School as a protection factor and crime prevention arena

Researchers of crime prevention and control have in the last decades noticed significant changes in societal responses to criminal justice, such as privatisation of security governance and informal social control exerted by organisations and communities beyond the justice system. Previous studies have also suggested that a growing number of school staff experience their work as reaching far beyond the school environment resembling that of police officers. This ethnographic study is based on observations and field interviews with school staff with experience of working with pupils who have issues of alcohol or drug abuse, drug trafficking or other criminal behaviour. Drawing on experiences of teachers, school nurses, school police officers, and school hosts this study focuses on crime prevention efforts that are enforced by some Swedish upper secondary schools. The accounts reveal that several crime prevention measures are taken by the school staff such as for example surveillance and close collaboration with the police. A few schools have enrolled “school host” with the task of detecting illicit behaviour and preventing that drug trafficking occurs in the schools. The findings suggest that the upper secondary schools take much responsibility in crime prevention and are thus part of an informal culture of control.