Syftet med studien har varit att öka kunskapen om hur utredande socialsekreterare ser på fenomenet barn som upplever våld mellan närstående och hur deras tolkningar förhåller sig till de lagar och riktlinjer som finns gällande barn som upplever våld. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex yrkesverksamma barn- eller ungdomsutredare, vilka alla arbetar för socialtjänsten på förvaltningar inom Stockholm stad eller i kranskommuner till Stockholm. Intervjuerna har gett ett material som sedan analyserats mot Michael Lipskys teori om Street level bureaucracy, samt tidigare forskning. Studiens resultat visar att de socialsekreterare som intervjuats ser allvarligt på det faktum att barn upplever våld mellan närstående. Samtliga respondenter anser att barn som upplever våld mellan närstående själva är offer för psykisk misshandel. Dock framkommer det i studien att våldet i sig av vissa respondenter anses få för stort utrymme i arbetet, de menar att våldet kan vara ett uttryck för andra missförhållanden som riskerar att missas om allt för mycket fokus läggs vid att enbart utreda våldet. Vad gäller hur studiens respondenter förhåller sig till lagar och riktlinjer visar studiens resultat att kännedomen om riktlinjer är låg. Respondenterna uttrycker ingen avsaknad av rutiner och de argumenterar om eventuella för- och nackdelar vad gäller införandet av rutiner i deras arbete. Socialsekreterarna är överens om att arbetet genomsyras av individuella bedömningar och att det inte går att göra generaliseringar i arbetet. De menar att för att kunna utföra arbetet på ett tillfredställande sätt är det individuella synsättet en förutsättning. / The purpose of the study has been to increase the knowledge of investigative social workers view on the phenomenon of children who experience violence between related people and how their interpretations relate to the laws and guidelines that apply to children who experience violence. The study has been conducted through qualitative semi structured interviews with six professional children or youth investigators, all of whom work for social services at administrations in Stockholm city or in cranes to Stockholm. The interviews have given a material that has been analyzed against Michael Lipsky's theory of Street level bureaucracy, as well as previous research. The results of the study show that the social workers interviewed seriously look at the fact that children experience violence between their relatives. All respondents believe that children who experience violence between their relatives themselves are victims of mental abuse. However, it appears in the study that violence in itself is considered by some respondents to get too much space in their work, they argue that violence can be an expression of other misconceptions that are likely to be missed if too much focus is placed solely on investigating the violence. As regards how the respondents respond to laws and guidelines, the study results show that the knowledge about guidelines is low. Respondents express no lack of routines and they argue for pros and cons regarding the introduction of routines in their work. The social workers agree that the work is permeated by individual assessments and that generalizations at work not can be done. They say that in order to be able to perform the work satisfactorily, the individual approach is a prerequisite.

Children who experience violence is one aspect of the work of social secretaries and is a complex assignment in their work. The purpose of this essay has been to understand how social secretaries describe their work within their discretion on children who experience violence. More specifically focus has been on cases where there is a lack of consent to voluntary interventions according to the Social Services Act and when compulsory care is not possible. Previous research about this specific situation is limited which makes this study necessary. The questions of this study had a focus on how social secretaries use their discretion in these cases, which challenges they meet in their work and also their reasoning on today´s legislation regarding children who experience violence. The method of this study has been qualitative semi-structured interviews with five social secretaries in three different municipalities in Sweden. Our results have been analysed with previous research and two theoretic starting-points, discretion and caring power. This study shows that knowledge about children who experience violence is an important part in the work of social secretaries and is a crucial factor in children’s right to protection. It also shows that parental rights to refuse interventions is a major aspect that prevents the possibilities of social secretaries to protect children who experience violence which the social secretaries describe as a difficult challenge. Another difficult challenge described was when parents deny that their children are experiencing violence and there is a lack of proof in the same time. The social secretaries in this study expressed a wish to have a possibility in the law to force parents of children who experience violence to receive interventions even though there is a lack of consent.

Syftet med följande studie är att undersöka vilken verkan lagändringen i Brottsbalken (SFS1962:700, 4 kap. 3 §), avseende barnfridsbrott, har fått för socialtjänstens arbete. Vidare ämnarstudien belysa socialarbetares upplevelser av att arbeta med barn som upplevt våld mellannärstående. Studien antar en hermeneutisk utgångspunkt och använder sig av organisationsteorin,professionsteorin och begreppet handlingsutrymme för att tolka och förstå resultatet. Femsemistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med socialarbetare som dagligen kommer i kontaktmed barn i sitt arbete. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades därefter genom kodning ochen tematisk analys, vilket resulterade i att två huvudteman och sju delteman identifierades. Avstudiens resultat framgår att lagändringen inte haft någon större påverkan på det praktiskaarbetet, då socialtjänsten redan arbetade utifrån barnets bästa i stor utsträckning. Däremotupplever respondenterna att arbetet för rättsväsendet och andra samverkanspartner har förändratstill följd av lagändringen. Likaså har samverkan ökat, både internt inom socialtjänstens olikaenheter, och externt mellan olika myndigheter och andra samverkanspartner. Studien påvisar attbarns rättigheter delvis har stärkts då barn i allt större utsträckning ses som egen part. Samtidigtfinns brister i samverkan och begränsningar i svensk lagstiftning och praxis, som gör det svårtför socialarbetare att tillförsäkra barns rättigheter. / The aim of this study is to examine what effect the new law regarding violation of children’sintegrity has had on social services’ work. The study adopts a hermeneutic approach and usesorganizational theory, professional theory and social worker's use of discretion to interpret andunderstand the results. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five social workers. Theinterviews were transcribed and subsequently analyzed through coding and a thematic analysis,which resulted in the identification of two main themes and seven sub-themes. The studyconcluded that the change in the law did not have a particularly large impact, since the socialservices were already working in the best interest of the child to a large extent. However, socialworkers feel that the work of the judiciary and other cooperation partners has changednoticeably. Likewise, collaboration has increased, both internally within the social services, andexternally between different authorities and other collaboration partners. Furthermore, the studyshows that children's rights have been partially strengthened, as they are increasingly seen astheir own party. Despite this, there are shortcomings in cooperation and other limitations inSwedish legislation and practice that make it difficult for social workers to ensure that children'srights are met.