Swedish social workers’ support to female survivors breaking free from male intimate partner violence

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study sheds light on how Swedish social workers interpret and handle support needs of female survivors trying to break free from male intimate partner violence (IPV). This is investigated through fifteen group interviews with forty-nine social workers in thirteen different organizations (social service support units and shelters run by NGOs and for-profit companies). The material is analysed thematically. The first theme focuses on how social workers saw structural obstacles that hindered survivors from leaving their abusive men, but felt that their discretion (cf. Lipsky 2010) to change these were limited. Instead, they directed support towards emotional obstacles. The second theme illustrates differences and difficulties in offering survivors long-term, holistic support to break free from post-separation violence, and how support risk becoming a lottery where survivors might not always receive the support they need. The study indicates that social workers in NGO women’s shelters may try to deal with structural obstacles and offer ‘holistic’ support. Social workers in organizations with other perspectives and limited resources may instead delimit support – and (unintentionally) treat violence as an individual rather than social problem.