Abstract

Titel:” It's a wonder you've survived everything you've done "- a qualitative study of four young men's stories of going in and out of crime.

Authors: Ahmed Abdi & Therese Hildemar

Institution: University of Gävle, Department of Social Work and Criminology, VT 2020.  

Juvenile crime is a debated topic in society. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of ex-criminals on the factors that have contributed to how they developed and got out of their criminal lifestyle. The study has been conducted by semi-structured interviews with four young men, former criminals. The results of the interviews showed that several factors worked together as to why the men developed a criminal lifestyle: growing up with a single mother, narcotics abuse, defective education and the feeling of wanting to belong to a community. The reason why these young men get out of criminality varies. Factors that did play apart were imprisonment, treatment of substance abuse or that they were no longer able to maintain a criminal lifestyle. The conclusion is that it is not possible to point out a factor as decisive, but there are various factors that play a crucial role in informants' development and termination of criminal behavior.