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Nuestra propuesta se centra en el tratamiento para personas que se encuentran en proceso de resocialización, experimentando una transformación y buscando un cambio duradero en la forma de manejar sus pensamientos y emociones. El concepto clave es la empatía del origen, desarrollada empíricamente en el trabajo de Ajovec y respaldada teóricamente por los estudios de Deldén y Jansson, entre otros. El concepto tiene su origen en el trabajo de Liam Girmarland, basado en las experiencias durante los años de su trabajo social tanto en Colombia y como en Suecia. 

La resocialización implica encontrar formas de reconstruir la percepción de sí mismo de las personas, donde la percepción anterior se basaba en la comunicación violenta, cargada de vergüenza y orgullo. A través del reconocimiento auténtico de las historias personales y del trabajo con la empatía dirigida tanto hacia las posibles víctimas de las acciones de la persona como hacia la propia persona, se puede lograr la transformación. En este proceso, es fundamental la oportunidad de reintegrarse a la sociedad, como se evidencia en la labor realizada por Ajovec en su finca cafetera. Se trata de adoptar roles constructivos y saludables, rompiendo con los roles destructivos.

En nuestra presentación, describimos el trasfondo práctico y teórico del concepto de empatía del origen. Lo relacionamos con un modelo de tratamiento desarrollado por Jansson y Saxonberg (2013/2023), que aborda el trabajo emocional en la práctica del trabajo social. El enfoque principal de la presentación son los procesos de transformación en el trabajo de resocialización con adultos jóvenes que se encuentran en riesgo de incurrir en la delincuencia o ya están involucrados en ella.

Despite the great progress in individual disciplines studying men’s physical violence against women, the various disciplines have developed much different approaches that by themselves are insufficient for understanding the processes that lead to men’s violence against women. Moreover, they also tend to neglect the equally important issue of understanding why some men are not violent toward women. The aim of this work is to integrate former research on socially modifiable factors and therefore does not include theories relating genetics and neurochemistry that may also play an important role. It shows how the psychological approach within criminology can be integrated with the feminist masculinity perspective. The work illustrates that it is both theoretically and methodologically possible, through an integration of previous research, to make hypotheses about under which conditions men are likely to be violent against women, as well as make hypotheses about under what conditions men are unlikely to be violent against women. This study also emphasizes methodologically important non-dichotomous forms where both enabling and reactive conditions are mixed at various levels. Despite the methodological problems, an integrated perspective on men’s violence against women is the most promising way forward today.

This study starts from Retzinger (1995), Retzinger & Scheff (2000) and Scheff & Retzinger's (2000, 2001), micro-sociological perspective on social bonds. The general aim is to test a new model of operationalized sub-indicators that allows for a simplified ability to analyze the relationship between power relations and the social bond between therapist and clients in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for violent men. CBT-therapy often achieves positive effects by giving clients the knowledge and ability to talk about their problems instead of using aggression and drugs as defenses. The therapists make in this case many efforts to balance the relationship between them and the clients, but, there is still a tendency that therapy alienates them from each other and prevents the development of a solidarity social bond, which assuming that the theoretical premise is true, is the prerequisite for a client to build a positive self-image and become reintegrated into society.

The intergenerational transmission of violence theory has until recently mostly considered the male child’s witnessing of violence between their parents and the learning of violence as the main causal factor behind men’s violence against women (Gover, Kaukinen & Fox 2008). New research considers the negative emotional consequences of child abuse where increased shame proneness generally has been related to both introvert self-injurious behaviors as drug use and extroversions as aggressions and violence against other men and women (Scheff & Retzinger 2001; Tangney, Stuevig Mashek, & Hastings 2011; Schoenleber & Berenbaum 2012).

In order to explore the relationship between causal factors as; exposure to violence in childhood, the foundation of basic emotions, socialization, masculinity construction and violence,  10 men at a treatment center against violence has been interviewed about their childhood experiences, socialization, masculinities, emotions and  violence.

Biographical individual interviews were used as data collection method and directed content analysis have been used as analysis method. Special interest has been devoted to the exploration of the interaction between the men’s childhood experiences, socialization, masculinity construction, emotions and their use of violence. Since violent men at a treatment center represent a vulnerable group, special ethical considerations was given to them to avoid the risk of further stigmatization of the group. All respondents has approved to the study and given their informed consent.

