Professional understandings of men’s violence against women

Abstract

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.