The aim of this paper is to examine how the rights of homeless children to housing and protection in accordance with articles 27 and 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are upheld in Malmö. The two research questions that are of particular interest in relation to this objective are firstly whether the Swedish parliament’s decision to incorporate the Convention on children’s rights into Swedish law has had a concrete effect on the implementation of children’s rights to housing and protection, and secondly how new guidelines that were introduced in Malmö in 2019 have had an impact on the same. The study is qualitative and employs an ethnographic approach based on conversations with 14 girls and 6 boys, which proceeded from photographs the children had taken of their housing situation and daily lives. The results show that homeless children and their needs and rights remain largely unseen in the work of the social services. The situation of this already vulnerable group has also worsened since our conversations with the children, since a majority no longer are part of the social services’ target group according to Malmö’s guidelines regarding homeless persons. It may be argued that such a result provides an indication both of society’s approach to children located on the extreme margins of society and of the way in which welfare provision has developed in Sweden. 

The Swedish Prison and Probation Service's and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Children belonging to incarcerated parents are typically a marginalised group within society who are often devoid of efficient support. This article discusses the realisation of children’s rights within the Swedish Prison and Probation Services based on the perspectives of staff members. This qualitative study has employed data collection through thematic interviews with staff at five institutions. In this article, the following four themes have been discussed: the difference in children’s rights based on a parent’s gender, the rights of a child to contact their incarcerated parent, the participation of a child within the Swedish Prison and Probation Services, and the staff's thoughts on the Prison Service's child rights perspective, current and future. The results display traditional norms continue to steer work within the Swedish Prison and Probation Services, partly creating differences in how children’s rights are realised, resulting in largely unseen parenting from fathers. There exist good examples of such realisations; however, a child’s perspective is largely influenced by staff commitment and individual interests. In implementing the CRC, respondents suggested an accompaniment of children placed in central units with their parents to provide the necessary support from educated staff. Furthermore, there is an additional desire for improved cooperation with social services.

Artikelns resultat baserar sig på en enkätstudie till handläggare inom funktionshinderområdet i Sverige och redovisar deras arbetssituation, med fokus på konsekvenser for enskildas rättssäkerhet. Det övergripande syftet med artikeln ar att belysa aspekter av rättssäkerhet i ärenden enligt LSS. Rättssäkerhet är ett begrepp som givits flera betydelser, framfär allt en formell och en materiell definition (Peczenik, 1995). Vi argumenterar för att den materiella definitionen hör bättre samman med lagmotivens, liksom funktionsrättskonventionens (CRPD) fokus på mänsklig värdighet och likvärdigt bemötande vad avser LSS tillämpning. Resultaten visar att flera LSS-handläggare inte anser att deras hemkommuner fattar rättssäkra beslut och att utförda bedömningar är lite av gissningar eftersom tydliga riktlinjer saknas. Vidare anges att arbetsledare ger instruktioner om vilka insatser som får beviljas och vilka som ska avslås, utifrån budgethänsyn snarare än bedömningar av behov. Enkätsvaren redovisar också situationer där brukare blivit kränkande bemötta. Sammantaget leder detta till en oförutsebar rättssäkerhet for brukaren.

50404This article addresses the documentation and handling processes within the social services concerning applications of housing for homeless families with children, from the perspective of central articles of the Convention of the rights of the Child (UNCRC). Of particular interest is if or to what extent the children of the homeless families participate (article 12) during the application process and if an analysis of the best interest of the child (article 3) has been conducted. These two articles are essential keys for providing a children’s rights perspective and to initiate an analysis of the consequences for the involved children. For that purpose, we have analysed 270 social services files concerning applications for housing made by homeless families in Malmö during the year 2017 emanating from a R&D report of Malmö municipality. Our findings show that only very few files documented the voice and participation of the children in the homeless families and a complete analysis of what could be considered to be in the best interest of the child or children in the families were lacking in almost all files. We also found that parts of previous documentation were recycled and used in various situations without adaption and seemed to be more of standardized phrasing rather than a comprehensive analysis. There was also a use of internal authority checklists and guides when justifying and supporting the decisions made where families receiving such decisions probably did not get any wiser of such justifications.

