How gender is constructed in the application of the care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act in the Administrative Court

The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender is created in the Administrative Court´s application of care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act. The theoretical starting point is the gender perspective. My empirical work consists of 27 court cases from 2010 and 2011. These are investigated for common themes by a qualitative content analysis. The result and analysis consist of four court cases representing one theme each. The result shows that boys and girls are taken into custody because of different reasons and that the court creates and maintains images related to gender, by highlighting some qualities that are inherent to boys and girls respectively, while others qualities are made invisible