Hur socialtjänsten fick ansvar för att förändra våldsutövares beteende

Abstract

How personal social services came to be responsible for changing the violent behavioural patterns of perpetrators of men's violence

Research has illustrated how victims of men’s violence became the responsibility of the Swedish Personal Social Services (PSS) and how its organisational conditions have professionalised and circumscribed practice for both victims and perpetrators. Since 2021, the responsibility of the PSS has been extended to include changing the violent behavioural patterns of perpetrators. The aim of this study has therefore been to explore the background of this legislation by asking how perpetrators of violence became the responsibility of the PSS. Following Bacchi´s Whats the Problem represented to be-approach, I analyse representations of the problem in different policies. Three phases are identified, stretching from late 1990 to 2021, when perpetrators of men’s violence are discussed on the political agenda and the PSS is given increased responsibility. First, the problem is not seen as the responsibility of the PSS; nevertheless, thereafter it is given some responsibility. Finally, in the last phase, the municipalities are given legislative responsibility. The problem thus transforms from initially being seen as caused by gender order and family problems to a behavioural issue that can be solved with treatment. In conclusion, I discuss possible explanations for why the PSS has been given responsibility for perpetrators of men’s violence. These include the limited number of actors the legislator had available, the Swedish history of men’s violence as a social problem and the knowledge base and practice that had developed over the years within the PSS. Finally, I discuss why the legislation has been realised as treatment. Overall, I argue that treatment for perpetrators of men’s violence existed in the emerging support field targeting men, which was then taken over and thereby professionalised by the PSS.