The aim of this study was to examine the problems behind disclosure and why children do or do not tell about the sexual abuse. The empirical base of this thesis was six autobiographies. Aspects of guilt and shame in relation to the disclosure process were the main topics in this study. Also, the difficulties with disclosure as well as the surrounding conditions that facilitate the disclosure are mentioned. The following difficulties were found: guilt/shame, denial of the sexual abuse, fear for the disclosure’s consequences, the lack of support from family and surroundings, distorted reality perception/the normalization process of violence, the power imbalance between perpetrator and victim. Regarding conditions that facilitate the victims’ disclosure, the following aspects were found: internal factors, surrounding conditions and evidence of the sexual abuse. In addition, these theories were applied: the affect theory and the normalization process of violence.

Grooming, sexuella övergrepp onlina, ökar och enligt forskning tillskrevs dess offer mer negativa attityder i kontrast till offer som utsatts för sexualbrott som skett i verkligheten. Studiens syfte var att undersöka skillnader i studenters attityder gällande en flicka som utsatts för grooming kontra sexuella övergrepp utan initerad kontakt online. Även könsskillnader i negativa attityder undersöktes. Fyra enkäter med olika scenarion besvarades av 290 studenter mellan 17-59 år. Resultatet visade att mer negativa attityder tillskrevs offret som utsatts online i jämförelse med offret som utsatts för övergrepp utan initierad kontakt online. Män påvisade mer negativa attityder än kvinnor i samtliga scenarion. Resultaten överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. Att bemötas av negativa och skuldbeläggande attityder från omgivningen kan utöver de personliga konsekvenserna leda till att färre anmälningar görs, vilket följdaktligen bidrar till att fler gärningsmän går fria.

This study aimed to gain an understanding of how social workers emotionally dealt with cases where there were suspicion or knowledge of sexual abuse of children occurring. This study was based on six qualitative interviews with social workers within child and youth units at social services in Stockholm County. The theoretical framework was Hochschild’s theory of emotional work. In accordance with previous research, our results showed that emotions in social work are extremely important and that children who have been exposed to sexual abuse cause a more emotional working environment. The social workers wanted to protect the children who had been abused. The results also showed that some form of specialist education should be compulsory required to work with children and to investigate their families and environment.

The purpose of this study has been to describe and analyze how former foster children experienced foster care which have been filled with maltreatment and neglect and how this has influenced their adult life when it comes to health, education and relationships. We also wanted to study how the former foster children coped with their placement. Furthermore we wanted to study whether there has been any turningpoints during their growth. Finally we wanted to describe how the former foster children experienced the authorities control. To make the purpose of this study complete we chose to use qualitative interviews with six former foster children as our research method. When we analyzed the results we used developmentalpsychopathology, sense of coherence and earlier research. Our results shows that former foster children who have been maltreated and neglected in foster care have health problems, both mental and physical, they enter adolescence with low education and they have problems with close relationships. Our results also shows that former foster children who have been in foster care for a longer timer tend to have lower Sense of coherence. Furthermore our study shows that our interviewees are satisfied with their lives today.

The present thesis investigates the dilemmas and difficulties the staff at a youth detention home encounter and struggle with when working with young women who are understood to be victims of sexual abuse. At the center of attention is talk about the problems of talking about sexual abuse and other difficult experiences. The overall aim in conducting the study was to open up an arena that has been neglected and little investigated - youth detention homes for girls and young women, by talking to staff and the young women at the detention homes, and talking about sexual abuse. Also in focus was the young women's own thinking about the body and sexuality. The findings are presented in five articles. The first article examines what discursive devices are employed when using the focus group method when talking to the young women in forced care. The study shows in what ways the focus groups is a fruitful method for studying marginalized young women and their views and thoughts about being young women today. The second article addressed the issue of how the staff form narratives of sexual abuse. Stories of sexual abuse were "power stories" as well as "work identity stories" and were considered to have the power to heal as well as the power to harm. The third article examines the process leading up to the definition of sexual abuse. The study is concerned with the process in which the staff members define whether or not a young woman has been a victim of sexual abuse. A determining factor was whether or not the act involved a person who was defined as a victim. A core issue was an evaluation of the credibility of the alleged abused girl and the degree of consent. The fourth article addresses the issue of how the staff and the young women at the detention home talk about sexuality. The article compares the different views of the staff and the young women and concludes that the staff talk about the young women as asexual children and as victims of sexual abuse, and the young women talk about themselves as having sexual agency. Finally, the fifth article shows how the young women talk abut childbearing and motherhood. The study shows that the issue of talking about sexual abuse and other difficult experiences is complex. The different views of how to talk about sexual abuse, whether to talk about sexual abuse, when to talk and to whom, as well as the question about whether there is a need to talk, makes the issue of talking about sexual abuse multi-layered and contradictory.

