BASKET, BÖCKER, BROTT - Ett socialt projekts påverkan på brottsligheten

Abstract

Aims and objectives: BonnierHoops is a social project held during the summer holiday combining basketball and book reading, targeting adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Sweden. During the fall of 2019 BonnierHoops in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg, received attention from national media after the police presented data indicating that crime reports in the local area had dropped by close to 50 %, compared to earlier summers, before BonnierHoops. The purpose of this thesis is to examine if, and in that case how, socially oriented youth projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods, that does not have the purpose of being crime preventive, still can be crime preventive. Our inquiries are: What is the connection between BonnierHoops and the crime development in Biskopsgården? How can BonnierHoops be understood as potentially socially and situationally crime preventive? What is important for social projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods to have an effect on the crime development? Method and data: We have conducted a case study using mixed methods. The data consists of 38 interviews with police, private enterprise, municipal officials and sport clubs in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and with adolescent visitors at the project in Gothenburg. The data also consists of six hours of observations, four years of crime reports analyzed through a difference-in-difference modelled regression and a vast amount of mapping other similar social projects in Sweden. Results: We have not been able to retrieve the same impact on crime reduction as reported in media. Crime has been reduced in the local area but not to that extent and we cannot rule out other explanations to that reduction. However, through empirical findings, previous research 3 and theory we have found that there is good potential for social projects in disadvantaged areas to work both socially and situationally crime preventive. In order to take advantage of the preventive potential we have essentially found that the project needs to be placed in a deprived local area - it needs to be a place impacted by crime and fear of crime where the local community can and needs to build collective efficacy. To build collective efficacy the target group should be broad in order to sustain long term effects, and the project needs to be organized by a credible enforcer. If the projects seeks to target individual groups within the communities, considerations needs to be addressed regarding activities and placement of the project. Depending on how future projects choose to address these aspects, the social and situational preventive effects will most likely be different.