This article investigates the need and sources of knowledge among LSS administrators in Sweden (i.e. social workers handling service and support for individuals with disability according to the Swedish Disability Act [LSS]). Changing and challenging working conditions and issues concerning professional status warrant the aim. A questionnaire distributed via gatekeepers in a number of municipalities demonstrated that knowledge about ‘disability’, ‘law’, ‘ethics’ and ‘augmentative and alternative communication’ was rated highly. This result is particularly interesting given that many social work education programmes do not have compulsory courses in disability. Colleagues appear to be relied upon as essential sources of support and knowledge, but the knowledge sharing seems unorganised. Findings are discussed in relation to communities of practice (CoP) and shows that, due to the lack of essential knowledge from formal education and the strong dependence on colleagues, a locally developed praxis might be established. Inadequate theoretical and research-based knowledge, together with this local praxis knowledge, may result in the LSS administrators’ work becoming inadequate. A specialist education in disability studies is proposed as a prerequisite for being employed as an LSS administrator, and the inclusion of a theoretical and scientific framework in the regular CoP interaction is also recommended.

The potential for information and communication technology (ICT) to support the delivery of social services, and the possible benefits afforded, have been acknowledged in numerous studies. The many obstacles to the adoption and integration of ICT into social services have also been documented. This paper provides a summary of those issues as the backdrop to the description of a study conducted to understand the adoption of a specific technology (OmMej) in the context of children’s social care in Sweden. This study looks at the perceived benefits provided through the use of OmMej, particularly in terms of the opportunity for children to have a voice in their care and the impact on this technology on social work practice. The study also identifies barriers to the successful deployment of the tool, and some lessons learned that can inform other implementation efforts. drawing to explore international student experience in Scotland. Historically rich pictures are difficult to interpret and are often used to gain a holistic understanding of a system of concern and thus are disregarded in terms of providing in-depth qualitative data. We will explore the use of inter-coder content analysis to gain a deep understanding of group thinking. In the context of this study, using content analysis, our findings revealed a detailed understanding of Scottish culture and traditions from the perspective of international students. We determine that visuals have a vast capacity to communicate, irrespective of possible language, culture and education barriers, and thus offer unique insight into a complex system of stakeholder understanding. 

Since July 1st, 2020, honour is viewed as an aggravating circumstance in criminal cases in Sweden, and it is suggested that honour related violence and oppression should become a criminal offence in its own right. Interventions directed towards victims of honour crimes have been implemented, but fewer have targeted the offenders. The purpose of this article is to mirror the Swedish legal and discursive framework against the perspective of the perpetrators. While we discuss findings with relevance for practitioners, particularly in the light of recent legislative changes, our main focus is set on subjective understandings of honour crimes. In particular, questions about the perpetrators’ norms and worldviews, their perceptions of the concept of honour, and their experiences of the Swedish justice system are investigated. Using court verdicts and deep interviews, we highlight important themes under the following four headlines: (1) Collectivism, norms, and traditions, (2) Complexities of honour crimes, (3) Marginalization, social vulnerability, and stereotyping, and (4) Reflections in retrospect.

This article gives insight into some of the complexities that courts will have to handle given the recent and pending changes in Swedish legislation and provides knowledge that can be implemented in social and legal work to combat honour related violence and oppression.  

This article argues that court-ritual unawareness, linguistic shortcomings and stereotypical images about non-Swedish otherness impair the position and acting space for immigrants in a Swedish district court context. Drawing on two ethnographically informed research projects focused on courtroom interaction during more than 20 trials dealing with ‘domestic violence’ and ‘street-related crime’, we claim that immigrant voices are often silenced due to taken-for-granted practices in court. Through analyses of interviews, performances, interpreted hearings and references to a desirable Swedishness, it is argued that situations are created where immigrant participants may experience their possibility of being understood as limited and their voices as being unheard. Such conditions are emotionally draining and may result in participants choosing silence over stating their case. This is a problem, not only within the individual court case, but also for the overall legitimacy of the court system and for issues of institutional trust among citizens.

This paper addresses the risk of research exposing people with an immigrant background in criminal court cases to Internet-based racist persecution, due to mismanagement of general ethical guidelines. The principle of informed consent, ideally serving to protect people under study from harm may, in fact, cause them more harm due to the interest among certain Internet-based networks of spreading identifiable, degrading information. Arguments are based on ethically challenging experiences from two ethnographic research projects carried out in Swedish district court environments, focused on immigrant court cases. Ethical advice provided by ethical review boards and established research guidelines, were based on an unawareness of the potentially destructive rendezvous in media attractive immigrant court cases between ‘ethically informed’ research, crime journalism, freedom of information legislation and ‘Internet vigilantes’ on a quest to persecute court participants and their families in the global digital arena.