Professional understandings of men’s violence against women

ABSTRACT

In Sweden, the social services have recently been given legal responsibility to act so that men who are violent against women in intimate relationships change their behaviour. However, research on how professionals in the social services understand intimate partner violence and the violent acts of men is still scarce. By drawing on interviews with 16 social workers who are practicing treatment for male perpetrators of violence, this article aims to explore the professionals’ understandings of the roots of men’s violence against women, what they perceive as the most effective way to help their clients to change their behaviour and what the end goal of the treatment is. The social workers describe the causes of their client’s violence as based in childhood trauma and that the men have severe problems regulating their emotions. It is believed that these difficulties are best treated through the establishment of a therapeutic alliance, allowing for an enhancement of their ability for empathy. Using professional theory, we interpret these results as an expression of a psychotherapeutic knowledge system. Finally, we discuss how a psychotherapeutic understanding has come to dominate work with men’s violence and what the consequences of this understanding are.

ABSTRAKT

Tidigare svensk forskning om personal som arbetar inom socialtjänsten med våldsutsatta har visat att psykoterapeutiska förklaringsmodeller kommit att betraktas som mer professionella än feministiska perspektiv på mäns våld. Flera argumenterar för att det kan leda till ett förlorat fokus på den maktobalans som råder mellan våldsutövare och våldsutsatt. Till skillnad från tidigare forskning undersöker den här artikeln socialarbetare som arbetar med behandling för våldsutövare, hur de förstår mäns våld, hur de försöker att förändra sina klienter och vad de betraktar som målet med behandlingen. Intervjuer genomfördes med 16 socialarbetare. De beskriver mäns våld som en konsekvens av ett trauma grundlagt i barndomen vilket gör att männen har svårigheter med att härbärgera sina känslor. Det försöker socialarbetarna förändra genom att bygga en terapeutisk allians och stärka männens empatiska förmåga. Den här psykoterapeutiska förståelsen tolkar vi som ett uttryck för vilken profession och organisation som kommit att äga problemet. I förlängningen innebär det att till vilken organisation man förlägger ett socialt problem kommer att få konsekvenser för det praktiska arbetet som kan bedrivas. På så sätt blir det viktigt för framtida forskning att undersöka hur frågan om behandling för män som utövar våld mot kvinnor kom att anses som hemmahörande inom socialtjänsten.

KEYWORDS:

• Professionalism
• Treatment for men’s violence
• Social work

KEYWORDS:

• Professionalism
• Behandling för män som utövar våld mot kvinnor
• Socialt arbete

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mira Sörmark

Mira Sörmark is a social worker and a PhD student at the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University. Her PhD project is an ethnographic exploration of treatment within the Swedish Personal Social Services for men who have been violent towards a female partner.

Torbjörn Bildtgård

Torbjörn Bildtgård is associate professor in Sociology and lecturer in Social work at Stockholm university. For the last 15 years his research has mainly focused the family relationships of older people in late modern society, including grey divorce, new intimate relationships in later life, ageing stepfamilies, ageing without a family and more. He is currently associate editor of the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life.

Lena Hübner

Lena Hübner is associate professor and senior lecturer in Social Work at Stockholm University. Her research interests are primarily connected to drug and alcohol misuse; she has done research on Swedish and Nordic alcohol and drug policies and on social work with drug and alcohol misusers. She has also written about evidence-based social work, on social work and its terminology and of the Swedish education of social workers.