Go get 'em tiger! When children are targeted by Criminal Law Policy not Social Law Policy

• By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s view on the State, particularly the idea of the left hand and the right hand of the State, statutory reforms and policy in Sweden targeting youths committing crime will be analysed. While the left hand is constituted by, e.g., social welfare, education and health care, the right hand is constituted by, e.g., the justice system, the police and prisons. As will be discussed, one might argue that the handling of underage children committing crime have shifted from the left hand to the right hand of the State. In the Swedish context, it should be stressed that it is a continual development. One need to acknowledge that until the 1980s and 1990s, crime was generally framed as social problem with social causes. Since then, crime has been portrayed as a threat to the democratic society. More recently, on the policy level, crime is framed as a threat to the society and its functions. Consequently, criminal law policy is no longer viewed as a part of social policy. Instead, social policy has emerged as criminal law policy – but with other means. In other words, policies previously adopted within social law has shifted toward becoming criminal law. This particularly appears to be the case in adopted policy and statutory reforms concerning underage children. An illustrative example is the introduction of juvenile prisons for children between 15-17 years. The rationale behind the reform is that underage children committing crimes are a threat to us all, i.e., motivated by the “need to protect society”. This threat is deemed so severe that underaged children should be imprisoned. This marks a shift, since underage children committing crime previously have been handled within the Social Services, not the Swedish criminal justice system. Aside from elaborating the development outlined here, some tentative thoughts on possibilities and risks connected to the policies targeting underaged children will be discussed. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik -- Juridik och samhälle (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law -- Law and Society (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

criminal law policy

social law policy

welfare

juvenile prisons

young offenders

Rättsvetenskap

Law

Criminal law

Straffrätt

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)