Ett problem i förändring - En studie om konstruktionen av mäns våld mot kvinnor som socialt problem

Sammanfattning: Author: Hanna Hansson Title: A problem in alteration - A study of the construction of men's violence against women as a social problem [Translated title] Supervisor: Stig Linde Assessor: Ingrid Sahlin The purpose of this study was to examine the constrution of men’s violence against women. More specific, the aim was to look at the consequenses of these changes in the construction of victims and perpetrators and the understanding of this social problem in relation to gender.The theoretical framework for this study was based on a social constructionism approach together with the concept of ”doing gender” and Losekes theory of claims-making strategies regarding social work. The empirical material was based upon nine documents focusing men´s violence against women published by the Swedish parliament and government during two periods of time: 1989-1995 and 2006-2012. The study shows that the construction of men´s violence against women has changed between the two periods. In the first period the problem is located within a gender-power perspective, where gender and power is important factors for understanding the violence. During the second period intimate relationships is at the center of the construction which is a gender-neutral construction of the problem. Violence that is performed by an unknown person is no longer part of the construction as opposed to the first period. But, when the core of the understanding violence is intimate relationships instead of gender, both men and women can be seen as victims, as well as perpetrators. This shift makes some violence, for example in homosexual relationships, visible and part of the construction. Thus, the construction of victim and perpetrator is expanded and more heterogenic and complex. However, the discription of both victims and perpertrators is stable over both periods and is linked to constructions of masculinity and femininity. Despite the expanded, gender-neutral, understanding of violence victims is constructed as women and perpetrators as men. But, in the second period not all men and women are seen as potential victims or perpetrators, as they were during the first period. In the second period these groups are increasingly understood as exposed to other social problems, such as poverty or criminality, and seen as more deviant compared to the first period. As a result men’s violence is seen as more of a social problem which is located in these exposed groups.