Den bortglömda gruppen. En studie om stödinsatser för anhöriga till personer som sitter på anstalt.
The forgotten group: A study of support for relatives of incarcerated individuals.
The daily lives of relatives of an incarcerated individual are affected and changed by the fact that their kin has become incarcerated. This made us want to research what kind of support these individuals are in need of and what kind of support the society is offering them today. Because of their kins behaviour, these individuals are also often exposed to feelings of shame and stigma. Therefore we have, with Goffmans theory of stigma in mind, looked into how this affects the relatives daily lives. We have focused on the support offered by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. We wanted to look into how the daily lives of the relatives changes in aspects of the economical situation, their physical and psychological health, their emotional difficulties and how the incarceration is effecting the relationship between the relative and the prisoner. This study was done from the perspective of professionals and lay people working with these or similar cases and because of this understand the needs of the relative. We also asked the questions ?what does the society offer the relatives today?? and ?who is responsible to offer such support to the relatives??. Through eight interviews, four in person and four phoneinterviewes, have we tried to get a broader and wider view of this issue. The interviews were done, as mentioned, with individuals who through their workplace more or less come in contact with this group of people, and therefore can give a description of the relatives situations. The answers that were given were compared to discern differences and similarities. The result of the study show that the professionals and lay people generally believe that there is a need of support for this group of people since the incarceration changes the relatives lives in many different ways.
Keywords: Incarcerated, need, relatives, stigma, support