Young Delinquents in Child Welfare

Elina Pekkarinen (University of Helsinki, Finland)

In Finland children less than 15 years of age are not held responsible for their criminal behaviour. Instead they become clients of child welfare services. However often youth crime and child delinquents are covered in the media and public discussions, only few researches have been made to explore the issue of what happens to children who commit crimes? What kind is the societal reaction of child welfare directed to them? How does the child perceive his situation? What about the social worker?

In my doctoral thesis I aim to study the position of a delinquent child in the field of social welfare system through qualitative case-studies. In each case I shall try to find out how the child, the social worker and the social work documents construct the position of the child. I am also interested to find out how the parties perceive the future and how it is construed in the documents. The theoretical background of the study is in the societal reaction theory of Edwin M. Lemert.

Research is in the data collection phase. Due to this I shall not be able to give results or analysis of the data. Instead I shall go through the theoretical presuppositions of the study and hope to reflect the plan with the audience. I would like to give my oral presentation in English.

MSc (Soc.Sc.) Elina Pekkarinen

Department of Social Policy Studies

PL 18

000014 University of Helsinki

Finland