Through an internship at a nonprofit organization called ATSUB[1], specialized at giving support to non-offending parents to sexually abused children, one of the authors to this study found that there was a lack of care for the parents by governmental operations. While studying the previous research we found a great deficiency when it came to non-offending parents and far most about non-offending fathers. We found studies proving that the child’s non-offending parents are the best support for the child during their healing process. Research also shows that parents must be able to get good support and treatment during their crisis for the parents to be able to support the child, since they’re also in great despair over their child being sexually abused. We decided to do qualitative interviews with professionals who care for the non-offending parents within the county of Kalmar in Sweden. We found through the informants affidavit, studying the previous research and applying theoretical approaches that the support is good but misdirected. The results have shown that there are some miscommunications between government operations and specialized knowledge in treating parents and their situation doesn’t exist or its deficit. The professionals knew what kind of needs the non-offending parents have and they knew how important the parent is for the child’s wellbeing. The professionals also believed that it was important to give individual care to the parents, but there’s where the problem lies, they have such a great focus on the child’s treatment that the care for the parents who are supposed to be the most valuable support for the child, falls aside. [1] Anhöriga Till Sexuellt Utnyttjade Barn (Parents To Sexually Abused Children)

The purpose of this study is to deepen the knowledge of investigative work with children exposed to sexual abuse through an examination of social workers experiences of interorganizational cooperation within Swedish Barnahus. The data in this study was obtained from seven interviews with people who works within Barnahus with cases where children has been exposed to sexual abuse. The findings of this study shows that professionals experiences of cooperating within Barnahus is positive and looked upon as helpful, but also that it needs improvements in various areas. Access to competent staff is invaluable, but the cooperating actors in Barnahus need to learn more about each other’s professions.

Sexual abuse is a global issue that can result in psychosocial consequences for the on that has been abused. Statistics show that girls and boys in high school age are among the group that are most vulnerable to sexual abuse and studies shows that high school counselors have or should have resources that can help students that has been abused. The purpose of this study is, through interviews study the work of high school counselors regarding students that have been sexually abused but also how they work to prevent sexual abuse. We also wanted to investigate if there are any differences in the mode of work depending on gender. Our study is based on interviews of six high school counselors that we interviewed in person at their work place. To analyze our data, we took help from previous research on the subject but also theories about action space, sexuality and gender. Our result shows that the high school counselors work in different ways to help students that have been sexually abused but there are no specific guidelines on how the high school counselors are supposed to work to prevent sexual abuse and deal with students that have been abused. Their main job is to be a support system for the student if she or he need to talk to somebody and guide the student through the process of pressing chargers or contacting different authorities. It became evident in our study that prevention and the way of dealing with sexual abuse needs to improve in the high school counselors’ work, which most of the school counselors said themselves. None of the counselors said that they work differently based on the student´s gender but half of them used the word boy when describing the perpetrator and girl when describing the victim. With the help of our theory we could see that there is a perception in society where the male gender is often seen as the perpetrator and that this perception affects how high school counselors see and talk about sexual abuse. This perception makes it also more difficult for boys to talk about sexual abuse and also realize when they have been victims of sexual abuse.

