Förebygger medling återfall i brott bland unga gärningsmän En återfallsstudie av medlingsverksamheterna i Hudiksvall & Örnsköldsvik

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to investigate mediation’s crime prevention effects. The question that has been answered is: which crime prevention effects mediation has had on young criminals who have participated in mediation programs? The investigation was made in relation to a comparable control group and included a reoffence analysis based on a multivariate analysis. This reoffence study mainly focuses on that the mediation prevents crime through the feelings of shame that the young perpetrator has due to the fact that the crime has been made clear and reinforced at the mediation meeting. The following hypothesis is addressed in this study: Mediation involves the trust between the young perpetrator and his/her parents and has a conflict-solving and crime-prevention effect. By committing a crime, the youth has broken the trust with his/her parents, who have condemned the action. The parents feel the shame from those around them, and because of this resume their position against the youth. The main conclusion is that the total population of youths who participated in mediation programs relapsed into crime to a lesser extent than the youths who did not participate in mediation. The risk for a relapse was twice as high for the youths who did not participate in mediation. A statistically significant relationship emerged between mediation and relapse with regard to party and person plaintiff status, but it is not possible to draw any conclusions whether mediation has a better or worse effect between plaintiff status. The significant effect of relapse for respective gender showed that girls relapsed to a lesser extent than boys. It was not possible to statistically determine whether the youths who were born abroad respective born i Sweden have relapsed to a greater extent. Regarding the age groups there was no statistically significant relationship as to whether youths relapsed to a greater or lesser extent depending on whether they were under or over fifteen years of age. Furthermore, it has not been possible to statistically determine whether group mediation has had a different outcome in relapse frequency as compared to individual mediation, and it has not been possible to distinguish whether compensation at mediation has had any effect. There emerged significant relationships between mediation and relapse for the crime categories ‘crime against life and health’, ‘crime against freedom and peace’, ‘burglary, robbery and other theft crimes’ and ‘vandalism’.