 The results indicate that the shame proneness varies among the men and corresponds with the severities of their childhood experiences. The men’s childhood experiences seem to be related to their propensity to bypass feelings of shame and their use of anger, aggressions and violence as substituting emotions and behaviors. The men that had personal experiences of violence in childhood were extremely sensitive to humiliations and reacted almost immediately with anger (i.e. bypassed shame) and violence. The men who had experienced violence in childhood had also often been exposed to an inappropriate socialization with less social control and support from their parents. This behavioral pattern seems to have influenced their school results and masculinity construction since their ability to use conventional social resources was impaired.  The men who not had experienced violence in childhood were not demonstrating the same extent of shame proneness as those men that personally had experienced violence in childhood but witnessed about a lack of social control and positive role-models.

More research is needed in order to fully understand the relationship between exposure to violence in childhood and how it affects the emotional repertoire and reaction patterns as an adult. Still the results indicate support to the research that emphasizes the significance of negative childhood experiences to men’s violence as adults.

Forskningen visar entydigt att personer som utsatts för våld, kränkningar, övergrepp och förnedringar i barndomen är mer skambenägna än andra. Känsligheten är störst för händelser i vuxenlivet som påminner personen om att denne varit oälskad som barn.

This study explored new ways of finding knowledge about violent men’s pathways toward their status as violent criminals and the mechanisms that underlie their violent behavior. The empirical data were gathered through biographical interviews with 10 men sentenced to therapy against violence and drugs at a Swedish treatment center. The men who had experienced violence and childhood maltreatment tended to bypass shame with uncontrolled anger and violence when reliving childhood traumas. Conversely, men without extreme childhood experiences seemed to exhibit more controlled violence mechanisms. Two men who had experienced brutal physical school bullying might have been expected to bypass shame with immediate violence; however, these men described their violence as controlled, suggesting that they had learnt to take cognitive control over their bypass mechanisms in order to escape the bullying.

This explorative article aims to take a step in the direction of a realist-oriented scientific design that extends our knowledge of the requirements of a methodology that improves our ability to uncover the causal mechanisms behind men's violence against women. Despite the great advances that have been made in individual research disciplines, our understanding of the complex causes is still insufficient and suffers from our inability to grasp the larger whole of the collaborative processes. As a first step towards the objective, an integration attempt is implemented that aims to highlight methodological issues that we have to overcome to explain men’s violence against women. The integration of psychological, social-psychological, and sociological theories aims to exemplify how contributing, and counteracting factors interact with each other and form a complex mechanism that influences whether violence against women will take place or not. To leave room for the methodological dimension, the depth of each perspective has been reduced. The results of the integration attempt show both opportunities and difficulties in investigating the mechanisms behind men's violence against women. However, there is still untapped knowledge potential in the explorative integration of theories and the use of realist-oriented pluralistic research methodologies.

The overall aim of the thesis is to explore the possibilities for an integrated research perspective on men's violence and to exemplify how such research can be conducted. The specific purpose is to increase knowledge about how violent men's childhood experiences, socialization, masculinity construction and emotions can be related to their violence against other men, against themselves and against women, and how therapeutic interventions against violence can be analyzed and developed in correspondence with this knowledge. With epistemological starting points drawn from critical realism and ecological methods, the study relates research from different schools of thought to each other; - psychological: on childhood experiences and socialization, social psychological: on emotions and interaction and sociological: on social class, gender power structures and hegemonic masculinity. This is done to gain access to knowledge about how different factors interact in men's violence. 

Studies I and II investigated the possibilities of examining the social bonds between therapist/therapy and client in therapeutic treatments against violence. 

In study I, indicators of the emotions pride and shame were operationalized and in study II these were tested on therapists in a CBT-oriented therapy. Study III examined men in different positions of masculinity, where the sample for one group was drawn from the population of men sentenced to therapy for violence and abuse and the other from the population of men who organized for equality and against violence against women. The study compared the two groups' attitudes to factors related to violence and violence against women in previous research. Study IV examined the careers of men convicted of violence up to their current position as violent criminals in order to increase knowledge of the interplay of factors that in different situations lead to their violence against other men, themselves and women. All empirical studies used qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. Study IV used individual interviews and biographical analysis, Studies II and III used group interviews and deductive content analysis. In Study I, the theoretical review article, sociological, social psychological and psychological theories were empirical. 

