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Across the country, social services are scrambling to try and deal with a new group of serious criminal children and youth. But efforts are often based on volunteering, while both young people and their parents can be difficult to motivate. Several social managers now point to the need for greater efforts.
“Many parents want us to demonstrate what their children have done. Otherwise, you don’t want to admit that there are problems in the family, and then you don’t want any help and then it can go a long way,” says Thereze Lundborg (left) social manager at Kalmar. Here with her colleague Ann-Charlotte Hedström.
– Our big challenge is to make guardians realize that what their children do is a problem, says Thereze Lundborg, director of the reception unit for children and families in Kalmar.
– Parents should watch over their children, they should set limits, if their child carries a knife and represents a threat to others, parents should keep the child at home. But it is hard work. There are quite a few parents who want us to show what their children have done. Otherwise you don’t want to admit that there are problems in the family, and then you don’t want any help and then it can go a long way.
TT: What is the problem?
– There are individual differences, but also cultural elements, in the tendency to receive help. In some cultures it is difficult to receive help, it means showing weakness and shame.
In various parts of the country, the number of complaints from youth involved in gang crime is increasing, according to a survey of TT municipalities.
Early help reduces the risk of serious problems or more serious crimes. However, with current legislation, social services efforts are based on voluntariness. If parents or the young person himself say no, social services do not usually force them to accept interventions.
– It can have serious consequences. Violence increases, insecurity, among others, increases. The longer it lasts, the harder it will be to break it. You get more identity in your gang and you can also be linked to older, more established criminals, says Thereze Lundborg.
Several social administrators attest that it is a problem for parents, to varying degrees, to say no to interventions.
– You often don’t share a photo of the child. The concern we feel for the young person is not felt by the parents in the same way. And then there will be no efforts, unless there are problems so serious that we can break in, says Carina Eriksson Gadd, area manager of social administration at Västra Hisingen in Gothenburg.
– We can make an assessment that this guy will not do well. But he denies and his parents deny it. So three years go by and he is even more involved in crime and ends up with LVU in Sis-hem, says Anna Bergström, manager of the unit for children and young people in Katrineholm.
More coercion is needed when youth commit crimes, several of the social workers believe. Efforts should be mandatory even without consent, says Magnus Nordahl, section manager for children and families at Falun.
– I wish I had a better chance to force the guardians to intervene earlier. It could be about forcing them to participate in supportive talks to initially motivate them and make them understand why it is important to find other tools so they can take care of their children, he says.
Already today, social services can, under certain conditions, provide open interventions without consent, the so-called “intermediate coercion”. This may mean, for example, that the young person receives support in the form of a contact person or family contact. But opportunities are limited, and the government has tasked the National Board of Health and Welfare with submitting proposals on how they can increase opportunities to provide open interventions without consent.
Anders Ljungberg, head of the unit for children and youth in Skövde, notes that social services would need to develop methods to deal with gang crime, but also to increase coercion.
– He would like the opportunity to tell the family that this is so serious, that it is such a great risk, that he has to attend a number of meetings with us, he says.
TT: But do you have the opportunity to take coercive measures like LVU?
– If we talk about these young people, it is rarely so serious and serious that we can take coercive measures, Anders Ljungberg.
At the same time, it emphasizes that greater intermediate coercion means a balancing act.
– The question is what effect is obtained if the family or the young person themselves are not motivated. It may not come because the person is only sitting at the time, says Anders Ljungberg.
Magnus Nordahl in Falun is on the same line.
– It’s a question of how to achieve it. But I wish we could point out that “you don’t have a choice, you have to.” Today we have to finish the investigations stating that we have no basis for coercion, we see constant concern, but the family does not accept the help we offer. In those situations, you’d like to have something else to do, rather than shutting down and waiting for the next concern report, she says.
As a last resort, social services can forcibly take in young people according to LVU. But being forced to receive care in HVB homes or through confinement in Sis homes does not have to be a successful concept, but can strengthen criminal identity, social administrators note in the survey.
– Yes, absolutely, this is how it works also in prisons, you have contacts and that is never good, says Marianne Gunnarsson, director of the unit for children and young people in Borås.
Young people may leave Sis with more rule-breaking behavior than before the placement, and at the same time, they may have made new criminal friends.
– For a while, he still stops, comes from an addiction, stops being active in crime. The difficulties are when they will come out again. Many are picked up again when they don’t have the strength to resist. The enormous power that exists in these gangs – with belonging to friends, that you are someone, that you gain financially from it – we have a hard time arguing, says Marianne Gunnarsson.
In the survey, the new sanction for child surveillance, which will be handled by the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, stands out as promising. Kalmar Social Services is positive about the proposal to abolish the youth penalty discount.
Thereze Lundborg says it may be “a bit unusual” to have such a position in social services.
– We have a lot of support and efforts to offer that are good for many. But for the group of individuals who are not receptive, who do not receive support, do not assimilate what they really live in a criminal lifestyle from an early age, then we think that the example that has been in Denmark would be applicable and feasible in Sweden . It is also about other people who are affected by these individuals, she says.
Say no to effort
If a family rejects the offered offer, social services generally cannot force the family to receive help / support.
Then, it is the responsibility of the social service to assess the severity of the deficiencies in the home and how they affect the child now and in his future development. If the assessment is that the deficiencies are large, the social services can apply for LVU (law with special provisions on the care of young people).
If the deficiencies are not so great that they obviously affect the child as seriously as indicated in LVU, the social services should close the case without action if the parents do not agree with the proposed measures.
However, under certain conditions, open efforts can be made without consent, so-called “intermediate coercion”. This may mean, for example, that the young person receives support in the form of a contact person or family contact.
Anyone who violates this runs the risk of being cared for under LVU.
Source: City of Malmö Social Advice Online, National Board of Health and Welfare
