PROSTITUTION OCH MÄNNISKOHANDEL FÖR SEXUELLA ÄNDAMÅL : En kvalitativ studie om upplevelser av handlingsutrymme och utvecklingsmöjligheter hos socialarbetare inom kommunala myndigheter och frivilligorganisationer

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to examine how social workers in municipal authorities and NGOs experience their discretion and if there are any areas of development, in social work with youths and adults who are exposed to prostitution or human trafficking for sexual purposes. The study's aim and the questions at issue were answered through eight semi-structured interviews with female social workers in two municipalities in mid-Sweden. The study includes Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of human development (1979) and Lipskys (1980) concept about street-level bureaucrats. The result shows that all social workers are experiencing that they’ve discretion in their work. A majority experience their discretion as free, because they make assessments and decisions on their own. The majority experience that external factors as workplace climate, colleagues, guidelines, routines, norms, views in society or laws does not delimitate their discretion and all social workers claim that social workers’ knowledge is inadequate. The majority also claims that knowledge is inadequate in society. Other areas of development are resources such as staff, sheltered housing for men and housing for women with active drug abuse. An increased priority of the target group in organisations is also an expressed development area, to strengthen the work around the target group.