The purpose of this study is to investigate how children involved in gang crime are portrayed in the media and how the Social Services are expected to work with these children, according to the media. Focus lies on the wave of gang violence in Sweden that increased during the fall of 2023. Cohen’s theory of moral panic was applied to shed light on how the media portrays the problem. The theory additionally allowed us to study what reactions, that characterizes moral panic, was present in the media during the time studied. The empirical material is based on 23 news articles from four different newspapers during the increase of violence. The data was examined using qualitative content analysis. Four themes appeared in the process of coding the material. The result shows that children are portrayed as both victims and perpetrators, occasionally at the same time. As a result, a role conflict could be identified. Recurring criticism and dissatisfaction with the actions of Sweden’s Social Services prevailed in the articles. In summary, moral panic is prevalent in the media. As studies show, this tends to affect how actors and various situations are depicted. Lastly, the conditions of the work done by the Social Services seems to, based on the articles, benefit from alterations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-530479 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Hallman, Clara, Risberg, Nellie |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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