Att skapa mening i en komplex praktik: Föreställningar om brottspreventiva samverkansformer mellan omsorg och kontroll

Abstract in English

This thesis deals with individual-oriented crime prevention interaction (ICPI) aimed at young people who commit – or are deemed to be at risk of committing – offences. Youth crime prevention is always topical, and a great deal of attention has been paid to such initiatives in recent years. One point of departure is that crime prevention practices are influenced by prevailing political ideologies. Another is that forms of interaction result in tension between care and control.

Given the above points of departure, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate further how perceptions of individual-oriented crime prevention interaction are expressed in narratives, primarily from representatives of interacting organisations.

The following questions have provided guidance for the study:

• How are individual-oriented crime prevention interaction and young people subject to ICPI described in local interaction practice?
• How do interacting representatives describe the criteria and difficulties in establishing interaction practice such as ICPI?
• How can interaction meetings take place in the practice of ICPI, and what importance do they have?
• To what extent – and how – is the tension between care and control expressed in local interaction practice?

Particular interest is focused on the role of social services in ICPI and potential implications for social services and individual social workers.

The theoretical framework consists of new institutional theory and the concept of human service organisations, Stanley Cohen’s theory of social control and Karl E. Weick’s theory of sense-making.

This is a qualitative study, and the methods used involve group and individual interviews with representatives from interacting organisations, as well as individual interviews with a number of young people and their guardians. Observations from interaction meetings in respect of ICPI have also taken place.

Face-to-face interaction meetings have served as a point of departure for the presentation of results in this thesis; and as regards meetings, earlier research indicates that meetings are important for interaction, but that they do not always fulfil the intended purpose. The thesis further develops arguments about meetings (the magic of meetings) and analyses how consensus, but also tensions, are expressed in ICPI meetings.

ICPI, like other interaction, is a complex interaction practice and it can be difficult to perceive specific results. This study confirms the difficulties, but also provides a developed perspective and an attempt to understand the driving force behind the obvious desire to meet the demands for local youth crime initiatives through interaction. Shared sense is made in ICPI through the willingness of stakeholders and representatives to make a difference for young people and families, but also through the organisations’ pursuit of legitimacy.

In the study, the relationship between care and control, sometimes manifested in tensions, becomes important. The tension between care and control is a dynamic relationship that occurs both within and between institutions. A care-based control logic is identified as a common logic emerging in ICPI. The creation of a common logic may even lead to institutionalisation of the forms of interaction, where ICPI has a tendency to become an institution in itself, with a common language and a common logic.