Makt, motstånd och missbruk : En kvalitativ undersökning om konstruktionen av klienten i LVM-domar

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study was to examine verdicts from the Swedish Administrative court regarding the Care of Abusers (Special Provisions) Act, LVM. The aim was to examine how the client and the client’s need of treatment is constructed in the verdicts, by the authorities and by the client itself. Sixteen convictions were analysed through qualitative text analysis. The study found that authorities; the social services and the court, constructed the clients and the client’s need of treatment in different ways. They social services gave repeatedly examples of how the client’s substance abuse either were ruining the client’s life or how the client as a consequence to the substance abuse were risking his or her life, by pointing out abnormal realities in the clients lives. In the cases were the client were positive to voluntary treatment, the social services gave examples how the client had failed earlier treatments. The court made shorter assessment, often in line with the social services presentations. The clients themselves made resistance against the authority’s presentations by empathizing normal realities in their lives, by given reasons to their abuse or ways of life, or by empathize their need of treatment and their motivation to attend such (voluntary) treatment.