Threats and violence : How social workers in social service work to combat, respectively, deal with threatening or violent situations at client meetings

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of and to contribute with new knowledge on how social workers in social service work to combat, respectively, deal with threatening or violent situations at client meetings where the public authority is present. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with seven social workers from five different municipalities the study have observed several strategies that the social workers use. These strategies can be categorized in to six themes which point out different aspects of the subject. These themes are: relationship and previous knowledge, the ability to be adaptive and empathetic, the relevance of clarity, characteristics, unfavorable strategies and other strategies. The current study has studied the phenomenon of threat or use of force in the field of social work, in addition, the study can be said to have studied also the interaction and response between a social worker and the client that have contributed with more knowledge of the meeting with the client.