Why does she stay? : A qualitative study of men's violence against women and the factors that contribute to a women staying in a violent relashionship

Male violence against women in an intimate partnership is a global societal problem that occurs both in Sweden and worldwide. The actions that contain violence happen most in the home of the couple, making it a well-hidden problem. This leads to a lack of knowledge about men's violence against women in an intimate relationship which leads to a difficulcy in identifying, tackling and solving this societal problem. The purpose of this essay is to explore and investigate why women remain in a violent relationship. The study also focuses on examining which factors contribute to the women's decision to stay, and which factors social workers experience are behind the women’s choice of staying. The results show that reasons that play in the decision for the woman in regards to her staying or leaving a violent relationship are first and foremost norms that society has created. These norms put shame and blame on the woman if she is a divorcé. Results also show that guilt, dependency on the man financially and/or fear about generally making it in the society are factors that play a part in The decision making. A big factor that was shown in the results was also that fear is a mechanism that contributes to the women remaining in a violent relationship. The study also shows that violence is not specific, violence can occur in several different ways, for example psychological, physical, sexual and/or material. Up until the perpetrators successively takes the control of the life the woman has. Prejudice about the identity of the perpetrator are common and the perpetrator does not fit the stereotype. We seem to seek explanations in the involvement of alcohol, problems of anger or the cultural context. Meanwhile we also seem to distrust women and instead of focusing on the crime that has been committed by the abuser against her we instead focus on issues such as why didn't she leave sooner? An outlook on this social problem that the government has formed is a national strategy that emphasizes the difference and inequality between the men and the women in society. The strategy points out that this is also the main reason for which violence occurs. This essay is about researching and looking into how social workers operate and work to facilitate and simplify a way out of a relationship for women who are exposed to violence in their relationship. A qualitative study has been carried out by conducting structured interviews by the help of a question-guide. The interviews were held and carried out in the offices of the social workers. We interviewed the social workers specifically in the department who work with women who are being abused in their relationship. The purpose of this study was to firstly investigate what kind of help the women who are being abused are offered to simplify the way out of a abusive relationship, secondly what type of mechanisms the social workers experience and believe are the reason women remain in a violent relationship. Studien är kvalitativ studie vars syfte är att öka kunskapen efter att ha undersökt varför kvinnor stannar kvar i en våldsam relation samt fokuserar på att undersöka vilka vidmakthållande faktorer som påverkar kvinnans beslut, och vilka faktorer socialsekreterare upplever ligger bakom kvinnors kvarstannande. Detta baseras på sju kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer som är en kombination av fasta och öppna frågor med socialsekreterare som var alla verksamma inom olika enheter för våld i nära relationer. Vår urvalsprocess har varit det målinriktade urvalet. Vi selekterade och kom fram till att inte intervjua de som primärt arbetar med stödsamtal då vi ville komma åt både psykiska och praktiska faktorer som håller kvar kvinnan i en relation. För att få ut svar kring vidmakthållande faktorer som påverkar kvinnan vände vi oss mot de som arbetar med myndighetsutövning. Den analysmetod vi har använt oss i bearbetningen har varit tematisk analysmetod. Vi använde oss sedan av teorier om normaliseringsprocessen, uppbrottsprocessen och våldscykeln för att analysera våra resultat. Studien har belyst bidragande faktorer i kvinnans kvarstannande i en våldsam relation ur olika perspektiv. Teorierna står i kontrast till varandra samtidigt som de kan vävas samman och bidra till att förklara kvinnans kvarstannande. Resultatet har även kategoriserats utifrån olika teman med underliggande subteman. Huvudteman var hjälp, faktorer, och arbete. Respondenterna har beskrivit att en viktig del av rollen som socialsekreterare bland annat handlar myndighetsutövning. Dels ingår det att fatta beslut kring vilket stöd den våldsutsatta ska få, dels att utreda vad kvinnan har för bakgrund, hur den aktuella situationen ser ut för kvinnan och vad för slags våld kvinnan har blivit utsatt för. En del av den verklighet socialsekreterare står inför handlar om att noggrant gå igenom våldet för att veta vad för stöd den våldsutsatta kvinnan behöver. Respondenterna menade på att utifrån den utredning som utförs kan de kartlägga vilka vidmakthållande faktorer som finns och på vilket sätt socialsekreterare kan arbeta utifrån dessa faktorer.