Taking it forward - Swedish Researcher Meeting on confinement of youth

Swedish secure care institutions are run by the state authority the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (SiS) and have the task of providing compulsory care of children and youths with extensive psychosocial problems, which the social services deem need to be under "particularly close supervision" (LVU § 12).

In recent years, the media attention on secure care has shed light on its complex mission in the borderland between care and coercion. This attention has also pointed to the vulnerability that compulsory care entails for the individual child or youth.

Research on secure care institutions and their target group, children and young people with extensive psychosocial problems, is conducted in several academic disciplines such as social work, criminology, health and care sciences, psychology, sociology and law.

Parts of this research are relatively extensive over time, but today there are no clear structures for gathering researchers in the field, and knowledge gaps remain.

Against this background, the present application deals with a national research conference with the aim of enabling researchers with experience and interest in studying secure care institutions to meet, exchange experiences and knowledge and, in the long run, enable networks and collaborations.