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full screen “This risks causing some children to come out in a worse condition than they were in when they were placed at HVB,” says Peter Allheim at Noa. Archive image. Photo: Magnus Lejhall/TT
Several HVB homes are run by organized and family-based crime, according to a survey of Sis and HVB homes carried out by the police in 2023. The report also shows that gang members are employed at the homes.
“Repealing children’s basic rights to free movement and then placing them in facilities that not only lack proper care programs but are even run by serious criminals is extremely serious. This risks causing some children to come out in a worse condition than they were in when they were placed at HVB,” says Peter Allheim, commissioner of the police’s National Operative Department (Noa), in a press release.
The report is based on a previously classified intelligence report from the Swedish Police Agency in which SIS and HVB homes in Sweden were reviewed.
Between January and November last year, the police searched the country’s Sis and HVB homes. A total of 2,865 escapes and deviations came to the attention of the police. In connection with this, it also emerged that the majority of HVB homes are run by organized crime and staffed by people from criminal networks.
“There are many real heroes within the municipalities and HVB homes who do absolutely fantastic work. But the police have a social responsibility to inform about the sometimes non-existent testing of the personnel who are hired, as well as the shortcomings in, for example, control systems and supervision,” says Peter Allheim.
FAKTASis and HVB homes
HVB home (home for care or accommodation) is an institution within the social services that receives young people for care or treatment. Many HVB homes are privately run.
Sis-homes are youth homes run by the state authority The State Board of Institutions, where individually adapted compulsory care and closed youth care are provided.
The majority of the inmates at the homes are children and young people who have been taken into care according to the LVU (the Act on the care of young people) for, for example, substance abuse. A smaller percentage are taken into care under the LSU (Act on Closed Youth Care) after being convicted of a crime.
Even adult addicts can receive care at special LVM homes under the auspices of Sis according to the law on care for addicts.
Sources: The National Board of Institutions, Sweden’s Municipalities and Regions, the National Board of Health and Welfare
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