As the number of cases of the COVID-19 virus spread across the world in the beginning of 2020, governments decided to take measures to stop the spread of the virus. These measures limited individual’s freedom of movement and soon thereafter, the number of domestic violence cases increased. While the increase in domestic violence has almost interchangeably been linked to the enforcement of lockdowns, statistics have indicated an increase in domestic violence in Sweden as well whereas they never enforced any lockdowns. The aim of this thesis is thus to explore this issue further by interviewing staff at women’s shelters and support services in Sweden to examine how they perceive how the pandemic has impacted the situation of men’s violence against women (as most cases of domestic violence is a matter of a man abusing a woman), their organizations, and their relationship with the women. The theoretical lens of shared trauma has been used to explore how the relationship between the organizations and the women have been affected as they navigate through the shared traumatic reality of the pandemic. The analytical tool used in this study is by a thematic analysis, whereas 7 themes were located: (1) Change in the level of support, (2) Change in the level of violence, (3) The role of the media and public perception, (4) Economic uncertainty and vulnerability, (5) Governmental directives, (6) Sharing a traumatic experience, and (7) Posttraumatic growth. The study concludes that the pandemic has impacted the women’s shelters and support services in this study quite a lot, both in negative and positive terms. Whilst the study indicates an increased level of men’s violence against women, the organizations have on the other hand been forced by the pandemic to develop their organizational structure to reach the women who have been isolated in their homes, and thus improved a lot of tools to support these women in the future.

In the wake of increasing community disasters such as hurricanes, neighborhood violence, and terrorist attacks, schools are usually deemed places where youth can find safety and stability. Research about community trauma related to the role of teachers and schools has predominantly focused on younger populations, concerned about disturbances in their developmental processes. School teachers' responsibilities related to these community disasters have also increased and now include supporting their traumatized students. However, there has been limited attention on the direct effect of community traumas on the teachers who work and live in affected districts. The construct of shared trauma describes this duality of roles. For African American teachers, racial trauma plays a role in their everyday lives and might affect their behaviors and responses to tragic events. Critical race theory and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory formed the framework for this phenomenological study, which explored the experiences of 6 female African American teachers who had experienced community disasters. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed using an enhanced version of the Colaizzi 7-step analysis method. Key findings were that race played only a limited role for the teachers when significant traumas occurred in their communities. Also, the experiences they described were indicative of vicarious trauma, which is inconsistent with the construct of shared trauma. This study contributes to social change by informing educational, political, and social institutions about the needs of teachers in the wake of community disasters and how those needs could be conceptualized as vicarious trauma for purposes of planning preventive and concurrent interventions for teachers.