The aim of the study was to create a greater understanding concerning social workers'experience and their discretion to balance between voluntary and compulsoryinterventions in child welfare. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate social workers'attitudes regarding the implementation of an intermediate compulsory care accordingto the law regarding compulsory care of children and adolescents. Previous researchhas identified a problem where the child is between voluntary and compulsorylegislation which can lead to the child continuing living in harmful conditions. Theempirical data is based on nine interviews with social workers in child welfareinvestigations units in Sweden. Lipsky's (2010) theory of street-level bureaucrats andthe term discretion were used to analyze the data and interpret the results obtainedfrom the study. The results showed that social workers' experience limited discretion.Strategies that were most successful were the relationship-building between socialworker and caregivers, communicative skills, and the application of the law. Thestudy also revealed that social workers had different points of view regarding animplementation of an intermediate care. Some find the implementation hard toenforce in practice, even though it could result in increased child protection. Theconclusion of the study was that the social workers would rather add moreinterventions than an implementation of an additional compulsory law. / Syftet med studien var att skapa en förståelse för socialsekreterares erfarenheter och deras förmåga att balansera mellan frivilliga och tvingande insatser inom den sociala barnavården. Dessutom ville vi undersöka socialsekreterares inställning till implementeringen av ett mellanvårdstvång enligt 2 § i lagen om särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga. Tidigare forskning har identifierat ett problem där barnet befinner sig mellan frivilliga- och tvångsinsatser, vilket kan leda till att barnet fortsätter att leva under skadliga förhållanden. Empirin baseras på nio intervjuer med socialsekreterare inom den sociala barnavården i Sverige. Lipskys (2010) teori om street-level bureaucrats och begreppet handlingsutrymme användes för att analysera data och tolka de resultat som erhållits från studien. Resultaten visade att socialsekreterarna upplevde ett begränsat handlingsutrymme. Strategier som var mest framgångsrika var relationsskapande mellan socialsekreterare och vårdnadshavare, kommunikativa färdigheter och tillämpning av lagen. Studien visade också att socialsekreterare hade olika inställningar om implementeringen av ett mellanvårdstvång. Vissa tycker att det är svårt att genomföra i praktiken, även om det skulle kunna leda till ökat skydd för barnet. Slutsatsen av studien var att socialsekreterare hellre vill ha tillgång till fler insatser än en implementering av ytterligare en tvångslagstiftning.

No description available.

The school counselor is the person who works with social work in the school. A school counselor's assignment is multifaceted, with duties playing a central role in health promotion and prevention work against for example mental illness, bullying and abusive treatment. The aim of this study has been to increase understanding of how school counselors and principals perceive the school counselor's assignment and the limitations that affect it. Our study emanates from eight semistructured qualitative interviews with school counselors and principals which were analyzed using sentence concentration. The results show that the assignment is perceived as vague where job descriptions are unclear. This in turn affects the school counselors' discretion. School counselors feel that their role is "fuzzy" and that there are unreasonable expectations from other professions. Furthermore, the results show that the main factors that control and limit the assignment are laws, regulations, guidelines, lack of resources such as time and finances, and the expectations of the principal and other professionals. Our conclusion is that school counselors need a clearer job description in order to clarify their assignment and their role at school. The school counselors described a desire to be able to devote more time to preventive work in order to be able to work more proactively than reactively.

The aim of this study was to examine school counselors' experience working with high school students' psychosocial health during spring 2020 when school was online. The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with nine school counselors. The result showed that school counselors used their discretion at a greater extent to help and support their students during spring 2020. They also said that the online communication made it easier for some students to contact the counselors. The school counselors said that there were some students that dislike the online way of communicating and in these cases the school counselors made other arrangements for them. Furthermore, the school counselors could see that virtual learning had an impact on the students psychosocial health mainly due to the lack of everyday routines and social contact with other students. The results of the interviews were analyzed using the theoretical concept of discretion and the professional meeting. The conclusion states that school counselors need to incorporate digital communication in their everyday work even when school is not online to be able to meet the needs of every student. It also shows the great impact school has on students' psychosocial health.

This study aims to discuss the conditions for a curative work with detained children in Sweden. Furthermore we will illuminate the connection between the conditions and the different professional roles at the detention centers. Along with this discussion we want to shed light on the psychosocial health of detained children to see if there is a need for curative work. The two research questions are: ●  What are the conditions for curative work for detained children? ●  In what way do professional roles affect the conditions for curative work? The method that was used to examine our research questions was semi-structured interviews with professionals working with detained children in the same arena but with different approaches. The interviews were conducted with seven people. Five of whom are employed by Kriminalvården (The Swedish correctional service - ‘The criminal care’) and two who are employed by an external actor and work with children in detention centres. The result shows that the discretion for curative work differentiates depending on what professional role the person is assigned. It appears that curative work is needed for the children's wellbeing. The result also shows that the guidelines and work ethics of Kriminalvården have not been adapted to the high number of detained children.

