Title:” Now I took his child, what will he do with mine?” A qualitative study on threat and violence aimed at social workers within child protective service. Authors:  Emma Andersson and Torbjörn Sjölin. Supervisor:  Peter Hultgren. Assessor: Barzoo Eliassi. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how social workers within child protective service understand and experience threat and violence aimed at them in their profession and how these understandings and experiences affects their well-being. The study will provide an understanding of the subject at hand and can also lead way for new research areas of how to improve the well-being of social workers within this field.   Method: A qualitative approach based on semistructured interviews has been used as method in this study. To collect empirical material seven currently working social workers from three different municipalities in the same region were interviewed. Theory: The theoretical points of this thesis has been Berger and Luckmanns theories about social construction, theory of social cognition and a model produced in the writing of how interaction between experience and understanding affects the well-being. The different theories and approaches has been a valuable tool to analyze the empirical material gathered in the study. Results: The result of this study is divided in different themes based on the purpose of the study. Our results indicate that social worker within child protective service consider threat and violence as occurring within their profession and that this perception has a negative impact on their well-being. Even though social workers consider threat and violence as not acceptable at work and perceive threat as a part of their job they continue to fulfill their obligations at work. The main explanation, found in this study, is that they consider the well-being of children as higher valued than their own.

<p>The purpose of this study has been to investigate how socialworkers describe their attitudes towards reporting childabuse to the police and if they make different decisions when they believe the violence to be honour related and how they handle these questions. The main questions are; How does socialworkers describe their and their colleagues attitudes towards reporting childabuse to the police and when do they believe they should report? Do they describe honourviolence as a specific kind of violence that should be lifted and in what way does it affect their work? The study is written from a legal sociologist perspective with a qualitative approach. Four socialworkers were interviewed and the interviews were analyzed with an anti-racist theory and with the theory about freedom of action.</p><p>The conclusions is that the socialworkers mostly report childabuse to the police when the violence is physical. This means that children who describes to be subjected to psychological violence, including honourviolence, has poor legal security. Socialworkers describes honourviolence as a specific kind of violence that has to be lifted. Without knowledge they wont be able to help. They feel limited by the legislation and have invented <em>creative solutions</em> that focuses on the child’s best interest.</p>

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how socialworkers describe their attitudes towards reporting childabuse to the police and if they make different decisions when they believe the violence to be honour related and how they handle these questions. The main questions are; How does socialworkers describe their and their colleagues attitudes towards reporting childabuse to the police and when do they believe they should report? Do they describe honourviolence as a specific kind of violence that should be lifted and in what way does it affect their work? The study is written from a legal sociologist perspective with a qualitative approach. Four socialworkers were interviewed and the interviews were analyzed with an anti-racist theory and with the theory about freedom of action. The conclusions is that the socialworkers mostly report childabuse to the police when the violence is physical. This means that children who describes to be subjected to psychological violence, including honourviolence, has poor legal security. Socialworkers describes honourviolence as a specific kind of violence that has to be lifted. Without knowledge they wont be able to help. They feel limited by the legislation and have invented creative solutions that focuses on the child’s best interest.

Syftet med studien är att, utifrån en kritisk-saklig utredningsmetodik, granska hur familjerättssekreterare presenterar och bedömer barnets bästa och våld i nära relationer i 16 vårdnads-, boende- och umgängesutredningar. Utredningarna är gjorda av familjerätten i Örebro kommun. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar har den kvalitativa metoden dokumentgranskning använts i kombination med en semistrukturerad intervju. Studien visar att barn under nio år regelmässigt fråntas rätten att göra sin röst hörd samt att ett vuxet barnperspektiv genomsyrar utredningstexterna. Konsekvensen blir att barnets perspektiv osynliggörs och utelämnas. Språket har en avgörande betydelse för hur våldsproblematik hanteras, våldet tenderar att tonas ner eller ignoreras helt i bedömningen. Våld i nära relationer relateras inte till barnets mående, anknytning eller föräldraförmåga. Det är inte heller något som diskuteras eller tas hänsyn till i bedömningen. Den kritiskt-sakliga utredningsmetodiken har genom sina teoretiska begrepp varit ett grundläggande verktyg i studiens analys och diskussion. Detta har kombinerats med den lagstiftning som reglerar familjerättens uppdrag samt anknytningsteori och barnets bästa. Studien ämnar bidra till reflektion, inspiration och upplysning rörande barnets bästa och våld i nära relationer i vårdnads-, boende- och umgängesutredningar. Förhoppningsvis kan studien även bidra till att öka barnens inflytande i vårdnadstvister, stärka deras ställning och göra deras röster hörda. / The aim of the thesis is to examine, based on critical-factual investigation methodology, how family law secretary’s presents and assess “child’s best” and domestic violence in 16 custody-residence- and contact investigations. The investigations are made by family law in Örebro. To reach the aim of the study and the research questions the qualitative method document review was used in combination with a semi-structured interview. The results of the study showed that children younger than nine years routinely were denied the right to have their voices heard and also that an adult child’s perspective permeates the investigations. The consequence is that the child's perspective became ​​invisible or omitted. Language has an important part in how violence is handled, it tends to be grayed or ignored in the assessment. Domestic violence is not either related to the child’s wellbeing, attachment theory or parenting skills. That is also something that is not discussed or taken into consideration in the assessment. The critical-factual investigation methodology through its theoretical concepts has been a fundamental tool in the analysis and discussion. This has been combined with the law that regulates the family law assignment, attachment and “child´s best”. The study intends to contribute to a reflection, inspiration and enlightenment concerning “child´s best” and domestic violence in custody-, residence- and contact investigations. Hopefully, the study also helps to increase the children's interests in custody disputes, strengthen their position and to make the children´s voices heard.