Den statliga tvångsvården för placerade barn och unga på särskilda ungdomshem, har återkommande varit under internationell kritik från FN:s Barnrättskommitté och Tortyrkommitté för upprätthållandet av tvångsåtgärder som isolering. Statliga aktörer och civilsamhällesorganisationer har adresserat stora brister inom vården som i förlängningen riskerar att barn och unga far illa snarare än att få hjälp och behandling. Det senaste decenniet har ett rättighetsarbete påbörjats inom institutionerna. Trots beaktandet av mänskliga rättigheter och ett lyft av barns rättigheter inom verksamheten påvisas återkommande brister som vanvård, rättsosäkerhet och rättsliga övertramp från statligt anställd personal på de särskilda ungdomshemmen. Barn och unga står i beroendeställning till de statligt anställda som arbetar på institutionen. Att vara statligt anställd innebär dessutom ett ytterst ansvar att säkerställa mänskliga rättigheter, även inom den vård som bedrivs med tvång och kontroll. Syftet med den här studien var att utifrån insamlat material från statliga aktörer, statens institutionsstyrelse, och civilsamhällesorganisationer undersöka hur att mänskliga rättigheter förverkligas, samt hur användandet av särskilda befogenheter legitimeras trots deras rättsosäkerhet. Studien har genomförts med tematisk analys som metod. Resultatet påvisar att det förefaller finnas hinder för att mänskliga rättigheter ska förverkligas, genom upprätthållandet av brister som rättsosäkerhet, ojämlikhet och svårigheter med samverkan. Vidare tydliggörs att barns och ungas upplevelser av särskilda befogenheter ofta beskrivs i termer av våldsamma och bestraffande, medan statens vuxna ögon legitimerar dem som nödvändiga. Genom ett barndomssociologiskt och feministiskt angreppssätt diskuteras hur vuxnas institutionaliserade makt förefaller begränsa och förhindra realiserandet av ett barnperspektiv inom verksamheten. Vidare påvisas utifrån civilsamhällsorganisationers kritik hur etablerade arbetsmetoder som är förenade med döds- och skaderisker, används vid utövandet av tvångsingripanden och legitimeras som nödvändiga samt bedöms vara förenade med ”barnets bästa” och med ”respekt för människovärde och integritet”. Balansgången med att upprätthålla mänskliga rättigheter för barn och unga inom tvångsvården förefaller vara förenade med stora utmaningar.

The legislation should be gender neutral, and should not have a gender bias, but it does happen that the court takes decisions based on gender stereotypes and norms. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if there are any gender constructions in the Care of Young Persons Ac, to highlight these possible differences between how boys and girls get judged according to article 3 in the law and also on what grounds the girls and boys are taken into custody. The thesis is based on 28 judgements from the Administrative court of appeal in Sweden. The first question that is answered in the thesis is how girls and boys are represented or written about in the judgements regarding article 3 in the Care of Young Persons Act. The second question that is answered is on what grounds these children are taken into compulsory care and if these grounds differ on the basis of gender. Gender theory is the theoretical framework in this thesis and is applied on the judgements. The results in this thesis show that there are certain differences between how boys and girls are judged according to article 3 in the Care of Young Persons Act. The analysis of the 28 judgements show that the differences can be that girls are taken into compulsory care based on descriptions of their sexuality. Their mental illnesses and emotions are more highlighted in the judgements. The results found that there are more boys taken into compulsory care and they are more involved in criminality and have violent behaviour and a heavier drug addiction compared to the girls. The gender differences could mostly be seen in statements made by the social welfare board in the judgements and in some statements made by the Administrative court of appeal when they described the “vagabonding” lifestyle of the girls.

In this study, we examined how social workers through committee described the young person in secure care of youths, and whether there ere any differences between the sexes. The theoretical starting point was the gender perspective and social workers discretion. The aim of our study was to analyze how social workers through committee were describing the youths in law, and if they produced and reproduced eventual gender constructions and norms. Our empirical work was based on 20 LVU court cases, 10 girls and 10 boys. These court cases were examined by using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to find keywords and eventual patterns in writing. The results and the analysis consist of five different themes with some examples from the court cases related to previous research and theories. The results showed differences in the discourses between the sexes. One of the discourses we found was ’victim or perpetrator’, which manifested itself in girls being described as more responsible for their actions rather than having control of their situations, while boys were described as more responsible for their actions. Our ambition was to stimulate interest for upcoming further research. We found that social workers possess a great room for action through regarding the way they chose to write about youths. Therefore, it was important to shed light on the role of the discourse and how it can affect legal certainty.

