Youth Service : A qualitative study of a municipality’s design of youth service

This study, which was conducted in Sweden, was based on four qualitative semi-structured interviews. The aim of this study was to create an understanding of how a municipality designs the sanction for youth offenders called ”youth service” based on the law that establishes the existence of such a sentence. We interviewed social workers that work at the department of youth service in the municipality of Gothenburg, who exclusively deal with youth offenders’ sentenced to youth service as their job assignment. We asked the social workers how the municipality of Gothenburg has designed and structured its youth service as well as how and why the chosen design came to be. The result was thermalized with four topics: how is youth service designed? The reasoning behind Gothenburg’s design, the adjustment of the process of evaluating the suitability of the sentence youth service for the young offender and lastly, collaboration. Our analysis was based on neo-institutional organization theory and on protective factors that protect against negative outcomes. Based on the result that the semi-structured interviews yielded we found that Gothenburg’s designed work method very well resembled the law and guidelines issued two years subsequent the date the law gained legal force. Additionally, we found that the department for youth service in Gothenburg influenced the guidelines that were issued two years after the law gained legal force. To which degree could not be determined in this study, however some of the social workers stated that Gothenburg did not have to adjust to the guidelines when they were issued and that it was satisfying for them that the National Board of Health and Welfare listened to their organization in the process preceded the issuing of the guidelines. Lastly, the interviewed social workers reported that the municipalities collaborate regarding the design of their respective youth services to increase uniformity. The interviews indicated that Gothenburg’s designed work method was considered successful in that other municipalities contacted Gothenburg in order to study how they worked with the sanction that is youth service. This collaboration might lead to an increase of municipalities acquiring Gothenburg’s work method, which in the future may lead to a nationwide institutionalization of Gothenburg’s designed work method with youth service