Syftet med intervjustudien är att undersöka hur personal på skyddat boende upplever sitt nuvarande arbete med barnen samt hur de tror att deras arbete kan påverkas av de nya lagändringarna som framförs i propositionen “Stärkta rättigheter för barn och vuxna i skyddat boende”, med utgångspunkt i att barn ska få egna placeringsbeslut. Empirin har samlats in genom intervjuer med åtta personal på olika skyddade boenden, såväl ideella som privata. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån professionsteori, handlingsutrymme och yrkeskompetens. Resultatet visar att personalen på skyddat boende har ett relativt stort handlingsutrymme i arbetet med barnen eftersom det inte finns någon reglering kring hur arbetet ska bedrivas. De arbetar för att barnen ska få känna en trygghet i att de befinner sig på en plats fri från våld och för att barnen ska känna sig inkluderade. Resultatet visar även att stöd och hjälp till barn ser olika ut beroende på vilket skyddat boende de befinner sig på eftersom kraven att arbeta med barnen, och därmed kompetensen och resurserna, varierar. Att barn ska få egna placeringsbeslut välkomnas av de flesta respondenterna då det ger upphov till tydliga riktlinjer i arbetet med barnen. Det framkommer dock farhågor kring att vissa barnhandläggare på socialtjänsten brister i kompetens om våld, samt att det kommer att leda till kortare placeringstider på grund av ekonomiska skäl. / The aim of study is to examine how staff in sheltered housing perceive their current work with children and how they believe their work may be affected by the new legislative changes proposed in the bill "Strengthened Rights for Children and Adults in Sheltered Housing", based on that children individually are going to grant a placement decision. The data were collected through interviews with a total of eight professionals in various sheltered housing facilities, both voluntary women's shelters and privately operated sheltered housing. The results were analyzed based on professional theory, discretion and professional competence. The findings indicate that professionals in sheltered housing have a relatively large discretion in working with children, as there is no regulation governing how the work should be conducted. They work to ensure that children feel secure in a place free from violence and to make them feel included. The results also show that support and assistance for children can vary depending on the specific sheltered housing facility, because the requirements to work with the children, and thus the skills, vary. Most professionals welcome that children individually are going to grant a placement decision, as it provides clear guidelines for working with children. However, there is a concern about social services child welfare workers lacking expertise in handling violence, and that the placement times are going to be shorter due to economic circumstances.

No description available.

Research shows an increase in alcohol consumption among older generations, leading to a rise in alcohol-related issues within this age group. In spite of this, there is a lack of knowledge and national guidelines regarding alcohol abuse among the elderly, resulting in complex work for social welfare officers and home care personnel who must balance the statutory self-determination rights of care recipients with a reasonable standard of living. Through 10 conducted interviews, this study aims to find out how social welfare officers and home care personnel work with alcohol abuse among elderly individuals. The data collected has been analyzed through thematic analysis, aiming to find answers on how professionals describe the work with alcohol abuse among the elderly, as well as how they balance self-determination with a reasonable standard of living. The study's result shows the complexity of working with alcohol abuse among the elderly, the lack of guidelines and policies, as well as the challenges it poses for professionals in their daily work.

