To Örebro University

During recent decades, evidence-based treatment programs havebecome a given part of the youth justice system. Typically, such programs areevaluated through quantitative effect studies, in which a variety of outcomemeasures play a significant role. This case study offers an alternative, interactionalevaluation of a treatment program. More specifically, the analysis focuses on anAggression Replacement Training (ART) session that was held at a youth detentionhome in Sweden. In this session, two trainers and three detained adolescent boysperform an exercise that serves to teach the latter various apology practices. Adetailed, conversation analytic examination of the interaction in the session showsthat the trainers repeatedly problematize the boys’ contributions in a kind ofdeviant-making enterprise. Thus, rather than recognizing competencies that dobecome visible through closer inspection, the trainers one-sidedly highlight lackand deficiency. It is argued that the interpretative frame of ART, with its focus onpathologization, individualization, and responsibilization, amplifies the incarceratedboys’ deviancy, hence symbolically locking them up in a second, nonmaterialor discursive, sense.

In international comparisons, Sweden is one of the countries with the lowest number of children growing up in poverty; its material standard is high, and welfare services are extensive and heavily subsidised. How child poverty can be understood in that context is interrogated in the article. The point of departure for the discussion is Swedish Save the Children’s 2013 anti-poverty campaign Fattigskolan [Poverty School]. The campaign presents child poverty from the vantage point of a welfare state and is informative for understanding normative discourses on childhood. Childhood is investigated as a social imagination that both structures children’s and parents’ everyday lives and organises society. It is argued that the dominant social imagination is based on a middle-class fantasy permeating the organisation of the welfare state. The elements of this fantasy are critical to understanding child poverty. 

The present study aims to analyze how young people narratively negotiate their position as victims, how their social surroundings react to their victim positioning and what types of support they are offered. It is argued that those who position themselves as innocent victims receive support, while those who do not position themselves as such are left to fend for themselves. It is concluded that receiving support functions as a way for young victims to keep intact their narratives of who they are; while young people who did not receive support and acceptance for their positioning needed to re-negotiate their narrative to make sense of who they are after the victimization. Thereby, the victimizing event was incorporated into their narrative identity.

Forskning om och med barn kräver noggranna etiska överväganden. Den här boken handlar om några av dessa överväganden och här fördjupas diskussionen om barn och unga som forskningsdeltagare. Boken omfattar både forskningsetik i bemärkelsen reflektion över hur forskning tar hänsyn till och skyddar deltagarna, och forskaretik i bemärkelsen forskarens reflektion över sin relation till själva forskningsuppgiften.

Med hjälp av konkreta exempel, från både författarnas och andras forskning, identifieras och förklaras etiska frågor som är av särskild betydelse när barn deltar i forskning. Boken tar sin utgångspunkt i den nya barnforskningen, även kallad barndomssociologi, och handlar mer om att forska med barn än att forska om barn. Därtill riktas ett särskilt fokus mot barn i utsatta situationer.

Etiska reflektioner i forskning med barn är tänkt att utgöra ett underlag för reflektion och diskussion om etiska frågor i forskning där barn deltar. Författarna belyser frågor som uppstår då etiska aspekter måste vägas mot aspekter som påverkar studiens kvalitet. Därmed är den en praktisk hjälp vid förberedelsen av forskningsprojekt där barn eller unga planeras delta. Tyngdpunkten ligger på kvalitativa intervjuer, men exempel från enkätstudier ges också och i många avseenden är resonemangen i boken tillämpliga för många typer av datainsamlingsmetoder.

Män för jämställdhet (eng: Men for Gender Equality - MfGE) is a non-government Swedish organisation with a vision for “a gender equal society without violence”. Critical gender theory serves as the platform for the organisation and its projects. Two of MfGE’s projects: Jämt föräldraskap (eng: Equal Parenthood - EP) and Frihet från våld (eng: Freedom From Violence - FFV) are particularly good examples of how MfGE is working to prevent men’s violence against women. EP promotes equal parenting by developing and offering activities directed at new and expectant parents, with special focus on fathers. Half of their activities are directed at local parental and father groups across the country. FFV offers early violence prevention aimed at children and young people in order to limit the incidence and consequences of violence in young people’s intimate relationships by adopting methods that highlight the importance of bystanders. This programme is an adaptation of the American Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP). Although the programmes in their Swedish versions need further evaluation to establish their evidence base, their firm correspondence to what the literature identifies as important aspects for succeeding in preventing men’s violence qualifies them as promising projects.

The recurring demand in Sweden today is to view children witnessing domestic violence as victims of crime. In this article, we discuss the ontological status of the child and how witnessing violence might affect this status. In light of research on children witnessing domestic violence and how these children are described in support methods, we aim to contribute to the understanding of the ontology of children and particularly of the child witnessing domestic violence. This is related to the political history of and current theories on children. Previous research shows that witnessing domestic violence increases the risk for developing violent behaviors. Despite this, current Swedish support methods pay little attention to possible use of violence among these children. This could entail that important aspects are not given discursive space within interventions. Chris Jenk’s writing on mythological imageries of children is related to children witnessing domestic violence. The imageries of Apollo and Dionysus respectively produce different ideas about innocence, vulnerability, responsibility and competence. An Apollonian imagery of children witnessing domestic violence focuses exclusively on children as victims, ignoring their potential for violence. The Dionysian imagery on the other hand generates an idea of children with an innate propensity for violence, which threatens their ontological status as victims. Furthermore, the ontology of children explored in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and a more complex understanding of children is called for. The imagery of Athena is put forth to broaden the understanding of children as responsible and participating on their own terms. This imagery goes hand-in-hand, we argue, with John Wall’s call for a childism parallel to feminism. Athena is put forth to broaden the understanding of children as responsible and participating on their own terms. This imagery goes hand-in-hand, we argue, with John Wall’s call for a childism parallel to feminism.