"Det är just att man får se familjerna dygnet runt och att man inte får liksom gömma sig" : En kvalitativ studie om personalens uppfattningar om hur utredningsarbetet och föräldrarna påverkas av att utredas i en institutionsmiljö.

Sammanfattning: Authors: Gabriella Odell and Iga Sikora Title: "It's just that you get to see the families around the clock and that you’re not able to hide" - a qualitative study on employee perceptions of how the investigative work and families become influenced by the investigation in an institutional environment. Supervisor: Lina Ponnert In this study we looked into investigatory homes where children aged eighteen or below were placed with their parents for three months, to undergo child protection investigations by the investigators. The aim of the study was to analyze the investigator’s thoughts of how the investigatory work and the families were influenced by the institutional environment. More specifically, we examined how the daily life of the families was organized by the investigatory home, how the investigators looked at the possibility to imitate the ”real life” inside the institutional environment and how this environment influenced the families. We also examined how the investigators looked at the line between investigation and treatment. To complete the study we used semistructured interviews with seven investigators at three investigatory homes, two in Skåne and one in Småland. The analysis was based on Erving Goffman´s theories; The total institution and The presentation of self in everyday life. As a conclusion we can observe that investigatory homes have various rules and a strong structure for the families. This and the consequences of breaking the rules act as a way of controlling the families, and can be seen as an example of elements of a total institution. We can also see that the investigatory homes try to imitate a homelike environment in order to come closer to ”real life”. Despite this, it is still difficult to reach the true picture of the families situation, since the parents try to maintain a facade in order to show the investigators a better picture of themselves. Lastly, we can also observe that the line between investigation and treatment is floating. Some treatment is required for the parents in order to investigate their potential for change.