Recent studies indicate that approximately 10- 20% of girls and boys in the 9th grade in Sweden are affected by honor-related problems (HRP). The results from these studies also show that these children tend to turn to their teachers with these specific issues. However, there is limited research concerning HRP and especially in a school context focusing on the perspective of teachers. Consequently, the aim of this thesis was to explore how HRP are approached by teachers in a school context, by focusing on their knowledge and experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the teachers’ ideas and perceptions of this issue. The five interviewed teachers had all taken part in a learning-opportunity about HRP. To understand why the teachers approached and understood HRP the way they did, the theory of coping was used. The result shows that the teachers feel as their learningopportunity was essential for identifying, discovering, and preventing HRP. Despite this knowledge, the interviewees experienced HRP as unfamiliar, sensitive, intimidating, and difficult to detect. Therefore, coping with HRP was perceived as challenging and threatening. This led to a cautious approach, where the teachers distanced themselves from the issue and tried to avoid dealing with it. Further, the result also showed that the teachers seemed eager to improve their preventive and identifying skills and will continue to raise awareness in the classroom. A crucial task for future research will be to identify effective strategies for the identification and prevention of HRP in a school environment.

The study aims to describe and analyse the relationship between norm and practice regarding social services casework on honour-related problems. The relationship between norm and practice involves the difference between the way it is intended that social workers shall operate in these cases and how they perceive that this works in practice. We interviewed two focus groups of eight Swedish social workers, four in each group. We also held an individual interview with a social services business developer. Focus group interviews were based on two vignettes; one depicting an honour-related case and the second an "ordinary" case. The purpose of the vignettes was to investigate whether there is a difference in the assessment and handling of ordinary versus honour-related cases. The results of the interviews were analysed using Hasenfeld's theory on Human service organizations. We also used Lipsky's theory on street-level bureaucracy. We displayed similarities to previous research showing that social workers are unsure of how to assess and act on honour-related cases. It was evident that the social workers we interviewed were confident working "ordinary" cases involving child abuse, but felt uncertain dealing with honour-related cases. Because they are less frequent they have developed neither routines nor guidelines for them. The study showed that social workers’ lack of knowledge of honour-related problems and differences in culture limits their effectiveness in these cases. The results suggest that the social workers we interviewed rely on outside expertise when they are insecure, and consequently feel that they have no need for action plans or guidelines in honour-related cases. Lack of guidance and inadequate knowledge presents difficulties for social workers to meet the girls’ needs for help and support.