<p><p><p>This thesis has focused on specific aspects of the law concerning the 2nd paragraph of The Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52), LVU. The purpose of this study was to examine the provision <em>other circumstance in the home </em>from a legal perspective; how is the provision defined in the law? A second purpose was to reveal any discrepancy between the intention of the legislation of the already mentioned provision and how this provision was interpreted and applied in practice. This study was jurisprudential and based on both traditional juristic method and sociological methods with qualitative interviews with social workers and text analysis of a case from The County Administrative Court. The gathered information was analysed using a method of discourse analysis. The theoretical framework for this thesis was social constructionism based upon the work of Berger and Luckmann. The conclusion of this study was that the provision <em>other circumstance in the home </em>is connected to the role of the mother though this is not noticed through the legislation. Another conclusion was that the practice considers the legal demand to anticipate as unattainable. The interpretation and application of the provision made by the practice, compared with the intention of the legislation, was representing both an expand and restriction of the provision.</p></p></p>

In light of Sweden ratifying the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, Swedish law supports the right for children to express their opinions and have their voice heard in situations concerning them. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of young people’s participation, by investigating how young people’s opinions and attitudes are taken into account in decision making concerning the lack of care shown in 2§ The Compulsory Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52). To explore this subject, this study was based on the textual analysis of 16 court cases from the administrative court from the year 2016, concerning young people aged between 15-18 years old. We found that young people’s opinions and attitudes are generally taken into account in the process of compulsory care. Our results indicate that young people’s opinions and attitudes are taken into account to a higher extent in the whole legal process when the decision of the administrative court corresponds with the young person’s opinion and attitude. In cases where the court’s decision did not correspond with the young person’s opinion and attitude, the opinions and attitudes of children were taken into account to a lesser degree. Our analysis has shown, according to the Ladder of Participation, that all young people can be seen as participators in the process of compulsory care. However, children’s participation is a complex phenomenon and additional research is needed to unpack this subject further.

The United Nation’s definition of honour based violence (HRV) in 1999 defines women’s exposure of violence related to honour. In Sweden, HRV was regarded as a social problem in the 1990’s, when women were murdered by their close family members. Loss of honour was explained as a reason for the killings. Ever since the beginning of debate in Swedish media, science has noticed the complexity of HRV.   The aim of this study was to examine how Swedish social services and administrative courts constructed honour based violence (HRV) when law of mandatory care of minors is used in court cases. The lawsuits regarded both females and males, in the ages of 10-17 years old. We used a document analysis of thirteen court cases from 2016 regarding 2§ Law of mandatory care of minors (LVU), which is a paragraph of deficiencies in care of youths. We used the keyword Honour related violence when searching for court cases. We could determine that physical violence is constructed as legal issues when it’s explained in detail, fragmented and when the minor was regarded as believable to the administrative court. Psychological violence included the involvement of threats, threats of physical violence and threats of forced marriages, and was all seen as an integrated view on violence. Honour was constructed as an isolation of the youths, limiting their social and leisure time and the children were controlled by their guardians. According to social services and administrative courts, the control was not seen as age appropriate.

This thesis has focused on specific aspects of the law concerning the 2nd paragraph of The Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52), LVU. The purpose of this study was to examine the provision other circumstance in the home from a legal perspective; how is the provision defined in the law? A second purpose was to reveal any discrepancy between the intention of the legislation of the already mentioned provision and how this provision was interpreted and applied in practice. This study was jurisprudential and based on both traditional juristic method and sociological methods with qualitative interviews with social workers and text analysis of a case from The County Administrative Court. The gathered information was analysed using a method of discourse analysis. The theoretical framework for this thesis was social constructionism based upon the work of Berger and Luckmann. The conclusion of this study was that the provision other circumstance in the home is connected to the role of the mother though this is not noticed through the legislation. Another conclusion was that the practice considers the legal demand to anticipate as unattainable. The interpretation and application of the provision made by the practice, compared with the intention of the legislation, was representing both an expand and restriction of the provision.

Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur anknytningen med familjehemsföräldrarna och kontakten med socialtjänsten påverkar ett barn vid en familjehemsplacering och vidare in i vuxenlivet. Dessutom studeras även hur god anknytning främjar en familjehemsplacering och kontakten med socialtjänsten. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och fem intervjuer med vuxna personer som bott i familjehem har genomförts. Delar av Bowlbys anknytningsteori och Antonovskys (2010) föreställning om KASAM användes vid analys av uppsatsens empiri. Resultatet visar att samtliga intervjupersoner har upplevt en trygg anknytning till familjehemsföräldrarna när de var placerade som barn. En trygg anknytning i familjehemmet grundar sig på regler, rutiner, engagemang och samhörighet mellan det placerade barnet och familjehemsföräldrarna. Barn med en otrygg anknytning får det svårare att skapa nya relationer och utveckla en trygg relation till familjehemsföräldrarna vid en familjehemsplacering. I socialtjänstlagen står det att alla barn som placeras i familjehem ska ha en socialsekreterare som kontaktperson (2015:982). Familjehemsplacerade barn behöver en socialsekreterare som de känner tillit till, för att öka möjligheterna till att utveckla bra relationer i familjehemmet och att upptäcka eventuella missförhållanden. / The purpose of this study is to examine how the connection with the foster parents and the contact with the social services affects a child during a foster care placement and later in life. Furthermore, it also examines how good connection favours a foster care placement and the contact with the social services. For the study, a qualitative method was used. Five interviews took place with adults who have, at some point during their childhood, been in foster care. Parts of Bowlbys attachment theory and Antonovskys (2010) idea of KASAM was used to analyze the study’s empirics. The result shows that all adults who got interviewed in this study felt they had good relations with the foster parents and felt safe in their presence during the time they spent in foster care. Four guidelines for a good relationship between a child and their foster parents has showed to be rules, structure, commitment and affinity. Children who feel insecure with their current relations have a harder time building new relations and will have a tough time creating good relations within the foster home. The Social Service Act demands that every child in foster care shall be assigned a social secretary (2015:982). Children who has been placed in foster care needs a social secretary that they feel they can trust, this will increase the possibility of good relations within the foster home.

Barnets rätt till känslomässigt tillgängliga föräldrar synliggörs i både handböcker, riktlinjer och prejudikat. Trots det finns ingen tydlig definition eller fastställande kring hur bristande känslomässig tillgänglighet ska tillämpas rättsligt. Därför är studiens syfte att undersöka diskursen kring bristande känslomässig tillgänglighet. Detta för att få en ökad förståelse för hur förvaltningsrätten förhåller sig till begreppet i domar enligt 2 § Lag (1990:52) med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga utan att ha en tydlig definition eller bevisbörda att utgå ifrån. Metoden som används för att studera diskursen är Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys enligt den tredimensionella modellen. Vi vill synliggöra eventuella diskursiva skillnader gällande mammor och pappor samt socialnämnden och förvaltningsrätten. Det genomförs utifrån två genusteoretiska perspektiv, Hirdmans genuskontrakt och Bohmans teori om den “goda” och “problematiska” modern, samt Foucaults teori om makt. Resultatet visar hur diskursen skiljer sig åt mellan könen genom att benämna och belysa bristande känslomässig tillgänglighet av mammor och pappor. Resultatet påvisar även en maktordning mellan förvaltningsrätten och socialnämnden, där förvaltningsrätten har en överordnad makthierarki gentemot socialnämnden som tar sig i uttryck i ordval, formuleringar och i vilken grad av modalitet som används. Studien kompletterar nuvarande forskning och fyller ett tomrum i synliggörandet av hur bristande känslomässig tillgänglighet används i rättstillämpningen.

This study is a discourse analysis of 15 child protection cases in Sweden, analysing a total of 30 verdicts from both the Court of Administrative Law and the Administrative Court of Appeal. The study’s first aim was to analyse the construction of parenthood and parental abilities in court verdicts concerning the removal of children due to environmental factors according to The Care of Young Persons Special Provisions Act. The second aim of the study was to analyse if a parent’s gender, class, or ethnicity affected the outcome of the courts’ verdict. The results were analysed using Michél Foucault’s theories on discourse and power and Tina Mattsson’s theories on categorization and intersectionality. The study found that parents were characterized by their conceived flaws in parenting in relation to what needs they were deemed as not fulfilling for their children. Those parents were also seen as deviating from the norm. One of the key aspects influencing the court’s verdict was if the parent displayed insight into their perceived problem and showed a willingness to change and cooperate with authorities. The results also showed that verdicts where children were placed into the custody of the social services tended to be based on a child protection paradigm, whereas verdicts where parents could keep custody were based on a child welfare paradigm. Another finding was that mothers were more likely to be seen as primary caregivers than fathers, and therefore more likely to be deemed as unfit parents. A mother’s mental illness was seen as a sign of unfit parenthood. Parents with substance abuse issues were often deemed unreliable as parents. Non-European parents who controlled their children were seen as the most deviant from the norm. Their children were seen as having to choose between either “freedom” or their family. An intersectional analysis showed how social injustices were maintained in the current discourse of child protection through marginalization. Finally, implications for social work were discussed based on the findings of the study.