Perspectives on violence

Violence matters! This journal issue aims to increase awareness of the significance of this statement in the context of Nordic social work research and practice. More inclusive definitions of the concept of violence refer to the use of power to harm another, whatever form it takes (Henry 2000, 3; Iadicola & Shupe 1998). In social work, the concept of violence covers the full range of harms embedded in interpersonal, institutional, and structural relationships including physical, psychological, emotional, material or economic, social, moral or ethical dimensions. Violence wrecks and shortens people’s lives, it causes fear, pain, suffering, as well as demeans, debilitates, disempowers and oppresses, survivors, third parties and neutral observers and perpetrators. An example of just how central violence is to social work research is that the term is used directly in titles of 13 NSWR articles and a topic of over 70 journal articles. Nordic social work researchers have mainly focused on child abuse, intimate partner violence against women, and sexual violence against women. While awareness of new and emerging forms of violence, reflecting global trends, such as hate crimes, abuse of older people, human trafficking and labour exploitation, colonization, forced migration, as well as civil and global violence and terrorism is increasing.

Social work researchers continue to challenge assumptions as to the nature of violence in Nordic countries. Although in the past the social work profession has been justifiably criticized for blaming the victim, failing to recognize abuse as a problem and not making the most appropriate interventions and referrals (Mullender 2002: Mullender et al. 2002: Ekström 2019). Social workers and social scientists have tended to approach research as if violence only existed on the fringes of society and was experienced by the most disadvantaged and marginalized individuals (Walby 2012). More recently Nordic social work researchers have actively pursued violence towards women and children and have actively questioned whether the level of gender equality in Nordic countries has resulted in a decline of family violence (Gracia and Merlo 2016). Leading researchers have provided new insights as to the nature of intimate partner violence (Eriksson 2009) and more generalized form of violence embedded in institutional, state and global relations (Galtung 1969; Borudie and Passeron 1990). Arguably one of the most significant contributions of Nordic social work research in the field of violence stems from the inclusion of subjective views and voices of the oppressed including women and children.

However, there are many voices missing or at least neglected from mainstream social work research on violence. The phenomenon of elder abuse is an alarming example of how violence towards older people remains poorly conceptualized, measured and practice and policy inadequately evaluated (Anand et al. 2013; Killick et al. 2015; Jönson and Åkerström 2004). Topics such as the family, community and institutional abuse of older people in Nordic countries have only recently been opened for exploration, and unfortunately, there is an absence of articles on violence against older people in our own journal. Arguably violence towards other minority groups such as the indigenous, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, visiting poor, people with disabilities are given low priority. Ageism, racism, discrimination, disablism, sexism, are all examples of structural violence and of concern given the profession’s commitment to diversity and equality and the growing multicultural nature of Nordic countries.

Innovative research on children’s exposed to intimate partner violence (IVP) has been well established in Nordic countries (Överlien and Hydén 2009; Eriksson 2009). The first article in this issue, written by Ann-Charlotte Münger and Tina Mattsson, entitled, The needs of the child have been met: preliminary assessments regarding domestic violence in Swedish Child Protection Services, further contributes to an understanding of children’s subjective experiences of IPV. The authors identified a disturbing tendency in social work assessment to bias parental perceptions and diminish the definition of violence from the child’s perspective. The importance of capturing, understanding and privileging the child’s voice in the case of exposure to IPV is the take-home message from this valuable study.

The implications of social work professionals adopting both implicit and explicit moral stances in assessment are the focus of Tytti Poikolainen’s article, Moral stances and moral language in reports investigating child protection in Finland. Child protection investigation reports provide a special form of professional literature and a unique source of professional judgements and societal reflections on laws and values regarding violence against children. The three public reports on child protection examined in this study were triggered by a tragic child death. Documentary analysis involved analysing the voice of the moralizers, moral keywords, moral rhetoric and stances. The voice of children, the rights of children, notions of a good childhood, the intrinsic value of children and the vulnerability of children reflect the dominant moral stances and cultural and legal context of children protection in Finland. The researcher concludes that child protection is a moral question and involves the application on moral stances, which must be justified and open to ongoing critique. Paradoxically the voice of children was not directly present in the reports studied (although indirect involvement of adult service users did occur in one investigation) illustrating the ongoing challenges involved in promoting the rights and voice of children.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is both an old and a new issue in social work research. On the one hand, IPV is the focus of social policy across most Nordic countries and social workers have historically worked with women and families in such cases. However, intervention with survivors of IPV has tended to be considered as low status, non-professional work and the domain of NGOs, rather than the jurisdiction of professional government services (Blom, Evertsson, and Perlinski 2017). Arguably this situation is supported by the assumption that the welfare state effectively mediates against violence and therefore voluntary services are adequate. Yet this picture is no longer accurate. While Nordic countries are considered the most gender equal countries globally, they experience disproportionally high prevalence rates of IPV against women (Gracia and Merlo 2016). This situation is commonly acknowledged as the ‘Nordic paradox’ and further research is needed to provide new insights into the complex nature of IPV (Gracia and Merlo 2016) and for the evidencing of effective interventions. Freydís Jóna Freysteinsdóttir and Dóra Ingibjörg Valgarðsdóttir’s article “You lose control”: the experience of intimate partner violence and the consequences from the perspective of perpetrators and victims in a small Nordic country, Iceland, is one such example of research informing practice. This study explores the role of patriarchy as the major challenge to gender equality in Iceland. An understanding of violence as an individual pathology is questioned through the concept of power and masculinity. This study boldly explores the subjective world of both survivors and perpetrators of IPV. The unique methodology involved probing interviews as to the deepest feelings, problems, attitudes and behaviours and narratives of both.

