The purpose of the study is to examine what effects the law has on principals’ approaches to mandatory reporting of child maltreatment (Social Services Act 14:1§). Moreover, the aim is to study if the regulation gets the impact intended. To respond to the purpose, legal science methods in the form of sociology of law were employed aided by qualitative semi-structured research interviews. The interviews comprised six principals in six different schools in the Stockholm area. The interviews were analyzed based on sociology of law theory, earlier research and relevant regulations in social law. The outcome indicates that principals’ understanding of the intentions behind mandatory reporting of child maltreatment is limited in some aspects. There is a difference between the interviewed principals’ official approaches and how they answer that they apply mandatory reporting in practice. When deciding how to apply the mandatory reporting, the child’s best interest is weighed against the parents’ right not to be reported to the authorities unless there is a real concern in the child. The principals suggest that in situations when a report does not lead to action, the reporting creates a bad relationship between the parents and the school. According to the principals, these situations affect the children and their wellbeing
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-63505 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Dahlin, Kalle |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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