The thesis shows that there are more advantages than disadvantages to a multi-level perspective. Level-integrating studies are hampered by the fact that they require a complex methodology to deal with the interaction between factors behind violence at different levels, but on the other hand provide a more holistic understanding of the phenomenon in question. The results show that integrative perspectives can reduce the risk of ecological fallacies and 5 increase the understanding of complex interactions between factors behind men's violence, which may contribute to the development of knowledge in the field of violence therapy. The theoretical review article (Study I) exemplified how theoretically and methodologically driven research on social bonds can be made pragmatically applicable by therapists in violence treatment. The applied study of a CBT therapy (Study II) provided examples of how operationalized indicators of pride and shame can be used practically to determine the quality of the social bond between therapist and client. As expected, the CBT therapy studied contained both shame- and pride-creating elements, which constitute valuable starting points for further research. The comparison between men in ideally opposite positions of masculinity (study III) showed that both the group of men who work against violence against women and the men sentenced to treatment for violence carry ambivalent attitudes towards violence and violence against women. The comparison further showed that the groups' constructions of masculinity and attitudes towards violence correspond to the groups' different access to economic, social and cultural resources. The biographically focused qualitative study of men in violence treatment (Study IV) explored exploratively how the career path to becoming a violent offender may look like and how childhood experiences, socialization, masculinity and emotions of individual violent men may have interacted with each other when violence takes place. The results showed that the men who testify to exposure to serious violence in childhood are more shame-prone and, when offended by others, tend to react unconsciously and without prior feelings of shame immediately with aggression and violence against both sexes. Other men were indeed shame-prone but described a more controlled violent reaction. Two men who had been brutally physically bullied in primary school reported more controlled violence. A preliminary hypothesis is that the men may have learnt to cognitively take control of the process of replacing shame with aggression in order to escape further bullying. The parents' personal problems, together with their lack of social control and care, were hypothesized to be associated with several of the men's school problems, their association with deviant youth, their later difficulties in earning a living by conventional means, and their violent careers.

This explorative paper aims to test a model of operationalized subindicators that allows for a simplified analysis of the social bond between therapists and clients in violence therapy. A theoretical premise of this work is that a stable social bond is a prerequisite for the client’s building a positive self-image and becoming reintegrated into society as nonviolent. The research entails the comparison of two different therapy treatments. A psychodynamic therapy against men’s violence, undertaken voluntarily and frequently used in Nordic countries, is compared to a compulsory cognitive behavior therapy used for men in correctional settings. Although the therapists in both treatments attempt to balance the relationship between themselves and the clients, both therapies tend to alienate the parties from each other, thereby preventing the development of a stable social bond of solidarity. For both treatments, an awareness is needed of those parts of the therapy that evoke shame and pride, thereby permitting an evaluation of the treatment so that the positive quality of the social bond can develop.

