Övergripande diskuterar avhandlingen olika aspekter av att samhällets system av stöd och kontroll för barn och unga knyts närmare samman. Det handlar om hur samverkan framställs och uppfattas på olika nivåer och hur den konkretiseras i polisens och socialtjänstens arbete kring unga som utvecklat eller bedöms riskera att utveckla kriminalitet och/eller missbruk. Studieobjektet inbegriper övergripande ideologisknivå, lokal/praktisknivå och individuell nivå. Syftet med avhandlingen är att identifiera, beskriva och analysera polisens och socialtjänstens samverkan kring barn och ungas kriminalitet och missbruk. Utgångspunkten är hur; samverkan mellan myndigheterna framställs i offentliga dokument, hur lokala aktörer uppfattar behovet av men också möjligheter, svårigheter och hinder kring samverkan, hur myndigheterna lokalt är organiserade för att aktualisera, handlägga, behandla och avsluta barn och unga, och slutligen vilka barn och unga som denna samverkan kan omfatta. Avsikten är att få en bild av vad denna samverkan på policynivå innebär och sätta detta i relation till hur polis och socialtjänst förstår och skapar sina respektive och gemensamma uppdrag i förhållande till varandra lokalt.  I avhandlingen används tre olika empiriska material och olika metoder för analys: Analys av statliga offentliga dokument, kvalitativa intervjuer med poliser, socialarbetare och deras chefer i en kommun och en kvantitativ kartläggning av aktuella ungdomar i kommunen. Handlingsnät som teoretisk grund används för att studera kopplingar mellan de båda myndigheterna och de tre olika nivåerna av studien.  Genom att använda handlingsnät blir det möjligt att se hur polisens och socialtjänstens olika uppdrag kopplas samman kring barn och ungas kriminalitet och missbruk. Resultaten av studien visar att det pågår en ettablering av ett socio-polisiärt handlingsnät på den övergripande ideologiska nivån och den lokala kommunala nivån.  I policydokumenten förspråkas ett kontrollerande förhållningsätt gentemot ungas kriminalitet. På den lokala nivån handlade det om ett kontrollstödjande förhållningsätt för att motverka både ungas kriminalitet och missbruk.  Resultaten av studien visar att socialtjänsten fått ta ett större ansvar för att utreda och verkställa påföljder för ungas kriminella handlingar, samtidigt som det inom socialtjänsten riskerar att utvecklas en logik mera baserad på straffvärdet av den brottsliga handlingen än den unges individuella behov av hjälp och stöd.    Studien visar att i polisens och sociatjänstens arbete med enskilda barn och unga finns få möjligheter till samarbete. Dessutom var det få unga personer som samtidigt var aktuella för både polis och socialtjänst, vilket gör det svårt att uppnå något djupare längre samarbete kring enskilda ungdomar under längre tid. Det kan i bästa fall mera handla om en form av remissförfarande från polis till socialtjänst. / This thesis discusses different aspects of the link between social support and control systems for children and young people. By analysing the ideas and practice, it opens up a critical perspective in understanding collaboration between police and the social services. This study seeks knowledge about how collaborative forms are officially presented and perceived at different levels and how they are realised in the police’s and social services’ work with young people who have developed or at risk of developing criminal behaviour and/or substance abuse. The object of the study embraces the overarching ideological, local/practical and individual levels. The purpose is to identify, describe and analyse police and social service collaboration with regard to crime and substance abuse among children and young people. It addresses the following questions: How are collaborative concepts formulated in public documents in relation to the causes and problems that the collaboration is expected to resolve? What are local actors’ perceptions of collaboration? How do the police authorities and social service departments at the local level organise their activities to prevent young people’s criminality and substance abuse? How many children and young people are estimated to be involved in either the police authority, the social services department, or both? The study’s starting points are: how inter-agency collaboration is portrayed in public documents; how local actors perceive the need for – but also the possibilities, difficulties and obstacles associated with – collaboration; how the agencies are organised locally for observing, administrating, and treating children and young people and deciding when the young person requires no further attention; and finally which children and young people are subject to this collaborative work. The thesis consists of three studies using different empirical material and different methods of analysis: policy analysis of public documents, qualitative interviews with social workers, police officers and their managers in a municipality and a quantitative mapping exercise.  Actor-network theory is used to understand how actions are connected between organizations and between the three levels of the study. Using the concept actor-network it is possible to show how police and social service commitments are linked. The results of the thesis show that there was an establishment of a socio-police actor-network both at an ideological and a local level. The main idea, expressed in the official documents was that there should be a controlling attitude towards youth crime. At a local level the main ideas among those interviewed was that they had both a controlling and supportive attitude to youths, with both crime and abuse problems. It is possible that the social services logic has changed from values based on individual needs to values based on punishment. The study also showed that in practice there were just a small number of young people who were current for both the police and social services at the same time.

