Att kriminellas handlingar har konsekvenser för samhället anses vara vedertaget och studier fokuserar ofta på omfattningen av antalet brott och även vilka dessa kriminella är. För att hjälpa redan kriminella att lämna ett sådant liv bakom sig kan det också vara av vikt att förstå hur processen mellan att vara kriminell till att upphöra med brott upplevs av dessa personer. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur män med en tidigare kriminell livsstil ser på sin förändringsprocess från kriminell till icke-kriminell. Studiens frågeställningar är: Vad var det som initierade processen att välja ett liv utan kriminalitet bland de före detta kriminella männen? Hur upplevde männen förloppet mellan ett kriminellt liv och ett liv utan kriminalitet? Fanns det händelser som hjälpte eller stjälpte? Hur resonerar dessa män kring sin nya livsstil utan kriminella handlingar?   Ett mål med studien var att försöka förstå hur männen ser på sina egna upplevelser av processen. Gruppen kan vara svår att nå och urvalet gjordes därför med hjälp av ett snöbollsurval från en av KRIS:s (Kriminellas Revansch i Samhället) lokala grupper. Sex vuxna män i åldrar mellan 30-50 år intervjuades om sina upplevelser av processen från ett kriminellt liv till en tillvaro utan kriminalitet. Med utgångspunkten att beskriva informanternas förändringsprocesser i hur de lyckats lämna ett kriminellt liv fokuserade de semistrukturerade intervjuerna på några få teman kopplade till tidsaspekter och utvecklingsfaser. Skäl som angavs som avgörande för upphörandet av ett kriminellt liv och starten av en ny livsstil var bl.a. personlig botten, inre tillit, stöd, motivation och relationer till närstående. Resultatet visade även att männen som deltog i studien upplevde att livet blivit mycket bättre efter att de hade lyckats bryta de kriminella vanorna. När de manliga informanterna var aktiva i kriminella kretsar upplevde de bl.a. utanförskap och skam. Efter att de bytt till den nya livsstilen minskade dessa känslor och ersattes av känslor av stolthet och samhörighet med resten av samhället. Vidare,fick samtliga anställning efter att de genomgått förändringsprocessen och detta skapade nya relationer med människor som inte levde ett kriminellt liv.

This is a qualitative study designed to investigate how professional support group leaders talk about their role as supervisor of support groups for children and adolescents with problematic home situations. We also examine how these supervisors talk about the method they use and how they talk about the individual child. We have chosen critical discourse analysis to help us explore if there are different ways to talk about these territories. Our questions are: How does the support group leader talk about his role? How does the support group leader talk about the method? How does the support group leader talk about the individual child? The theories we have chosen to use in the analysis of our material is Aaron Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence and social constructivism. We have, as mentioned, chosen to do a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews conducted with seven active support group leaders at three different support group organizations. We transcribed the interviews and coded them separately and then went through the coded material together. The analytical method we have chosen is discourse analysis focusing on Norman Fairclough´s critical discourse analysis. Along with Fairclough´s three-dimensional model, we analyzed the interviews at the following levels: text practice, discursive practice and social practice. Based on our purpose and our questions we managed to distinguish six different discourses, within each territory we found two discourses that stood in contrast to each other. In the territory "How the support group leader talks about his own role," we found the knowledge discourse and the playful discourse. In the territory "How the support group leader talks about the method" we were able to discern a discourse view of the method as complete and a view of the method as adaptable. In the territory "How the support group leader talks about the individual child" we found the discourse about the perception of the child as a subject and the perception of the child as an object. These discourses were put together to constitute two discourse chains which showed two different orientations of the support group leader. We then analyzed these discourse chains our theories and questioned them based on how the two different types of leader’s we located could affect the method’s design and the children participating in support groups. The study concludes with a part in which we compare our results with earlier research within this field followed by suggestions for further research.

The aim of this study has been to investigate children and adolescent development in ”The turning point” children´s and adolescent program in Kristianstad. We also wanted to find out the support group leaders experiences concerning the children´s and the adolescents development in programs and how they apprehended their role as a support group leader. Our intension was also to study how the adolescent and the children considered their own development in the program. To carry through this study, we used two types of qualitative methods i.e. qualitative interviews with the support group leaders who used the ”Turning point”  method in their work with the children’s and adolescents groups. We also used qualitative content analysis on the children’s and the adolescents written answers in their evaluation forms. The support group leaders and the adolescents described a positive development through the programs. Both parts states that this development has been noticed by an increased openness about the abuse in the family. Other results was that the children and the adolescent answered that they had realized that they were not alone in their situation, had been helped by the programs, felt happier and had come to realize that they had an identity of their own.

Denna studie undersöker vilka upplevelser och erfarenheter som påverkat individer när de tagit beslutet att lämna en kriminell livsstil; och vilka faktorer som varit avgörande i förändringsprocessen till ett liv utan kriminalitet. Kvalitativa intervjuer har använts som metod för att besvara frågeställningarna. Fem personer med koppling till organisationen KRIS har intervjuats och resultatet har analyserats utifrån en teoretisk referensram bestående av Laub och Sampsons (2006) definition av begreppet turning points; Paternoster och Bushways (2009) identitetsteori om avhopp från kriminalitet; och Emirbayer och Mishes (1998) teoretiska beskrivning av begreppet human agency. Resultatet visar att alla intervjupersonerna påverkats av crystalization of discontent och drivkraften att undvika the feared possible self (Paternoster & Bushway, 2009) när de beslutat att lämna kriminaliteten. Den egna viljan beskrivs av intervjupersonerna som den mest avgörande faktorn i förändringsprocessen. Andra faktorer som varit betydande är socialt stöd och att hålla fast vid nya rutiner kopplade till livet utan kriminalitet. Slutsatserna i uppsatsen är att det sällan räcker med enskilda faktorer, ofta är det ett samspel mellan flera faktorer som leder till förändring. / The purpose of the present study is to identify events and experiences that influences individuals to make the decision to desist from a criminal life style; and to identify crucial and important factors in the process of desisting from a criminal life style. The used method is qualitative interviews. Five persons connected to KRIS (an organization with the aim to help desisters) were interviewed and the results were analyzed through a theoretic framework consisting Laub and Sampson ́s (2006) definition of the concept of turning points; Paternoster and Bushway ́s (2009) identity theory of desistance from crime; and Emirbayer and Mishe ́s theoretical definition of the concept of human agency. The result shows that all interviewees were affected by crystalization of discontent and the motive to avoid feared possible self (Paternoster & Bushway, 2009) when they decided to desist from criminality. The own will was identified as the most crucial factor in the process of criminal desistance. Social support and the importance of hanging on to new routines were mentioned as other important factors in the process. The conclusion of the study is that it is seldom enough with single factors as solutions to the problems of this study. A successful desistance process is often a result of an interplay between several factors.