Early interventions no “quick fix” against the gangs

Early interventions are highlighted in the election campaign as a way to prevent young people from being drawn into crime.

Such investments can be an important part in reversing a negative development for the individual – but it may take a long time before we see any clear results from larger investments.

Tougher penalties, scrapped penalty discounts and an opportunity for the police to intercept gang members for preventive purposes. Proposals for a tougher crackdown on the criminal gangs have been pouring in heavily, both before and during the election campaign. But behind the increasingly tough rhetoric, there is also another type of proposal which is linked to Swedish law enforcement but which does not have the same impact in the debate, namely “early interventions”.

For example, the Social Democrats write that “successful crime-fighting requires early preventive measures” and the Environmental Party “When we see risk factors in children, measures must be taken early. Then there is a greater chance of saving a young person from crime”. The moderates also list the “previous efforts, especially in lower grades” in place 17 in their program of 52 reforms to prevent crime.

Absence from school

It is not clear exactly what the parties mean by early interventions, but according to the National Board of Health and Welfare’s definition, it involves interventions that are given early in the child’s life, based on age, or at an early stage of an incipient negative development.

– It is proven that it pays off for the individual and for society if you identify children who need support and come in early, so that you can work preventively to prevent the problems from growing too big, says Liselotte Persson Öhrn, investigator at The National Board of Health and Welfare with a focus on issues relating to social services and children and young people.

Interventions can be universal, i.e. those given to everyone, or targeted at children where there are signs of negative development and risk factors. An example of the latter is when the school discovers that a child has a lot of absences or exhibits behavior that breaks the norm.

– It’s about society’s various actors needing to collaborate more and use the knowledge that exists, because we know a lot about which risks we need to identify early in children and young people. People usually talk about the fact that the preschool often knows early on which children would need more support, so there is a lot of competence and knowledge, says Liselotte Persson Öhrn.

Support for parents

She also emphasizes the importance of focusing on protective factors that have a positive impact:

– Functioning schooling, stable and supportive parenting and having meaningful free time. It is about strengthening protective factors in children, because that is known to be effective.

One type of early intervention that seems to have a clear effect is parenting support programs, where parents are taught to better manage children’s behavior problems. Most of the studies that have been done have at best followed up the situation after one or two years and the results are very convincing according to Knut Sundell, an expert in social work at the State’s preparation for medical and social evaluation (SBU).

– It seems to have a clear effect, but then we don’t know how it goes in adolescence and adulthood. We don’t know if parental support training actually prevents, postpones or prevents people from joining criminal gangs, says Knut Sundell, who nevertheless advocates that effort “theoretically reasonable”:

– It turns out that children who are aggressive run the risk of getting into trouble at school. Those children can then seek out others who are in the same situation, and the risk is then that they reinforce each other’s antisocial behaviour. Because adults often complain about these children that they are rowdy, they are also somewhat vaccinated against adult influence, he says.

Could take ten years

Liselotte Persson Öhrn also says that it is difficult to know for sure what effect early interventions have in the long term.

– If you offer support very early in a development or early in a child’s life, you know that it can have an effect on an unfavorable development, but it is very difficult to evaluate exactly what could have been if you had not provided this support the effort.

Interventions that are known to have a negative effect, however, are programs aimed at discouraging children and young people from committing crimes. Longer institutional placements together with other young people with serious norm-breaking behavior can also have a negative impact.

Both Knut Sundell and Liselotte Persson Öhrn assess that it may take a long time before any positive effects are seen if there are larger investments in early interventions in Sweden.

– You can assume that it will be a long time before we know anything for sure. If we are talking about genuinely early efforts, then we are talking perhaps ten years before we can anticipate results. It is important that the investments made are evaluated in such a way that we learn something, says Knut Sundell.

Facts

Parent Support Program

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