<p>The main aim of this study was to explore lived experiences of unaccompanied foreign minors in South Africa from a social work perspective. An important goal was to also explore the lack of guidelines on how to assist these young people. This study was conducted in a Children&rsquo / s Shelter, which is situated in the North-Eastern outskirts of Polokwane, where a group of unaccompanied refugee children from Zimbabwe were living. This study was qualitative and explorative in nature. Non-probability sampling was used to select participants for the study. Ten children were selected, ranging from age 14 to 18 years. Semi-structured interviews with the children and a focus group discussion with five care workers were held. Thematic analysis was used. The findings of this study revealed that services by government social workers are limited compared to those from social workers employed with nongovernmental organisations. It is hoped that this study will assist government and other role players in planning, advocacy and policy development related to the issues affecting unaccompanied refugee children.</p>

This dissertation is a case study of how two agencies in Umeå, Sweden and Barrie, Canada protect children found in need of child welfare services. The project's purposes are to describe how children are protected from harm in these two contexts, to illuminate the similarities and differences in the child welfare systems reflected at the local level, and explicate the significance of uncovered similarities and differences. The research project is grounded in three complementary theoretical approaches: i) social constructionism, ii) critical program evaluation theory, and iii) institutional ethnography. Using a model I developed to guide cross-national comaprisons, the research project explores three dimensions in the organization and delivery of services: i)Structure (service contexts and features), ii) Intervention (intervention process, and documentation and gatekeeping as two central aspects of intervention), and iii) the interplay between structure and intervention. The project combines methods including focus groups, qualitative application of the vignette technique, and analyses of assessment summaries extracted from case files at each agency. Finding from this investgation are reported in four papers. We identified differences in gatekeeping, use of social work skills, identification of clients, decision-making, and use of compulsory measures and the availability of other measures for clients. The documentation study showed that in Canada documentation is increasingly structured whereas in Sweden documentation is systematically varied but with narrative forms dominating. The different documentation trajectories in these nations are coupled to the paths they have taken with regard to the care and protection of children. We then focus on the "best interests of the child" principle. In Canada, the best interests principle is paramount but intimately connected to "need of protection" and risk assessment. In Sweden, the best interests principle is contibutory to the Social Service Act's emphasis on a solidaristic response to need. When data from this study are taken in context with other research in the field, it appears to give meaning to description of two models of state service for children in need because of abuse or neglect. Umeå is representative of some of the key elements in Swedish child welfare whereas Barrie is representative of some of the key elements in Canadian child protection.

The purpose of this degree project is to obtain a greater understanding of how the support for abused immigrant women is designed and if these measures respond to the women’s own wishes and needs. I also want to investigate the possible advantages and disadvantages, there are under the social ser­vi­ces and voluntary organizations (NGOs) and women themselves when it comes to spe­cific sup­port measures for immigrant women. On which basis have these support measures been designed and what experience or research starting points are based on? To what extent do they answer to women’s needs according to the staff, and to the women's own view? The study is based on qualitative data consisting of five interviews and one case report of an abused woman. The participants I interviewed were three social workers from two different de­partments in Kristianstad administrations, one coordinator from the women’s support centre in Kristianstad and one pre-school teacher from the Family house Näsby in Kristianstad and one abused woman. To contextualize the information gathered, the normalization process by Eva Lundgren and stigma theory by Goffman have been used. The empirical material from my five semi-structured interviews and the case report has been analyzed on the basis of the normalization process and stigma theory, as well as literature and expert knowledge on abused immigrant women. Through this study I have come to the conclusion that the support measures to an abused immigrant women was based on her own needs. I have also noticed in my results that the professionals have different work procedures and different ways to refute abused immigrant women depending on their knowledge of other countries’ culture.

The papers purpose is to examine how the Botkyrka and Huddinge municipalities implement their juvenile law offenders' programs. The paper briefly and concisely outlines the history of juvenile offenders and the social services programs dealing with them. We focus on how two municipalities’, Huddinge and Botkyrka, implement these programs. The municipalities belong to the same judicial district,”Södertörns tingsrätt”. The paper has a qualitative approach with interviews with those responsible for the programs. Recent year’s criticism has been directed towards the lack of control and structure of the application of the program within the municipalities. This paper's conclusion is that implementations of the program vary a great deal between Huddinge and Botkyrka. However, it also shows that Huddinge and Botkyrka are making an effort to remove these differences between their respective programs. On the basis of the analysis of the material, this paper concludes that the programs can be seen as a creation of a mesosystem that include the young and partly its microsystem. Participation in the program will hopefully have a positive influence on the other systems that the young offenders are a part of. The control of that the young is managing its punishment is done by supervision. Trough this supervision the behavioural pattern of the young is influenced. The power and force to change the young offenders, and give them possibilities to change, to deploy and evolve lie within in the use of words and conversation.

