Bemötande inom socialtjänsten : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om socialtjänstens bemötande gentemot unga lagöverträdare

Author: Nina Ekberg and Therese Ljung Title - Within the social services approach: A qualitative interview study of the social services attitudes towards young offenders Supervisor: Melker Labory Assessor: Ulf Drugge The purpose of this study was to see the social workers attitude towards young offenders and how this can affect the teenagers. The theoretical perspectives have been the theory of street-Level Bureaucracy, social constructivism and Stages of change. The material has been collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews and email-interviews with the social workers. The aim of this study was to examine if the social workers uses their theoretical experiences about their attitudes in their practical work and if their response can raise or reduce the young offenders motivation to change their behaviour. To collect information it was chosen that this study would only concentrate on the social workers opinions. This is to ensure the relevance of the social work practice. The social workers, who were chosen, were limited to those who in one way or another come in contact with the young offenders between the ages of 15-17 years, on a regular basis. The collected data was contrasted with the previous research and was analysed from the above perspectives. The authors of this study were interested to see the professionals’ thoughts and experiences on their theoretical and practical work, which both include the attitudes and their motivational work with the young offenders. The results show that the social workers have a great responsibility in strengthen the young offenders to discover their inner motivation so they can change their criminal behaviour