Det laglösa landet? : En studie om hur socialtjänstens arbete med barn och unga framställs på Flashback

Sammanfattning: This qualitative thematic analysis study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the work of social services with children and youths is presented on the internet forum Flashback. The debated topic of social services kidnapping children is a subject that arouses concern and fear among many families, something that can lead to families not daring to turn to social services for help. The empirically guided method resulted in seven different themes. The results indicated a clear negative portrayal of social services work with children and youths. This presentation is based on factors such as social workers low competence, arbitrariness and belief that the children in care of social services are exposed to neglect. Furthermore, it is stated that the social services lack transparency and needs to be controlled by other authorities. Despite a largely negative portrayal, some users shared positive experiences argued with educational commentary against other users. This study also intends to understand the users’ discussions about trust or distrust of the social service. The prominent emotion on the internet forum is mistrust but also ambivalence. Users express that the social work will never be good enough as social services do too much on the one hand, and too little on the other. In conclusion, this study gained an understanding of how the portrayal, together with the users ́ arguments, is the basis for trust and mistrust. I summary, the understanding of trust is an important component in the complex social work. This insight can possibly contribute to authorities and social workers being able to discover strategies of how individuals trust in social work can increase.