“When fathers live up to the same requirements you are more positively surprised and more like oh wow” : A qualitative study on child investigators views on gender norms and parental expectations in the assessment of caregiver capacity in cases of in

Intimate partner violence is described as a gender-based phenomenon linked to societal gender roles and norms, and is a common occurrence within social services today. The aim of this study is to illustrate the view that child investigators in social services have of society’s norms regarding gender and parenting expectations, and how these norms in turn influence the assessment of parent’s ability to care in cases where intimate partner violence occurs. The method consists of a qualitative study in form of digital individual semi-structured interviews with seven child investigators. The material from the interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis. The result of our study is presented in three main themes which are investigation process and frequency of cases with intimate partner violence, authoritarian fathers and emotional mothers and assessing caregiving capacity in cases of violence between parents. The conclusion that can be drawn is that there are different expectations and demands of mothers and fathers regarding their caring ability for the child. Gender and society’s gender norms are considered to play a significant role in the social services view and assessment. All respondents believe that they assess abusive and abused parents ability to care regardless of gender, but the results show that gender norms still influence the assessment and the perception of who can be the perpetrator and victim and how they handle the situation.