The pathologising of women survivors of IPV is contested in Rickard Ulmestig’s article, Two sides of the coin – Domestic violence survivors’ expectations of financial support and social workers’ expectations of survivors within the social assistance system. This study illustrates how social workers act as agents of control and reproduce the notion that violence arises out of individual pathology and disadvantage. The study illustrates how survivors of IPV are socially labelled as more deserving and less deserving by professionals undertaking an assessment for financial assistance. This article reinforces awareness that the definition of and response to cases of IPV is not dependent on the individual client but is socially constructed through power relations between clients, professionals and employer organizations. The study concludes that the context of social work practice is emotionally and morally charged, forcing professionals to make a moral judgement on survivors of IPV.

The contextualization of violence in institutional settings and the implications for social workers are examined in Peter Andersson’s article, Handling fear among staff: violence and emotion in secure units for adolescents. The Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (Statens Institutionsstyrelse 2017) reported a significant rise in violent incidents between staff and youth placed in a secure unit. Andersson findings suggest that violence is embedded in the ‘emotional labour work’ of social workers employed in institutional care facilities; however, it is often overlooked or neglected by management. This study captured staff perspectives on violence and associated emotions. Fear is experienced as the result of violent interactions between workers and youths and results in staff feeling shame and believing that they have acted incorrectly. Andersson claims that definitions of violence in secure settings remain too narrow and that threats and other psychological acts are not adequately understood and defined as violence within institutional settings. He calls for secure units to be recognized as violent contexts and calls for the broadening of the definition of violence to reflect tensions inherent in the daily emotional work of social workers.

More latent forms of psychological violence perpetrated by health and social service organizations are explored in Ninive Von Greiff, Lisa Skogens and Alain Topor’s study, Supporting recovery in social work with persons having co-occurring problems – clients’ and professionals’ perceptions. Prolonged contact with psychiatric and social services may result in forms of learned passivity experienced by clients with mental health conditions. Use of inappropriate medication, methods of intervention and professional attitudes, help perpetuate a condition of passivity which impedes client recovery. Von Greiff, Skogens and Topor call for social workers to take an active role in humanizing mental health and drug services and promoting recovery amongst clients with complex problems. The authors promote the benefits of social networking as an intervention for facilitating a client’s confidence and capabilities.

Threats and violence towards excluded populations is the topic of Mats Ekendahl, Patrik Karlsson and Renate Minas’s article, EU citizens begging and sleeping rough in Swedish Urban Areas: social work perspectives on problems and target groups. The authors critique the consequences of EU policies which specifically target the visiting poor. This study explores how professionals from Swedish municipal social service organizations in urban areas construct the phenomenon of poor visiting EU citizens. The study is theoretically based on Schneider and Ingram (1993) original work, ‘Social Constructions of Target Populations’ and involved interviews with social workers in the three largest cities in Sweden. The concept of visiting poor is a growing social phenomenon and involves a process of extreme othering of marginalized populations who do not share citizenship rights with the host population. The unprecedented arrival of visual poverty in the streets of Nordic countries has fuelled anxiety for citizens, NGOs, local politicians, municipal social services and government agencies and plays into the beliefs and fear mungering of right-wing popular politics. Ekendahl, Karlsson and Minas’ article pushes the traditional boundaries of social work research by illustrating othering as a form of violence.

An understanding that violence is embedded in community, organizational, professional, state global relations lends itself to a renewed appreciation of the strategic importance of community work in Nordic society. Mia Arp Fallov’s review of a recent book edited by Sjöberg and Turunen (2018), Samhällsarbete. Aktörer, arenor och perspektiv”, or in English, Community Work. Actors, Arenas and Perspectives, promotes community social work. The role of community work in Nordic countries has been undervalued as the welfare state, which historically assumed responsibility of family and community welfare (Sjöberg and Turunen 2018). However, more recently Nordic states have increasingly withdrawn from community roles and the influence of global neoliberalism (Wacquant 2008) resulting in growing social marginalization, polarization and segregation of communities, and new forms of societal tensions and conflicts. Sjöberg and Turunen (2018) edited book critically reflects on the profession’s strong community traditions and the potential for resistance and social transformation that community work entails. Chapters in this book highlight many of the current issues and challenges facing community work as performed across Nordic countries.

The variety of methodological approaches to the study of violence are impressive, although we must admit there is an absence of mixed and quantitative studies in this issue. The many issues raised in the articles beg the question as to whether social workers are academically prepared to work with emerging forms of violence (Macdonald and Sirotich 2005). Moreover, how broadly is the concept of violence taught in Nordic social work curriculums and does the current knowledge base equip students to respond to new forms of violence both professionally and personally. Not surprisingly this question has been asked in a previous editorial of the Journal of Nordic Social Work Research. Eriksson and Appel Nissen (2017) raised similar concerns as to how social work educators tackle new demands on social work when it comes to violence. Social work researchers should, therefore, be encouraged to continue pushing an understanding of new, subtle and pervasive forms of violence. Comparison of social phenomena, such as theoretical understandings and responses to violence, across Nordic countries and other European and international jurisdiction helps to challenge and revitalize social work practice. We, therefore, encourage a more comparative approach to social work research – not only focussing on violence, but all social work research topics in the form of articles and the submission of book reviews.

On behalf of the editors and editorial board, we would like to acknowledge the devastating effects of COVID-19 globally and sincerely wish social workers internationally, both health and safety in the months to come.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.