Boys and girls in judgements regarding the care of young persons act : Gender constructions found in article 3 in the care of young persons act

The legislation should be gender neutral, and should not have a gender bias, but it does happen that the court takes decisions based on gender stereotypes and norms. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if there are any gender constructions in the Care of Young Persons Ac, to highlight these possible differences between how boys and girls get judged according to article 3 in the law and also on what grounds the girls and boys are taken into custody. The thesis is based on 28 judgements from the Administrative court of appeal in Sweden. The first question that is answered in the thesis is how girls and boys are represented or written about in the judgements regarding article 3 in the Care of Young Persons Act. The second question that is answered is on what grounds these children are taken into compulsory care and if these grounds differ on the basis of gender. Gender theory is the theoretical framework in this thesis and is applied on the judgements. The results in this thesis show that there are certain differences between how boys and girls are judged according to article 3 in the Care of Young Persons Act. The analysis of the 28 judgements show that the differences can be that girls are taken into compulsory care based on descriptions of their sexuality. Their mental illnesses and emotions are more highlighted in the judgements. The results found that there are more boys taken into compulsory care and they are more involved in criminality and have violent behaviour and a heavier drug addiction compared to the girls. The gender differences could mostly be seen in statements made by the social welfare board in the judgements and in some statements made by the Administrative court of appeal when they described the “vagabonding” lifestyle of the girls