Ungdomstjänst : I ungdomens eller samhällets tjänst?

Sammanfattning: The purpose with this essay has been to describe and understand why youth community service became a penalty in Sweden. The political discourse in which youth community service was established has been analyzed with Laclau & Mouffe´s discourse theory. A social constructivist onset and a discourse analysis were the methodological tools of the essay. The result is two folded. Youth community service was created to strengthen the constitutional state, combined with high beliefs of the social services competence. Furthermore the images of the youth offenders had an impact on the argumentation, as well as an ambition to keep the youths outside of the correctional treatment system. The evaluation ten years later showed good results from the new penalty, and wanted to increase the legal security for the youth offenders by making youth community service prescribed by law. The content as well as the intended group the penalty was designed for, has been changed a lot since 1997 when the idea was born.