Vid frågor som rör barns utsatthet för sexuella övergrepp har internet fått en allt större roll där den omfattande teknikutvecklingen har lett till nya möjligheter för personer att ta kontakt med unga för sexuella ändamål. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka skolkuratorers erfarenheter av att möta och arbeta med unga som utsatts eller riskerar att utsättas för sexuella övergrepp på nätet. Studiens empiri baseras på kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju skolkuratorer som arbetar på högstadium. Empirin analyserades med hjälp av en teoretisk referensram bestående av yrkeskompetens samt tidigare forskning. Resultatet visar att skolkuratorerna arbetar till med förebyggande insatser såsom kunskapsspridning och utbildning till både elever och föräldrar. Det framkommer dock att insatserna ter sig resultatlösa då alltfler elever blir utsatta och skolkuratorerna har inte har kunnat se några förändringar. För att fånga upp elever som blivit utsatta för nätövergrepp utgör relationen ett viktigt verktyg. När det gäller att stödja elever som blivit utsatta utförs arbetet vid misstanke eller när skolkuratorerna har fått kännedom om att en elev har blivit utsatt. En utmärkande utmaning är skolkuratorernas kunskapsbrist kring fenomenet som leder till svårigheter i det förebyggande, upptäckande och intervenerande arbetet. / The internet has gained an increasing role when it comes to issues regarding child sexual abuse, where the extensive technology development has led to new opportunities for people to contact young people for sexual purposes. The aim of this study was to investigate school counselors' experiences of meeting and working with young people who are exposed or at risk of being subjected to sexual abuse online. The empirical study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven school counselors’ working at high school. The empiric material was analyzed using a theoretical framework consisting of professional competence and previous research. The result shows that school counsellors’ work on preventive measures such as information work for both students and parents. However, it appears that the efforts seem futile as more students are being exposed and the school counsellors’ have not been able to see any changes. In order to capture students who have been subjected to sexual abuse online, the relationship is an important tool. When it comes to supporting students who have been exposed, the work is carried out on suspicion or when the school counsellors’ have become aware that a student has been exposed. A distinct challenge is the lack of knowledge about the phenomenon that leads to difficulties in preventive, spotting and intervening work.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka vilka erfarenheter pedagoger i förskolan har om “ barn somfar illa ”, och hur de hanterar denna problematik. Detta har utförts genom en kvalitativ metod i form avsemistrukturerade intervjuer, med fokus på pedagogerna i förskolans verksamhet. Metoden har vuxit framur en hermeneutisk ansats vilket har yttrat sig i en tolkade aspekt av pedagogernas perspektiv på barn somfar illa. Studien innefattar sammanlagt tio verksamma pedagoger och det har besökts sex förskolor i tvåolika kommuner. Den insamlade empirin har noggrant analyseras, tolkas och sorterats, vilket har bidragittill resultatets fyra huvudområden; Relationen mellan pedagog och barn , Pedagogernas erfarenheter kring barnsom far illa , Pedagogernas roll och ansvar gentemot barn som far illa och Anmälningsplikten med dess hinder.Resultatet i studien belyser vikten av att skapa en positiv relation till barnen som grundas i trygghet, därde får bekräftelse och uppmuntran. Pedagogernas erfarenheter kring barn som far illa var inte stor, utanresultatet visade på en bristande kunskap hos dem kring att uppfatta signaler som barn kan uppvisa om defar illa. I intervjuerna framkommer det att pedagogerna i studien upplevde anmälningsprocessen ochbegreppet barn som far illa, som problematiskt. Studien visade på att begreppet innefattade olikadefinitioner utifrån varje enskild pedagog. Pedagogerna upplevde sig ändå ha en del kunskaper angåendebemötandet och hanteringen av barn som far illa. Studiens resultat visade att pedagoger främst behövermer kompetens och utbildning för att öka kunskapen och se signaler hos barn som indikerar ett rop påhjälp. / <p>Betygsdatum 2018-01-05 i Ladok.</p>