The purpose of this essay is to examine trust, or lack of trust, in the social services. Previous research considering this topic is limited, which, in our point of view, implies the need of further studies. A quantative method was used, consisting of an online questionnaire containing statements about the social services. The statements were designed using a five level Likert-scale which required the respondent to rate their level of agreement. The questionnaire was published on five webcommunities directed to parents. We found, as previous research has shown, that the majority of the public, who lack personal experience of the social services, find it difficult to respond to statements about institutions such as the social services. Our results also indicates that the social services fail to gain the trust of a majority of the respondents and more then half of the respondents are of the opinion that the social services is in absence of the knowledge that they need to carry out their work. Despite these results half of the respondents would initiate a contact with the social services if they felt the need to do so.

This essay deals with the social services cooperation with the private sector relating to foster care. The aim was to examine whether and what the causes may be that the social service transfer tasks of authority to private actors. Furthermore, we have examined and discussed if such a working procedure can lead to consequences for the individual child and how / if the children's legal security is affected. Survey methodology is qualitative in nature where we conducted semi-structured interviews with three persons who work in different ways to be involved in work with a foster family. We have also made use of questionnaires sent to social workers around the country. The result has been interpreted on the basis inter alia, legal texts, legislative history, and two theories which have their origin in organization theory. Our results show that some municipalities do not feel that they have the resources to investigate the family. Furthermore, it appears that the cooperation of the social services have with the private sectors has declined, perhaps because of clearer legislation of 2008, or because of the sharp criticism that they received from the provincial government. Our study also shows that some municipalities still leaves management tasks to the private sector, without legal basis. Since there is no control over who is inquiring the family a result of this can be that a child is growing up in unsuitable environments, which in itself can affect the rule of law.

The aim of the study was to examine the background and prerequisites for social services responsibility for carers according to the carers’ section in the Social Services Act. How the legislation is perceived and implemented in practice was also studied. The study’s theoretical basis was jurisprudence and the sociology of law. Preparatory work and other sections of importance for the interpretation of the carers’ section in the Social Services Act were also scrutinized. Interviews with four municipal politicians and four local civil servants were conducted. Various factors which affect the prerequisites for the social services duty of care towards carers were identified in the study. By studying the direct effects of legislation various indirect effects were also highlighted. The results showed that legislation is a weak instrument of control in municipalities’ planning and implementation of support for carers. Therefore social services responsibility for carers is unclear and imprecise. For carers themselves it is difficult to know what support they can demand or ask for from social services – municipalities have to offer support for carers but the carers’ section does not give carers any legal right to support.

The purpose of our study is to see how the interaction between the social services and police work when a child under 15 years is suspected of crimes. What happens to the child from an agency perspective? How is the experience for the child and how do they get their voices heard? How is the professional perspective for a child when a child is suspected of a crime? What do the various authorities for short-term and long-term measures for the child? We have chosen to do a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. The study includes six interviews with two police officers, three field secretaries and a social worker in two different municipalities. A medium sized municipality, and a larger community. The people we interviewed think differently about collaboration. The municipality have different workforms. In the smaller municipality works a social worker at the police station once or twice a week. While in the larger municipality the police and social worker work separately but together nonetheless. The result shows that they are not completely satisfied with the interaction that is today, but it takes a lot of time to build it up and it can always be better. Furthermore, the study shows that the lack of time and resource issues control much of social service work. For the analyzes we have used a theory of interaction. The result shows that the professionals are using the children’s perspective a lot when they are working with children who are suspected of crime.

This research tracks the emergence of ‘soft’ workfare in Toronto. This refers to a set of attitudes and practices apparent in the delivery of welfare-to-work programs through the Ontario Works framework, which use compulsion to push people towards employment while simultaneously encouraging limited and specific practices of individual choice. Research findings are derived from eight interviews and relevant policy reports, focusing on the experiences of three non-profit agencies and the City of Toronto, who provide employment assistance and financial assistance through Ontario Works, respectively. These findings indicate that grassroots organizations pioneered employment services for social assistance recipients, and, alongside the municipal government, had been calling for active employment programs. They made use of the distance between policy rules and their own programs to alleviate the most punitive features of OW, but judge compulsion as a means to meet a necessary end. This demonstrates how disciplinary tendencies reside within liberal governmentalities.