The sound of silence : En kvalitativ studie om framställningen av misstänkta med utländsk bakgrund i frivårdens personutredningar

Sammanfattning: Our aim in this essay was to find if suspects of foreign and Swedish background were presented differently in personal case studies made by the probation authority. We have conducted a content analysis of the personal case studies with male assault offenders in the range of 18-23 years old. The study showed that the suspects of foreign background were presented differently in comparison to the suspects of Swedish background. The differences were noticeable foremost in the description of the suspects relationship to family and friends, but also in the description of the suspects possible criminal values. The personal case studies differed in the way that the suspects of Swedish background had more of a detailed description of relationships to family and friends, but they were also given the opportunity to value their own experience of their relationships. While the description of relationships to the suspects of foreign background consisted more of a mapping of family members and friends with no description of how the suspect experienced the relationships. The presentation of the suspects possible criminal values differed in the way that in the personal case studies of the suspects of Swedish background included a professional statement about their non-criminal values, but the suspects of foreign background had no such statement nor that they had criminal values. Although this haven´t affected the final statement that the probation officer has done. We have argued that the lack of relationship description and statement of criminal values had made the presentation of the foreign suspect as someone who could be perceived as an impersonal stranger with unknown criminal values where preconceived ideas can grow and lead to stigmatizing processes.