Juvenile delinquency and the responsibility of social services : The implementation of the new Social Services Act

The discussion about how crime prevention work in Sweden should be conducted has been going on for a long time and has intensified due to the ongoing debate about criminal networks and the recruitment of children and young people. Through qualitative interviews with social service professionals, the aim of this study is to develop an understanding of how social services intend to manage the new Social Services Act and the relationship between preventive work and the requirement for a knowledge-based approach in relation to juvenile delinquency. The study is based on neo-institutional theory and de-implementation as theoretical concept. The results and conclusions of the study show that the implementation of the new regulations on preventive work against juvenile delinquency is characterized by a general preventive perspective and focuses heavily on basing the work of social services on knowledge. The implementation process is marked by mimetic isomorphism and is thus shaped by what is perceived as legitimate within the organizational field. Finally, the study shows that the relationship between preventive work against youth crime and knowledge-based approaches is complex, as prevention is difficult to measure. However, the new law enables more knowledge-based crime prevention efforts by strengthening the provisions on collaboration within the organizational field.