Professional understandings of men's violence against women

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. Tidigare svensk forskning om personal som arbetar inom socialtjansten med valdsutsatta har visat att psykoterapeutiska forklaringsmodeller kommit att betraktas som mer professionella an feministiska perspektiv pa mans vald. Flera argumenterar for att det kan leda till ett forlorat fokus pa den maktobalans som rader mellan valdsutovare och valdsutsatt. Till skillnad fran tidigare forskning undersoker den har artikeln socialarbetare som arbetar med behandling for valdsutovare, hur de forstar mans vald, hur de forsoker att forandra sina klienter och vad de betraktar som malet med behandlingen. Intervjuer genomfordes med 16 socialarbetare. De beskriver mans vald som en konsekvens av ett trauma grundlagt i barndomen vilket gor att mannen har svarigheter med att harbargera sina kanslor. Det forsoker socialarbetarna forandra genom att bygga en terapeutisk allians och starka mannens empatiska formaga. Den har psykoterapeutiska forstaelsen tolkar vi som ett uttryck for vilken profession och organisation som kommit att aga problemet. I forlangningen innebar det att till vilken organisation man forlagger ett socialt problem kommer att fa konsekvenser for det praktiska arbetet som kan bedrivas. Pa sa satt blir det viktigt for framtida forskning att undersoka hur fragan om behandling for man som utovar vald mot kvinnor kom att anses som hemmahorande inom socialtjansten.