The Construction of ‘Disciplinary’ Violence Against Children — Social Workers’, Police Officers’ and Parents’ Rationales

This dissertation examines parental disciplinary violence against children in authority records and in the criminal procedure in Finland. The main aim is to analyze disciplinary violence, how it is defined, and how it is constructed as a crime by social workers, the police, and parents. This dissertation consists of four sub-studies and a summary article. In the first sub-study, I examine how disciplinary violence appears in child welfare documents and analyze the decision-making processes and measures taken by the child welfare workers. The second sub-study, utilizing police interview data, examines police officers’ perceptions of disciplinary violence, its criminalization, and its investigation. In addition to this analysis of police officers’ own perceptions, in the third sub-study, I use reports of crime and pre-trial investigation documents to look at what a typical suspicion of disciplinary violence coming to the attention of the police is and examine the decision-making processes of the police. Utilizing authority data, the fourth sub-study analyzes how parents rationalize the use of disciplinary violence to the authorities investigating these suspicions. The research provides findings that are unprecedented in Finland. Firstly, it was shown that social workers’ decision-making processes in suspicions of disciplinary violence follow three pathways of reasoning, with many factors taken into consideration; and in less than one-third of the cases, a request for criminal investigation has been made to the police. Secondly, it was verified that police officers hold different perceptions of disciplinary violence, and these perceptions have multiple effects on the investigation of these cases and the construction of disciplinary violence as a crime. Thirdly, the analysis of the reports of crime and pre-trial investigation documents showed that almost two-thirds of the cases of disciplinary violence had been sent to a prosecutor by the police and, thus, defined as a crime. However, in many cases, acts of disciplinary violence were often seen as ‘educational, petty one-off incidents’ and a possible trial and punishment for the perpetrator were seen as unreasonable. Fourthly, it was found that parents often try to neutralize and rationalize the violence they have used against their children, for example, either by denying the victim, the criminal intent, or the entire act, or relying on the necessity of the forbidden act. The dissertation concludes that disciplinary violence is defined and constructed in authority policies and practices, first and foremost, by the severity of the act, the nature of the act as continuous or singular, the perceived harm caused by the act to a child, and the perceptions of authorities regarding physical punishment of children. The asymmetrical power setting present in disciplinary violence and parents’ legitimized right to raise and discipline their children partly seem to explain why criminal-law processing of these suspicions of violence and understanding these as crimes is difficult. Finally, this research calls for more coherent and consistent authority practices and policies, achieved by educating authorities and increasing awareness on disciplinary violence, questions the need for a concept like ‘disciplinary’ violence, and suggests more emphasis on unambiguous perceptions of a child’s best interest.

Confronting a victim of intimate partner violence in nursing care : a literature review

Intimate partner violence is a growing problem in health care. The purpose of this thesis was to find ways of confronting a victim of intimate partner violence in nursing care and methods how nurses can encourage the victim to disclose the abuse. The aim of this thesis was to help the health care professionals to understand the issue and the need of the victims better, and that way provide a better care. This thesis is a literature review of previously made research articles about intimate partner violence. The research material consisted of 10 published articles, which were collected from different databases. The articles were published within 10 years. A content analysis method was used to examine the articles by making descriptive summary tables according to each questions. The results of this study showed multiple factors which the health care providers should take into consideration when caring the patients. Asking with a non-judgemental attitude, in a safe, confidential setting without the partner present and prioritizing the abuse was mentioned to be important for the victims. Routinely screening and different kind of brochures was considered as good methods to encourage the victims to disclose the abuse. The need for better training and counselling of the health care providers was also discovered. The results of this thesis, did answer to the chosen study questions and that way the purpose of the thesis was filled. Hopefully, in the future this problem can be minimized and prevented in advanced. Further studies are needed to examine whether these caring methods are actually being used in clinical settings and do they have any effect.