Skam- och stigmatiseringsprocessers betydelse vid behandling av våldsverkande män. Peter Jansson, Högskolan Dalarna, Akad. för Hälsa och Samh.; Socialt arbete, 791 88 FALUN. I vålds- och missbruksbehandl. av unga män tas i varierande grad hänsyn till skam- och stigmatiseringprocessers betydelse för behandlingens resultat, trots att skammens betydelse för stigmatisering har stöd i forskning. Inställningen till klienten hos behandlande personal och behandlingsmetodernas tillämpning, kan innebära att klientens självbild som stigmatiserad förstärks, är oförändrad eller konstruktivt rekonstrueras. Med utgångspunkt i behandlade personals erfarenh. av tillämpningen av behandlingsmetoder och klienters erfarenh. av behandl. kan slutsatser dras om hur klientens stigma konstrueras. Syftet är att utveckla och testa hypoteser om skam- och stigmatiseringsprocessers betydelse vid behandling av våldsverkande män. - Har behandlingsmetoder av våldsverkande män skam- eller stolthetsskapande innehåll. Förstärks en stigmatiserad identitet eller rekonstrueras den konstruktivt? - Vilka exempel finns på stolthets- och skamskapande situationer hos klienterna? Data samlas in under två faser, fas 1 omfattar en pilotstudie, där ett urval av behandl. personal samt ett urval klienter intervjuas i avsikt att konkretisera de frågeställningar som studien omfattar. Den första hypotesgenererande fasen kompletteras i fas 2 med delt. observ. och intervjuer samt dokumentanalys. Datainsamlingsmetoderna är intervjuer med personal och klienter, dokumentanalys samt deltagande observ. av klientsamtal. Analysmetoderna är kvalitativa med tonvikt på diskurs- och innehållsanalys. De förväntade resultaten är att behandlingmetoder innefattande en förståelse av att klientens stigma påverkas av stolthets- respektive skamskapande behandling också leder till en konstruktiv rekonstruktion av klientens status som stigmatiserad. Behandlingsmetoder där personalen inte har denna kunskap motverkar en rekonstruktion av en stigmatiserad identitet.

This dissertation’s objective is to explore the possibilities of an integrated research perspective on male violence and exemplify how such research can be conducted. The specific objective is to increase awareness of how men’s childhood experiences, socialization, masculinity and emotions are related to their violence against other men, against themselves and against women (Paper III and IV) and how therapeutic interventions against violence can be analyzed and developed in correspondence with this knowledge (Paper I and II).

The research was conducted through qualitative studies. The data collection methods comprised a theoretical review (Paper I), group-interviews (Papers II and III) and interviews (Paper IV). Altogether, 25 men participated in the studies.

Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the group-interviews (Paper II and III) and biographical analysis wasused to when analyzing the mens life-histories (Paper IV). The findings showed that an integrative perspective can reduce the risk of ecological fallacies and develop the understanding of the complex interaction between the factors behind men’s violence. These findings may also contribute to the development of violence therapies. The theoretical review article (Study I) exemplifies how the theoretical and methodological driven research on social bonds can be adjusted to treatment against male violence. The applied study on a CBT-therapy (Study II) exemplifies how operationalized indicators of pride and shame can be used to determine the quality of the social bonds between therapist and client. The comparison between two groups of men in two opposite masculinity positions (Study III) shows that both groups are carrying ambivalent attitudes towards violence and violence against women. Nevertheless the group’s masculinity constructions and attitudes towards violence correspond with their access to economic, social, political and cultural resources. The biographical focused qualitative study of men in violence treatment (Study IV) shows that the men who have been subjected to severe violence in their childhood are more shame-prone and tend to bypass shame with aggressions and violence. The other men generally describe their violent reaction as controlled.

The findings point to the general conclusion that the further development of the understanding of men’s violence, and the development of effective therapies against violence are depending on our ability to integrate research from different scientific perspectives.

In this article we point out why social workers and treatment staff must have knowledge of how to identify emotions, understand their own emotions and understand the emotions they elicit in others as a prerequisite for successful rehabilitation. In particular, the emotions of shame and pride play a crucial role in the interaction between social workers and clients. There is currently a need for empirically applicable models that facilitate social workers and therapists in institutional care to identify shame and pride in the interaction with clients. Here we provide a model that can be used to analyze the quality of the social bonds between treatment staff and young clients in institutional care. Institutionalized treatment of young people is often based on an asymmetrical power relationship and the transformation of deviant young people’s identity into normal ones. This is fraught with risks, as the power imbalance can preserve and reinforce deviant identities. To encourage the emergence of a normalized identity, the client's good qualities must form the basis of treatment. Greater understanding of the emotions evoked in a treatment situation is necessary for successful rehabilitation.

