Skolkuratorers anmälningsskyldighet om barn som far illa

Sweden has an obligation to report child abuse suspicions to Social Services. According to Socialtjänstlagen (swedish constitution) 1 § Chapter 14, all employees in agencies affecting children, such as schools, have a responsibility to report their suspicions. Research shows that many abuses are not reported. The consequence of this is that Social Services does not hear about all cases of abused and harmed children. One profession where reporting is mandated is school counselors. The school counselor has a particular status in the educational community and meets many maltreated children, and children who injure themselves through their own behavior. The purpose of our study was to describe the circumstances that school counselors believe may affect their tendency to report. Using qualitative methods, we had eight interviews with school counselors from different municipalities who work with students of different ages, and who have different experiences within their profession. The result was related to the theoretical frames of the written composition by Stephen Webb’s (2006), The Rationality of Regulation and the Sociological Concepts of Formal and Informal Social Controls (Israel, 1968). Our study shows that all school counselors knew that a report had to be submitted even at the slightest suspicion, although several of them said that they in some cases avoided to report. The reasons for this, which all according to our interpretation means that the regulation and the social control of maltreated children does not always work, could have to do with the cooperation and response from the social services, or that they assumed that the involvement with the social services would not benefit the child. It could also be that the student’s situation was not serious enough to report, or that they wanted more information about the situation before reporting. Another reason could be that they assumed that there are better ways to sort out the students’ concerns within the school or other agencies, especially if it regards an older student. The study also shows that the school counselors felt there was a risk in losing the students trust when reporting their suspicions