COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse Practicesparents but it is difficult to say in what extent. But the legislation authorities are in the process of making a juridicalchange to this problem.The double role of the Social ServiceIt is argued by some researchers that there is a discrepancy in the relationship between the Criminal Law and theSocial Service Legislation. Where the Criminal Law should have the crime in focus it states that the SocialService Legislation should primary focus on the individual needs.This creates a tension since the Social Service is obliged, according to the Social Service Legislation, to first lookupon the needs on the individuals but in the case with Youth Service also have to administrate a punishment. Therole of the Social Service is even more complicated since the Social Service also should write a statement aboutthe persons need for care to the prosecutor, as a ground for the trial. The statement from the Social Service isvery vital and the recommendation from the Social Service is followed by the prosecutor and the court at almost a100 %.Some criticism from the prosecutors’ point of view have been presented according to the statements from theSocial Service. The crucial point is how the Social Service judge the individuals need for care. The core of theproblem I assume is that there is a lack of proper supporting measures in the municipal organization. This maylead to that the Social Service propose Youth Service, if the youth accept it, even if the Social Service haveidentified a greater need of care within the youth. Simply because there are no other measures available. Thismeans that it is likely that some youths sentenced to Youth Service are in need of more extensive measures thatthe Youth Service program can provide.Location and statisticsThe empirical base of this presentation consists of data from 8 municipalities round about Stockholm. The totalpopulation of these municipalities is about half a million people. There are comparatively large differencesbetween these municipalities. From rather small municipalities with a homogenous Swedish population tosuburbs with a high amount of immigrant population. The municipalities also differ in a socioeconomic sense.In order to give an overview of how many that is sentenced to Youth Service in the actual municipalities in relationto a national context I will present some statistics:20082 907 person were convicted to Youth Service in Sweden according to Brå – the Swedish National Council forCrime Prevention.In the present 8 municipalities 203 persons were convicted which is about 7 % of all convicted in Sweden.The most common conviction was assault.The majority is boys, approximately 85%.The length of the penalty is dependent on type of crime; it varies from 20 -150 hours of unpaid work.In the municipalities I have studied the penalty length is seen as follows:280