Föräldraansvar i social utsatthet och solidariskt skadestånd : Relevanta professioners uppfattning

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate what different relevant professionals are experiencing regarding parental responsibility and commitment in their contact with juveniles and their parents. Our main focus was socially disadvantaged families. We also wanted to investigate the professionals' opinions on principal parental responsibility since the Swedish political party Moderaterna recently suggested the sum of joint and several liability should be raised in order to motivate parents to take responsibility and hinder their juveniles from committing criminal acts. A qualitative study was implemented and included six interviews. The informants are all employed in different fields of work in Malmö town in which they meet children and their parents, foremost in troublesome situations. Our empirical data were compared to and analysed with previous research data such as peer reviewed studies and scientific articles. This was carried out in combination with two theoretical perspectives relevant to the purpose of our study and its questions at issue. Most of the previous research indicates that juvenile delinquency is mainly contributed by structural problems and that different ways of punishing parents for the acts of their children seldomly increases the likelihood of decreased offending. On the contrary it seems to impair the situation of the affected families even more. The result of our empirical data showed that most of our informants did not regard parental commitment or responsibility as an issue or that the parents they meet lack these kinds of characteristics. Furthermore the overall opinion on a raised sum of joint and several liability was that it would serve no good since the main persuasion of the informants was that structural problems and lack of tools to control and monitor juveniles were the key issues.