To Örebro University

Children interviewed by the police in cases of suspected child abuse may experience emotional distress. Simultaneously, parents face the dual challenge of being suspects in the investigation while also striving to support their child’s well-being. To offer children and their parents information and support in such cases, social workers in Sweden developed the model After the Child Forensic Interview (ACFI, sw. Efter barnförhöret). This study aims to explore the model from the perspective of family social workers to understand its relevance for supporting children and parents. Twenty family social workers from eleven Swedish municipalities were interviewed about their experiences of working with ACFI. The analysis revealed that working with ACFI (a) requires preconditions such as resources and cooperation, individual/professional knowledge and experience, and the parents’ receptivity, (b) demands adaptations such as changes and additions, and (c) entails side effects. Overall, family social workers describe the model as beneficial as it can improve client-worker relationships and facilitate further interventions. However, it is required that the municipalities have a plan for implementation and allocation of resources.

Barn som förhörs av polisen vid misstanke om barnmisshandel kan uppleva känslomässig påfrestning. Samtidigt möter föräldrar den dubbla utmaningen att både vara misstänkta i utredningen och att försöka stödja sitt barns välbefinnande. För att ge barn och deras föräldrar information och stöd i sådana situationer utvecklade socialarbetare i Sverige modellen Efter barnförhöret (EBF). Denna studie syftar till att utforska modellen utifrån familjebehandlares perspektiv för att förstå dess relevans i arbetet med att stödja barn och föräldrar. Tjugo familjebehandlare från elva svenska kommuner intervjuades om sina erfarenheter av att arbeta med EBF. Analysen visade att arbetet med EBF: (a) kräver förutsättningar, såsom resurser och samverkan, individuell/professionell kunskap och erfarenhet samt föräldrarnas mottaglighet, (b) kräver anpassningar, såsom förändringar och tillägg, och (c) medför bieffekter. Familjebehandlarna beskriver EBF som gynnsam, då de uppfattar att den kan förbättra klientrelationer samt underlätta vidare insatser. För gynnsamhet krävs dock att kommunerna har en plan för implementering och resursfördelning.

In Sweden, a child who has experienced child abuse, can be interviewed by the police without the parents’ knowledge or consent. Afterwards, the parents receive the information from both the police and the social services. About thirty percentage of the children are taken care of immediately after the interview, while the rest are going home to their parents. Social work professionals acknowledged the importance of giving support to families after the police interview, as a crisis can occur in these kinds of situations. Therefore, a model has been developed, called After the child interview [Efter barnförhöret] (ACI). This study reports the interim findings from a program-theory evaluation of ACI: what interventions have been conducted after finishing ACI and what are the characteristics of these interventions? How many children have been taken care of by the social service after finishing ACI, and how many children have been reported to the social services again after the case has been closed? Data consists of social investigations, which we analyze quantitatively and qualitatively. In all, we will collect 200 investigations; 100 where ACI has been used, and 100 where ASI has not been used. Thus, we can compare these two groups. The work of collecting and analyzing social investigations is ongoing, and there are no results yet. What we can see from early processing of data, is that many cases are very complex and the families are often known by the social services for many reasons, not just child abuse. Very few children seem to be taken care of by the authorities, while many have been reported to the social services again.

I Sverige går majoriteten av de barn som varit på förhör på grund av misstanke om barnmisshandel hem till sina föräldrar och misstänkta förövare utan hjälp eller stöd från samhället. Efter barnförhöret (EBF) ären modell för stöd och information till barn och föräldrar vid misstanke om barnmisshandel. Som en del i ett större forskningsprojekt undersöker vi familjebehandlares erfarenheter av att arbeta med EBF samt dess styrkor och svagheter.

In Sweden, a child who has experienced child abuse, can be interviewed by the police without the parents’ knowledge or consent. Afterwards, the parents receive the information from both the police and the social services. About thirty percentage of the children aret aken care of immediately after the interview, while the rest are going home to their parents. Social work professionals acknowledged the importance of giving support to amilies after the police interview, as a crisis can occur in these kinds of situations. Therefore, a model has been developed, called After the child interview [Efter barnförhöret] (ACI). This study reports the interim findings from a program-theory evaluation of ACI: how do family therapists experience working with ACI and how does the model meet the challenges when dealing with the complexity of child abuse? We focus on strengths and weaknesses of the ACI, as identified by the family therapists, and the potential changes the model resulted in for the families involved. The findings indicate that ACI motivates families to accept further help from the social services, and that it benefits the child’s perspective on violence. Organizational limits keep professionals from using the model to the extent they desire, and there are also several local adaptions made, which may influence the outcome of the model. Practical implications for the model as well as practice will be presented as well.