A way out together? : A qualitative study on the social worker's role in supporting youth to leave criminal networks

Despite the social services' mandate to protect vulnerable youth, Sweden faces a growing crisis where a significant number of boys under 21 are involved in criminal networks and yet few receive support to leave. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the social worker's role in supporting toung people to leave criminal networks. We aim to contribute knowledge about how the social services' organizational structures and resources affect the support provided to the young individuals. A qualitative research method was used based on semi-strutured interviews. Eight practicing social workers within municipal social services, were interviewed. They hold different professional titels and come from five different cities in Sweden. The empirical data will be analyzed using Hasenfeld's (2010) theory of human service organizations and Lipsky's (2010) theory of street-level bureaucracy and discretionary power. The main conclusion of this paper is that it's extremely diffiicult for social workers to support young people in leavning criminal networks. As long as the young person isn't motivated to leave the network, there is littel the social worker can do about it, apart from working preventively with at-risk children who exhibit behaviors that may lead to recruitment. The social worker's role is complex and constantly involves balancing dilemmas regardning whether the best interest of the child or the interest of the society should take priority.