“Lifting Up the Issue”: Exploring Social Work Responses to Economic Abuse as a Form of Intimate Partner Violence in Sweden

Abstract

Men’s violence against women in intimate relationships is a pervasive and serious social problem that negatively impacts a women’s life in a multitude of ways. Economic abuse is one tactic commonly used by an abuser to control their partner’s financial resources and independence. Unfortunately, there is limited research on this form of intimate partner violence, especially in the context of Sweden. The aim of this study was to illuminate the issue of economic abuse by exploring how social workers at Swedish helping agencies understand economic abuse, its impact on women and what they believe their role is in addressing it. A qualitative exploratory case study design was used in this study. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews of eight respondents from five agencies in Västra Götaland county, in addition to policy documents and practice manuals scrutinized for their content. The thematic analysis used revealed five themes: social workers’ awareness; normalisation; cultural dimensions; complexities of intervention; and navigating through the barriers of bureaucracies, which were analyzed through a liberal feminist conceptual framework. These findings suggest that social workers’ have a sophisticated awareness and understanding of economic abuse and its damaging consequences. Additionally, social worker’s identify a clear role in responding to economic abuse in their crisis intervention. This study sheds light on areas of social policies and practice that can be improved to recognise and respond to economic violence more adequately as it requires more long-term solutions than just the provision of safety and protection. Additionally, it illustrates the importance of social workers’ well-informed understandings and insights of economic IPV in contributing to policy and practice development as well as empirical research on violence against women.