Objectives
One of the starting point for work with human rights is to prevent and combat men's violence against women and children (VAW), including honor-related violence and oppression (HRV). According to the WHO (2013), a large part of the global burden of disease was related to VAW. In Sweden, fifteen new legislative changes were introduced to clarify the authorities' responsibility for violence within the family. Recently, a regulation was established in Sweden, which stipulates that a number of higher education programs in Sweden must include teaching on VAW and HRV. This presentation will describe the findings from an interview study, which investigated Swedish social workers' experience of working with honor-related violence and oppression.
Method
A convenience sample of eleven social workers from seven different social welfare offices participated in the study. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Results
Participants state that teaching about VAW and HRV has been lacking in their undergraduate education and that that creates difficulties in their operational work. Furthermore, work with HRV was perceived as a controversial area, associated with many dilemmas. This despite the fact that many social workers know that violence within the family is often an important factor when people end up in different forms of distress and misery. The lack of knowledge makes it difficult for the social services to develop methods and approaches to assist the victims of violence and their relatives.
Conclusions
It is important to create legitimacy for social workers to work on issues relating to human rights, including VAW and HRV. The research community’s knowledge of the field needs to be implemented as soon as possible in a variety of higher education programs. Relevant professionals must be offered training and education in dealing with social inequality and developing approaches that can realize human rights in practice, in particular the violence that occurs within the family. Further research may be developed by examining:
- Are there ideological contradictions among researchers that hinder development in the field?
- Do social workers experience acceptance and a mandate to work with VAW and HRV?
2019.