The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how school and social service in the city of Malmö cooperate regarding children at risk and what they do in order to meet their needs. We also aim to explore the view and knowledge of the personnel and their experience of the guardians’ impact during collaboration. The empirical data was collected by personal interviews with personnel from the school and social service. The results have been analysed from a theory of organizational culture and symbolic interaction.The study shows that the organizations have various forms of cooperation, whereof the majority occur in individual cases, and that preventative work is not a priority due to reorganisations and changes in society. One of the central aspects regarding collaboration is intervention in an early stage to meet the childrens needs. We question if this could be done if preventative work would be a low priority. Both parties experiencing frustration from the personnel of the other organization, which mainly occurs from lack of trust and knowledge about the working situation of the other. The personnel from school and social service consider themselves to have an understanding for the personnel of the other organization. However, this is not a comprehension, which the personnel are experiencing from the personnel of the other organization. The view of the personnel between school and social service differs, which could be explained by “language differences” seen from a perspective of symbolic interaction. The differences might decrease and result in a better understanding between the parties if preventative work were to be prioritized for creating networks and strengthen their relations. The results also show that the guardians have a significant impact concerning the organizations to be able to cooperate in individual cases. This is because the confidentiality needs to be removed in order to enable cooperation between the parties. One conclusion based on the results is that visions and guidelines are not conformed in what is possible to integrate in the daily practical work of the personnel. Furthermore, several political decisions have to be made in order to give the personnel in school and social service adequate conditions for cooperation.

The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of social workers in the prevention of juvenile crime. The theoretical framework guiding the study consisted of resilience, risk and prevention factors as well as preventions levels of preventive social work. These concepts were applied to analyze the empirical data. Qualitative group interviews were conducted with social workers from three different counties. Results showed that preventative social work is both complex and challenging. Futhermore it requires collaborations between various actors from different sectors of society. Identifying children at risk as well as the establishment of early contact by social services is imperative for the interventions to work effectively. The allocation of social service resources as well as earlier onset of criminality among minors prove to be future challenges in the field. Social workers preventative work was done primarily on an “indicated and selected level”. Risk and prevention factors identified in the study were found primarily in the local community, within the family as well as the interrelationship among peer groups. / Studien syftade till att undersöka fältassistenters erfarenheter av att arbeta förebyggande med barn och unga upp till 18 år som riskerar att hamna i kriminalitet. Studiens teoretiska ram bestod av resiliens, risk- och skyddsfaktorer samt de olika preventionsnivåer för socialt förebyggande arbete, dessa begrepp tillämpades för att analysera det empiriska materialet. Tre kvalitativa gruppintervjuer genomfördes med fältassistenter från tre olika kommuner. Resultatet visade att det förebyggande arbetet är komplext och utmanande, bedrivs i nära samverkan med aktörer från olika delar av samhället. Identifiering av barn och unga som riskerar att hamna i kriminalitet likväl som etablering av kontakt i ett tidigt skede framkom som en förutsättning för att insatserna ska fungera förebyggande. Politiska beslut gällande resursfördelning för fältverksamhet och att allt yngre barn debuterar i kriminalitet är framtida utmaningar.Respondenterna beskrev att deras förebyggande arbete framförallt sker på indikerad och selektiv nivå. Dem risk- och skyddsfaktorer de identifierar i sitt arbete visade sig framförallt ligga på närsamhället, inom familjen och kamratgrupper.