Social and Health Care Professionals’ Views on Responsible Agency in the Process of Ending Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

This article examines social and health care professionals’ views, based on their encounters with both victims and perpetrators, on the division of responsibility in the process of ending intimate partner violence. Applying discourse analysis to focus group discussions with a total of 45 professionals on solutions to the problem, several positions of responsible agency in which professionals place themselves and their clients are identified. The results suggest that one key to understanding the complexities involved in violence intervention lies in a more adequate theorization of the temporal and intersubjective dimensions of the process of assigning responsibility for the problem.