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In most Western societies, there are metropolitan neighbourhoods defined as deprived. In the public eye, not least through media reports, descriptions of these areas often revolve around violence and crime, creating a common understanding of these areas as violent and dangerous places, consequently inhabited by violent and dangerous people. At the same time, these are also neighbourhoods where people carry on their everyday lives, a perspective seldom highlighted. Further, this one-sided depiction of deprived areas tends to put boys and young men in focus, excluding girls and young women. In this chapter, we set out to map and discuss research on the meaning of place in the lives of girls in deprived areas. In doing so, we hope to contribute to a more complex and nuanced understanding of what it is like for girls growing up in deprived neighbourhoods today.

Rapporten utgår från en totalundersökning av unga som omhändertas genom §3 Lagen om vård av ung (LVU) under 2015 och 2016. I rapporten studeras hur Förvaltningsrätter och socialnämnder beskriver de ungas problem och vilka skäl de omhändertas på. Materialet utgörs av information fråpn domar och domstolsakter samt har kompletterats med information om placering vid låst institution (särksilda ungdomshem) samt uppgifter om både barnet och dess familj i olika befolkningsregister från SCB:s. Studien undersöker följande frågeställningar 1) Av vilka skäl omhändertas flickor respektive pojkar genom § 3LVU? 2) Är, och i så fall hur, kön, socioekonomisk situation och härkomstbetydelsefulla för dessa beslut? 3) Vilka av ungdomarna som omhändertas blir också föremål för denmest ingripande åtgärden, placering vid särskilt ungdomshem, ochhur förhåller sig detta till kön, socioekonomisk situation och härkomst? 4. Vilka likheter och skillnader kan urskiljas jämfört med omhändertagandenför drygt 20 år sedan?

The increase of unaccompanied refugee minors in Sweden during the last decades is reflected in an increase in the proportion of unaccompanied male minors subjected to compulsory placements in secure care. Reports have shown that this group differed from other youths in secure care, but research on reasons for compulsory care is scarce regarding unaccompanied minors. In this article, unaccompanied male minors (UAMM) subjected to compulsory care, and whether these differ in relation to other youths, is investigated. We also examine variation within the group of UAMM. A general comparison shows that the grounds invoked for the compulsory placement of UAMM follow general gender patterns in certain respects, while in others they are more similar to the grounds described in relation to assessments of girls’ behaviour. The UAMM were more often placed in secure institutions. Three groups of UAMM were identified with relatively different problems, although a placement in secure care is the most common one regardless of problem profile. It is argued that the UAMM in some respects seem to be subjected to legal uncertainty with both harsher interventions than appropriate, and as a result, not receiving the care to which they are entitled.

In this article the authors present a meta-synthesis of their studies on secure institutions in Sweden and Denmark. The aim of the metasynthesis is to explore how the context of confinement shapes the possibilities for providing treatment and positive change for at-risk youth. Drawing on meta-synthesis methodology the authors extract content from nine studies published in 20 articles. We highlight three dimensions, which are a) treatment practices and behavioural regulation, b) the carceral materialities and sociomaterial practices, and c) relations. We argue that while treatment is curtailed by confinement, improvements can be made to support more successful change among at-risk youth and smooth their transition into adulthood.

This article reviews and compares the use of confinement and other restrictive measures against young people under 18 in child welfare and/or the criminal justice systems in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Young people are confined for a variety of reasons, including protection, care, treatment, and punishment. However, confinement of young people is a contested issue because it can be viewed as necessary but also potentially harmful. Comparison of legislation and practices reveals that while there are some similarities in the service provisions for young people, there are also significant disparities among the four countries regarding the organization, function, and frequency of the use of confinement and restrictive measures. While Denmark and Sweden use secure welfare institutions, Finland and Norway apply other restrictive measures. Despite the differences in approaches to confinement in the Nordic countries, the use of confinement is guided by the principle of the child’s best interest, and the child welfare system is the main frame for confinement and intervention. The article discusses these disparate practices from the perspective of children’s rights and identifies new avenues for research and practice. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Historically, the regulation of girls through institutionalization has been guided by bourgeois norms of femininity, including virtue, domesticity, and motherhood. Using a Foucauldian perspective on the production of subjects in Swedish secure care, I investigate whether or not middle-class norms of femininity, centered today around self-regulation, still guide the regulation of working-class girls. By analyzing data from an ethnographic study, I show that even though secure care is repressive, it is also permeated with the aim of producing self-regulating subjects corresponding with discourses on ideal girlhood. However, since working-class girls are rarely made intelligible within such discourses, thereby making the position of self-regulatory subject inaccessible, the care system leaves them to shoulder the responsibility for resolving a situation that is shaped by structures beyond their control.

Den senaste tiden har allt starkare röster höjts för att låta Kriminalvården överta ansvaret för minderåriga som begår brott, och en enkät genomförd i riksdagen visar att en majoritet av ledamöterna är för en sådan förändring. Författarna, som alla forskar om de särskilda ungdomshem där denna grupp placeras, problematiserar synen på unga lagöverträdare och ifrågasätter en sådan förändring utifrån barnkonventionen.