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Studies show that practice in some professional fields may be socially and morally unattractive: employees working with stigmatized groups have to use methods, related to aggression and confrontation, which leads to stress and reduces their professional well-being. This applies to child rights and protection institutions which have a responsibility to take a child out of the family in the case of a threat to their safety. Problems related to workplace quality lead to a lack of qualified employees in this sector, and this problem is emphasized not only in Lithuania. Institutional aggression is typical of institutions to which the state attributes certain functions of abuse (e.g. public safety). Employee’s intervention into the family can also be regarded as aggression performed by institutions, and the nature of work in these institutions may be associated with the problem of workplace aggression. However, in the research on workplace quality among the indicators of workplace aggression we do not find the indicator of employees’ aggression against clients. We presume that an employee’s function to take a child from a family (the use of coercion) can affect their well-being. So, in the context of workplace quality, the concept of workplace aggression has to be re-conceptualized by including institutional aggression enforced by an employee.

Vilniaus universitetasAnotacija. Atvykę į šeimą ir svarstydami, ar galima palikti vaiką šeimoje, ar jį reikia perkelti į saugią aplinką, vaiko teisių apsaugos darbuotojai susiduria su prieštaravimu tarp savo veiklos kaip profesinės misijos traktavimo ir sprendimo paimti vaiką dviprasmiškumo. Iššūkiai renkantis tinkamiausią sprendimą susiję ne tik su tėvų ir vaikų elgesiu, nepakankama informacija apie vaiko ir šeimos situaciją, laiko stoka sprendimui priimti, bet ir su institucinėmis, organizacinėmis problemomis.

Numerous studies have focused on the issue of client aggression against various help professionals. Much less attention has been paid to the opposite phenomenon—the aggression of help professionals towards clients, especially aggression of child rights protection specialists (CRPS). Comparative analysis of four perspectives (CRPS, parents, children, and police officers) was performed in order to reveal the manifestations and preconditions of CRPS aggression towards parents and children during the process of removing a child from a family. The manifestations of psychological and physical CRPS aggression were alluded to by all groups of research participants. The preconditions can be classified as being related to the behavior of the child and parents, the employee’s personality traits, competencies and psychological states related to a specific work situation, and institutional, inter-institutional, social, and political contexts. Based on our research results, suggestions can be made on how the procedure of removing a child from an unsafe family environment can be improved, such as by making it less harmful for children, more constructive for the whole family, and making the CRP system operate in such a manner that it does not create preconditions for CRPS to transgress the boundaries of professional relations.

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