Accumulated Silence When “Passing the Buck”: Organisational Tensions in Child Welfare Investigations

Abstract

Sweden’s child welfare services are characterised by intra-organisational specialisation and collaboration with Barnahus as a standard procedure in cases of child abuse. This chapter examines what happens with social workers’ risk assessments when they are both filtered internally at different units and in relation to Barnahus and a criminal law-oriented logic. Various organisational tensions are discussed, and how they might affect child welfare investigations and practice related to suspected violence. When children disclose violence, the concept of “accumulated silence” is applied to illustrate the multi-layered juridification process, where cases are often passed on between units and professionals. The analysis is based on interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden.