Kan fotboll rädda unga personer från kriminella gäng? En kvalitativ studie gällande fotbollstränares upplevelser av att använda fotboll som brottspreventiv åtgärd i utsatta områden.

Abstract

This paper aims to increase the knowledge about the relationship between football and social sustainability by investigating football as means of crime prevention. In recent times, Sweden has faced a situation where there is an increased level of young people involved in criminal activity. The government has formulated various strategies to deal with the situation and a specific part of civil society that has been given a prominent role within the crime prevention strategy are football associations in socio-economically vulnerable areas. This study therefore examines football coaches' experiences of using football as a crime prevention measure in socioeconomic vulnerable areas. The data has been collected by qualitative interviews with three football coaches. Furthermore, the data has been analyzed through factors that are presented in Ekholm's literature review of Swedish and international literature that concerns the field of sport as a crime prevention measure. The results indicate that in order for football to work as an effective crime prevention tool, and furthermore contribute to the development of social sustainability, it needs to be given the opportunity to produce social capital, a concept that is defined by Putnam. Additionally football needs to be organized based on specific structures and include specific elements in order to be able to generate social capital and thereby work as an effective crime prevention measure. For example, non competitive logics and elements of non-sporting aspects, mainly with identity-enhancing components, are important. At the same time, it is possible to find indicators that football coaches can be seen as gatekeepers between football and football´s opportunity to contribute to a strengthened individual ability.