Si les développements technologiques dans le domaine de la science forensique améliorent sans contredit les capacités de détection et la précision des appareils et des analyses effectuées, la qualité, l’intégrité, l’efficacité et l’efficience de l’exploitation des traces matérielles à des fins judiciaires et sécuritaires demeurent avant tout tributaires de décisions humaines prises tout au long du processus forensique, de la scène d’incident au tribunal. À ce sujet, bien qu’ils soient désormais reconnus comme des acteurs au premier plan du déploiement des efforts forensiques, les techniciens en identité judiciaire responsables de l’investigation des scènes d’incident n’ont fait l’objet que de très peu d’études empiriques. Pourtant, les quelques études qui sont disponibles mettent en lumière un degré élevé de variabilité dans leurs pratiques et leurs performances en matière de recherche et de collecte de traces matérielles, suggérant ainsi un processus décisionnel sur lequel nous ne savons toujours que très peu de choses. Dès lors, la thèse se propose de mieux comprendre, à travers une lentille théorique inspirée de certains concepts-clés issus de la sociologie de l’expertise et de la sociologie de la police, l’orientation des stratégies de recherche de traces matérielles par les techniciens en identité judiciaire. Plus précisément, elle cherche à approfondir les mécanismes de prise de décision et le système de savoirs occupationnels auquel se réfèrent les techniciens en identité judiciaire pour guider et justifier leurs actions, les processus de construction et d’acquisition de ces savoirs occupationnels ainsi que l’étendue du pouvoir discrétionnaire des techniciens en identité judiciaire et les conditions sous-jacentes à sa reconnaissance. Pour ce faire, la thèse repose sur une enquête de terrain de type ethnographique réalisée auprès de 19 techniciens en scène de crime du Québec entre 2020 et 2022, combinant 18 entretiens semi-directifs (35 heures) et près de 165 heures d’observation participante (au poste et sur de véritables scènes d’incident). Les résultats de la thèse révèlent, d’une part, que l’orientation de la recherche de traces matérielles par les techniciens en identité judiciaire est dépendante d’un système de savoirs occupationnels tacites largement ambigu, voire contradictoire par endroits, nécessitant l’interprétation des mandats, des normes informelles et des méthodes à privilégier pour prendre ou justifier une décision. D’autre part, ils suggèrent que ces savoirs seraient principalement issus, aux yeux des techniciens en identité judiciaire, de l’expérience pratique (à titre de policier et de technicien en identité judiciaire) et des échanges avec les pairs expérimentés, traduisant un discours soutenant le primat de la socialisation professionnelle informelle sur la formation et l’éducation formalisée. Enfin, les techniciens en identité profiteraient d’un important pouvoir discrétionnaire de facto leur permettant d’exercer plutôt librement leur jugement professionnel et de définir les savoirs qui sont considérés comme légitimes. Mis ensemble, ces constats proposent de comprendre la prise de décisions des techniciens en identité judiciaire en matière de recherche de traces matérielles au prisme de l’interaction entre un pouvoir discrétionnaire dynamique et un système de savoirs occupationnels ambigu et plus ou moins partagé. / While technological developments in the field of forensic science are undoubtedly improving detection capabilities and the accuracy of the equipment and analyses performed, the quality, integrity, effectiveness, and efficiency of the exploitation of material traces for judicial and security purposes remain above all dependent on human decisions made throughout the forensic process, from the crime scene to the courts. In this regard, although they are now recognized as key players in the deployment of forensic resources, crime scene examiners responsible for investigating incident scenes have only been the subject of very few empirical studies. Yet, those that are available highlight a high degree of variability in the practices and performances of crime scene examiners regarding the search for material traces, suggesting a decision-making process about which we still know very little. This thesis therefore aims to gain a better understanding of the orientation of crime scene examiners’ strategies for searching material trace through a theoretical lens inspired by key concepts of the sociology of expertise and the sociology of policing. More specifically, it seeks to investigate the decision-making mechanisms and occupational knowledge system to which crime scene examiners refer, the processes of construction and acquisition of such occupational knowledge, and the extent of crime scene examiners’ discretionary power and the conditions underlying its recognition by other stakeholders. The thesis is based on an ethnographic fieldwork among 19 Quebec crime scene examiners between 2020 and 2022, combining 18 semi-structured interviews (35 hours) and around 165 hours of participant observation (at the office and at actual incident scenes). The results of the thesis reveal, on the one hand, that the orientation of the search for material traces by crime scene examiners depends on a tacit system of occupational knowledge which is largely ambiguous, even contradictory in places, leaving room for interpretation of mandates, norms, and preferred methods for making or justifying a decision. On the other hand, they suggest that such knowledge is mainly acquired, in the eyes of crime scene examiners, from practical experience (as a police officer and crime scene investigator) and exchanges with experienced peers, reflecting a discourse supporting the primacy of informal professional socialization over formalized training and education. Finally, crime scene examiners would benefit from a significant de facto discretionary power, enabling them to exercise their professional judgment rather freely and to define the knowledge that should be considered legitimate. Taken together, these findings suggest that the decision-making process of crime scene examiners in the search for material traces can be understood through the prism of the interaction between a variable discretionary power and an ambiguous, more or less shared, system of occupational knowledge.

Substantive gender equality has yet to be achieved in South Africa. As such, when a decision is made for one of the spouses to a civil marriage to stay at home and care for the children born of the marriage, or make career sacrifices to care for children, that spouse is usually the wife. As a result, while the husband continues to amass wealth and grow his earning potential, the wife is unable to do so. In circumstances where such spouses are married out of community of property or subject to the accrual system with onerous exclusion clauses in the antenuptial contract, the wife may be left with little more than a claim for rehabilitative maintenance in the event of a divorce. The courts only have the discretion to make an equitable distribution of marital property in civil marriages with complete separation of property concluded prior to 1 November 1984 (or 2 December 1988) and customary marriages. It is arguable that this limitation of the judicial discretion violates the equality clause contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. A broad judicial discretion to equitably redistribute the spouses’ assets upon divorce is therefore proposed in this dissertation. / Private Law / LL.M.