Social Services is responsible for providing children and young people with support and interventions in the event of suspicion of crime, and for working to prevent crime with other actors such as the police and schools.
Interventions can partly be about voluntary measures such as a contact person or, for example, a placement according to SoL where the social administration has agreed with a family that the child should not live at home. Placement can also take place according to LVU, the Act on Care of Young People. This means that the intervention is against the parents or the child's will.
SVT Gävleborg's review shows that only a few of all reports lead to any form of intervention to the children from social services.
In 2021, 335 reports were made regarding 178 children and young people. During that year, social services initiated 21 interventions for children and young people linked to crime.
"Want to reach everyone"
One of those who was investigated, but who was not deemed to need any intervention, is one of the teenage boys who are currently in custody after the murder in Sätra.
"We want to reach everyone. I cannot say whether it is good or bad to give contributions at ten percent in relation to those who are notified, in comparison with other municipalities. I think we have good conditions for conducting our work, says Lars Lodin, head of Welfare Gävle, to which the social services belong.
The police also testify that the number of gang-criminal children is increasing sharply. Their survey shows that 70 gang criminal children in Gävleborg are under the age of 18 and 18 of them are under the age of 15.
SVT Gävleborg's review shows:
- The number of reports to social services regarding crime has increased drastically in recent years.
- Social services have the ultimate responsibility for providing interventions to children and young people if there is suspicion of crime, but only a few receive interventions.
- According to researchers in social work, social services' cooperation with other actors such as the police and schools in their crime prevention work is lacking.
- All three teenage boys in custody for the murder in Sätra had input from social services. Two of them had operations that were canceled shortly before the murder.
"We have child soldiers in Sweden"
Social services' efforts for these children receive criticism from several quarters. A study from the University of Gävle points to several shortcomings in their crime prevention work. The survey shows that there are no methods for working effectively and that there is a lack of structure in the work.
Hjördis Flodström Enquist has extensive experience as a social worker in Gävle in several positions and as a researcher in the development of social work. During the 1990s, she was also an expert in legal cases concerning children and young people.
Hear her criticism of social services' cooperation with authorities in the video
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Hjördis Flodström Enquist has worked as a social worker for 50 years and believes that cooperation between social services, the police and schools is lacking in crime prevention work. Photo: SVT/Arvid Jansson