Negotiating young, gang-affiliated masculinities in youth detention

• In Event: WCCJ Panel 4 – Expressions of Masculinities

Abstract

In Sweden, young offenders are rarely sentenced to prison. Instead, these offenders usually receive care in closed youth detention centers run by the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS, founded thirty years ago, in 1993).

The end of the 2010s saw an escalation in conflicts between a number of criminal networks, predominantly in the country’s three largest cities. The increase in fire-arms-related lethal violence observed in Sweden as a whole, can almost exclusively be understood as a result of these conflicts. At the center of these conflicts are young men.

Using in-depth interview data with staff and youth, this study explores how SiS’ work is affected by the youths’ affiliation to criminal networks and how youths with these affiliations view SiS work, staff, and their own prospects for life outside. We also study how youths with no known network affiliation experience these questions.

Utilizing an intersectional lens, this study will investigate the identity negotiations at play in these settings. Young men in criminalized networks are demonized in the current discourse on organized violent crime, but how does the youths themselves view their position in society? What are their hopes for the future? And how does the staff view these young men and their prospects of desistance and rehabilitation?

Authors

• Robin Gålnander, Stockholm University

• Tove Pettersson, Stockholm University

• Christoffer Carlsson, Stockholm University