socius. UES simulates an unlikely treatment process that lasts for four years and six young individuals continue to suffer ineffective trials / O presente trabalho explicita e reorganiza as tramas que compõem a história da Unidade Experimental de Saúde do Estado de São Paulo (UES), equipamento público destinado a jovens autores de atos infracionais diagnosticados com Transtorno de personalidade anti-social (TPAS). Acompanhamos desvios, inflexões de rumos e estabilizações que foram se produzindo no período de 2002 a 2011 em torno do caso UES, de sua fase de Projeto à institucionalização. Rastreamos mais especificamente as relações psijurídicas que empreendem jogos de forças em um campo de luta, forjando posições e contraposições. Para tanto, nos valemos de pesquisa documental, principalmente, de processos jurídicos de jovens internados na UES e de processo administrativo constituído pelo poder judiciário. Esse processo administrativo monitora e incita a criação de respostas de tratamento aos jovens autores de ato infracional com demandas em saúde mental e que derivam na constituição dessa unidade experimental. A análise, orientada pelas obras de Foucault e Castel, buscou identificar as condições de possibilidade de produção do TPAS e da UES. Foram sistematizadas as enunciações produzidas pelos atores psi e os atores da justiça na configuração de uma estratégia de internamento compulsório um CONTINUUM INTERNAMENTO - sustentado no argumento da periculosidade e da defesa social. As táticas psi-jurídicas da medida protetiva de tratamento psi em regime de contenção e da interdição civil cumulada com internação psiquiátrica compulsória regulam o circuito do internamento em nome da proteção social e da garantia do direito à saúde. Na problematização da emergência da UES com a prática do internamento de jovens autores de ato infracional e a experimentação do continuum psi-jurídico, colocamos em análise a articulação da tática psi-jurídica para a regulação da criminalidade juvenil pela biopolítica da população e suas estratégias de controle social pela via da patologização. Nessa análise, depreende-se uma lógica de controle a operar a fórmula UES. Duas linhas de argumentos se agenciam e se retroalimentam: a linha do perigo social e a linha do investimento no tratamento. A rede de relações de saber-poder na política de gestão da criminalidade juvenil brasileira se atualiza; configura-se um paradigma jurídico-político como solução para uma aparente nova demanda. A partir do exame de perfis humanos, a estratégia de controle dos desviantes opera uma gestão dos riscos dos ineducáveis como política de prevenção da reincidência do indivíduo perigoso. Na gestão dos riscos, a criminalidade é um risco não erradicável. O acontecimento UES põe em evidência relações de poder que dialogam com a concepção de campo como modelo político, forjado numa lógica de exceção. Entendendo o TPAS como incurável e intratável , a gestão da criminalidade juvenil isola o indivíduo periculoso por meio de tecnologias modernas e eficientes pelo argumento da ordem social. A FÓRMULA UES de conter o TPAS está vinculado ao modelo de exílio para purificação do socius. A UES simula processo de tratamento improvável que perdura por quatro anos; e seis jovens continuam sofrendo experimentações malogradas

The abolition of corporal punishment in S v Williams and Others 1995 (3) SA 632 (CC) provided the state with the impetus to consider alternative sentencing options. Unsystematic efforts by the government to reform the juvenile justice system have failed abysmally. The government was forced to review its policies on juvenile sentencing. An examination of international trends reveals the imposition of stricter measures of punishment for serious and violent juvenile offenders. Community-based sentencing options are used mainly for first-time offenders. The focus has also shifted from punishment and retribution to prevention and treatment. It is advocated that serious and violent juvenile offenders be incarcerated in secure-care facilities and/or juvenile prisons and that community-based sentencing options be utilised for first-time offenders. The government should also design programmes that deal with situations that lead to crime and delinquency / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.M. (Law)