Abstract

There is a great need for more knowledge on how a pro-feminist masculinity that challenges the normative hegemonic masculinity can be developed. To achieve this, it is important to gain more knowledge on how pro-feminist men relate to gender quality, violence in general and violence against women in particular, and when and why their reasoning points to ambivalence.The study was based on secondary analyzes of qualitative interviews done with five men active in a pro-feminist network in Sweden. The research questions applied spanned over several areas: socioeconomic status, masculinity construction and the men’s proximity to violence. Data analysis method used was content analysis, and as a means of increasing the reliability, member-check was used. The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board.On a general level, the results show that the men’s masculine construction towards gender equality corresponded with their privileged position as regards to their socioeconomic status, as regards to educational level and job career. The men were positive to gender equality and opposed both men’s control of woman and violence against women. More in-depth analysis thus shows that the interviewed men acknowledged using some forms of less overt control over women and thus in some sense showed ambivalent attitude to gender equality. The men also, somewhat paradoxically, accepted some conventional forms of men’s violence.

A conclusion from the study is that the conditions that the results highlights may pose problems for the development of gender equality and the ending of violence against women. This is because to make violence against women end all men, and particularly pro-feminist men, need to renounce all forms of violence and be aware of how gender equality can be weakened or strengthened by all different forms of gender interaction.

This explorative study aimed to develop an understanding of how a sample of two groups of men, considered to be situated at different ends of Connell’s masculinity continuum, construct their masculinity, and how these constructions relate to their proximity to violence against women (VAW). One group consisted of five men incarcerated for violent crimes (MIVC) that had previously used VAW. The other included five participants in the pro-feminist group Men Against Violence (MAV), without prior VAW. An abductive approach, using qualitative interviews, was employed. Results show that the MIVC participants appeared ambivalent, unreflective, and inconsistent in their masculinity constructions, and used VAW as part of their problem-solving repertoire. The MAV participants appeared to have a reflexive stance towards gender equality and consistently adopted inclusive ways of enacting masculinity and preventing VAW. The study can only provide some support to the postulated relationship between men’s masculinity positions and their attitudes toward VAW.

The aim of the project is twofold, on the one hand to study how Swedish men with different masculinity positions reflect and relate to violence in general in the other hand to study interventions to rehabilitate men with violence problems and these interventions potential to rehabilitate and change mens behaviour.

The study starts from Retzinger (1995), Retzinger and Scheff (2000) and Scheff and Retzinger's (2000, 2001) micro-sociological perspective on social bonds, with the general aim of constructing a model consisting of operationalized indicators that opens for a simplified ability to analyze the relationship between power relations and emotions in private and institutionalized meetings. Scheff & Retzinger have provided a comprehensive guide to how the state of the social bond can be decoded by the direct access to non-verbal data. But since this type of data is both difficult to obtain, difficult to analyze and time consuming, therapists need simplified methods that can provide insight into the state of social bonds. We also need a method that takes into account the issue of power relations — both power relations in society and power relations between the client and the therapist. The treatment of men with violence problems provides an example of how our model can be applied to therapeutic activity. The examination shows that it is possible to construct a model with operationalized indicators that facilitate visualization of the relationship between power and the quality of social bonds.

Since Sweden has a reputation for having a pragmatic, technocratic approach to solving social problems, the question arises as to why the country uses different methods at the national and the local level for treating violent men. If studies show that one method is superior to others, we would expect both levels of government to use similar treatment methods. Despite the emphasis on pragmatic solutions, ideology plays an important role, as the Swedish government in recent decades has largely accepted the New Public Management approach to governance. However, because of differences in institutional arrangements, it becomes logically appropriate for the national level to utilize a different type of therapy (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) than the local level (Psycho Dynamic Therapy among others). Thus, a combination of an ideological shift to New Public Management and institutional differences can explain the differences in therapeutic approaches, rather than reliance on scientific studies.

The aim of the present study is to deepen the understanding of over-indebted persons’ ways of describing the causes of their debts and the part they and others played in the emergence of the problematic situation, in their written communications with public authorities with influence over the debt-reconstruction process. The method was a qualitative multiple-case-study design with a purposive, cross-sectional sample consisting of personal letters attached to debt reconstruction applications submitted to the Swedish Enforcement Agency. The results reveal three main ways that applicants present their cases: Attributing responsibility to oneself, Avoiding the question of responsibility, and Attributing responsibility to others. The authors suggest that the results can be used in social work to help over-indebted people to understand and present their problems in a way that restores their vulnerable identity and allows them to counteract interpretations of them as having acted irresponsibly regarding their finances.